OCR Pages: Error [System]: Unspecified Error.

[4mc]

I have PDF-XChange Editor plus V9.4 Build 364.0 (Enhanced OCR)

Not sure what has changed but after an update to Windows 11 yesterday, today I am getting "OCR Pages: Error [System]: Unspecified Error." error messages.

It looks like my current level of PDF XChange editor was updated 2-days ago, I'm not sure I tried using OCR Yesterday but lots of failures today.

I checked my languages and found that English was marked as installed/obsolete, so I marked and updated it. Same error. (see attached). I should add, this happens on a quite a few documents rather than just one instance. This is the simplest I can get it to fail on.

image.png

[Dimitar - PDF-XChange]

Hello 4mc,

Could you please send us a screenshot of your OCR window?

And if it is possible, please as well send us one of the files you have this issue with.

Regards.

[4mc]

Normally I have the OCR done on import. I did this one manually.

LRC.jpg

If this isn't the window you need, please be more specific.

image.png

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, 4mc

My apologies, Dimitar meant the full PDF file, while we can import this image to generate a new PDF file, that would not be a reliable reproduction of what you have, as our systems would be creating a whole new PDF structure to contain the image, before we pass OCR on it. If the issue is what we suspect (Something within the document) than having the same PDF file you are working with will be critically important.

If the full sized file is too large for the forums, or contains sensitive data you do not wish to share on a public forum, could I ask you to please email us via support@pdf-xchange.com with the file and a link to this post?

Kind regards,

[4mc]

Thanks, I'll send it along. However, in this case the image was the complete document. It's a historic form that was completed that I wanted to be able to have as OCR to cut and paste rather than retype.

Note as per OP. I get the same error on pretty much anything that I try to run OCR against. I just tried a simple evernote 1-page text only document. It failed

image.png

Do you think it is worth doing a complete reinstall? Could it be that something was corrupt in the update from 3-days ago?

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, 4mc

I have received your file and surely enough, cannot reproduce the issue even with the same document. As you are seeing this with multiple documents, I would actually recommend a reinstallation as you suggested. At the very least, it certainly will not hurt the issue. Please do ensure that when you do this, you uninstall everything published by tracker software, and restart your PC before you begin the new installation.

Kind regards,

[4mc]

I did an uninstall, reboot and install from your website. The license was detected and all the config was reapplied.

I was able to OCR projects again without failure.

I don't know why, but the latest update clearly didn't work well for me and something must have been corrupted.

Anyway this can be closed. Thanks!

++Mark.
https://ctproduced.com

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, 4mc

Thank you for the confirmation that reinstalling helped, hopefully we can find the cause of this and prevent it from happening in the future.

Kind regards,

[4mc]

Weirdly, here I am again with the same problem. I will follow the same steps as before.

I should this time I noted that the English OCR was marked as obsolete. I did an update, rebooted by the same problem persisted. Unistall, Reboot and reinstall fixed it.

I'd appreciate any insight into why this might be happening to me?

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, 4mc

Thank you for letting us know. I wish this wasn't a long term recurring issue, as dealing with them is never a walk in the park. I have just reached out to the dev team to ask what further steps can be taken for the next time this happens. Sadly, once it has been fixed, there is little to look into that can benefit us in finding the issue.

I have a few theories, but most of them are items which, if they were the case, would come back more often than only once every update... Hopefully we hear back from the Devs before the next update goes live, and they can give us an emergency kit for the next time this earthquake rolls into your installers. With some logging in place during the update, perhaps we will finally find the root cause, instead of only a quick fix.

Kind regards,

[4mc]

I have a few theories, but most of them are items which, if they were the case, would come back more often than only once every update... Hopefully we hear back from the Devs before the next update goes live, and they can give us an emergency kit for the next time this earthquake rolls into your installers. With some logging in place during the update, perhaps we will finally find the root cause, instead of only a quick fix.

