troubleshooting

If you see an error when trying to open a workspace, or your session seems to have expired, there are several common causes and fixes.

Your session expired

SecureAI sessions expire after a period of inactivity. When this happens you are returned to the login screen or see a "Session expired" message.

Fix: Log in again. Your conversations and workspace data are not lost -- they are stored on the server and will reappear once you authenticate.

Sessions may also expire if your administrator has configured a shorter session timeout for your organization. If you find yourself logged out frequently, ask your administrator whether the timeout can be extended.

You were removed from the workspace

Workspace administrators can add and remove members at any time. If you previously had access to a workspace but no longer see it in your workspace list, your administrator may have removed you.

Fix: Contact your workspace administrator and ask them to re-add you. Administrators manage workspace membership from the Admin Panel under Workspace > Members.

The workspace was deleted or renamed

If the workspace no longer exists, you will see an error when trying to access it via a saved link or bookmark.

Fix: Check the workspace list in the sidebar for the current set of available workspaces. If the workspace you need is missing, contact your administrator to confirm whether it was deleted or renamed.

Your account permissions changed

Your administrator may have changed your role from a level that had workspace access to one that does not. For example, moving from a standard user role to a restricted role may limit which workspaces you can see.

Fix: Ask your administrator to verify your role and permissions in Settings > Users.

Browser or cache issues

Stale browser data can sometimes cause workspace access errors, especially after a SecureAI update.

Fix: Try these steps in order:

1. Hard-refresh the page (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows/Linux, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac).
2. Clear your browser cache and cookies for the SecureAI domain.
3. Try a private/incognito window.
4. Try a different browser.

Still stuck?

If none of the above resolves the issue, contact support with:

• Your email address and organization name
• The name of the workspace you are trying to access
• The exact error message or behavior you see (a screenshot helps)
• Whether the issue started suddenly or after a specific change

Related articles

• I can't log in. What should I do? -- general login troubleshooting
• What are workspaces, models, tools, and knowledge bases? -- overview of workspaces
• How do I create my SecureAI account? -- account setup

If SecureAI rejects your file upload or the upload fails silently, work through these common causes in order.

1. Unsupported file type

SecureAI accepts a specific set of file formats: PDF, TXT, MD, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, and CSV for documents, and JPEG, PNG, GIF, and WebP for images. If your file has a different extension, convert it to a supported format before uploading. See What file types and sizes are supported for upload? for the full list.

Common mistakes:

• Uploading .doc (legacy Word) instead of .docx