Kind regards,

Thanks, I appreciate you even following through. It's simple enough and non-disruptive except for the reboot so not an urgent situation. Please let me know if you think there is something I can do for a future release.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, 4mc

It's what I am here for, If I wasn't troubleshooting, I wouldnt be doing my job!

In any case, at the moment I am still waiting on a reply with steps for how to capture this. Ive just nudged them again about it, but will set a reminder to bug them again if I don't hear by by mid next week. It may be that we need to wait for the next release and setup a remote session, so they can monitor the update process as it happens.

(A quick update, our tester group is running through some variables trying to reproduce this again with the upgrade from 390 to 391 internally, If we are lucky, they can spot the issue for us)

Kind regards,

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, again

And a direct followup from the Dev team, the next time this happens (so yes, after installing the update, but before moving on to fix it):
When problem appear:
1. Download this batch script from https://files.tracker-software.support/ ... 7QpYnqZg7y to an empty folder and run it.
2. Upload the resulting abby_files.txt to https://files.tracker-software.support/ ... zD6sx5ZeYF
(And of course, let me know once they are there)

This should include a detailed breakdown of the file structure of the ABBYY folder, which should help us to identify what is missing/inaccessible as this error occurs.

I will keep you posted on if the testers find the cause on our end before the next update comes around. In the meantime, we will look at offering an option for the updater to enable logging soon (though I am not certain it will be in time for the next release).

Kind regards,

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello 4mc

Please let me know if you think there is something I can do for a future release.

We may have found the cause of the issue. On our end we were able to reproduce the problem if the Editor was opened, OCR has been run, and then the updater launched and allowed to begin its update process, while the Editor is still running. When this screen is shown, choosing "Do Not Close" - leads to the issue being reproduced. Can you confirm if you were seeing this screen, and choosing Do not Close in the past?
If you have not seen this screen in your recent updates, than this may be a different issue.

image.png

On this end, the issue didn't happen reliably with every test, but it was frequent enough to warrant further investigation and action to try and prevent the issue in the future.

Kind regards,

[4mc]

Thanks. I have not seen it since updating to 10.5.0 - fingers crossed

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

[4mc]

FYI I'm guessing this is unrelated but also possibly related.

Last night > 2025-02 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5051989)

This morning started pdf-xchange editor plus Version 10.5.2 build 395 (enhanced OCR) installs

Tried to OCR a 60-page magazine > OCR Pages: Error [System]: Catastrophic failure.

I'll reboot.

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, 4mc

I am curious to know if you had also only just recently updated our software, or if there was no issue for a few days of use after installing 395, and then this just appeared with the windows update?

If there was no issue prior to the windows update, I am unsure what could be at fault here, however, if you did install build 395 at the same time as the windows update, then there may be some details in the installer log file this time. Our installers now automatically generate install logs, which should appear in the %tmp% folder on your device.

They will have the name "MSIxxx.LOG" (where the X's are a random set of numbers).

Please locate the file based on the creation date/time (It should match the time you ran the installer, or course) And then zip that up and email it to us. (It does contain file paths, but otherwise should not have any identifiable data).

Kind regards,

[4mc]

Sorry for the delayed response. I rebooted and the problem went away, yes I think I ran the PDF-XChange update, did reboot, the Windows update ran overnight and PDF-XChange had problems as described. Next time I do an update I'll make a better effort at tracking what happens and pull the logs.

Thanks for your response.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hello 4mc,

Glad to hear that this seems to be resolved now!

Kind regards,
Stefan

[melectronvolt]

Problem solved this way :

-> Uninstall
-> Delete everything named ABBY in :
- C:\ProgramData
- C:\Program Files
- C:\Users\***\AppData

Registry in :
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE

-> Restart
-> Reinstall

-> Works fine !

[Daniel - PDF-XChange]

Hello, melectronvolt

I am glad to hear the reinstall process helped. In most cases, a quick restart after the uninstall process is enough to remove any handles that may have caused such permissions issues, but manually deleting those folders can accomplish the same.

Kind regards,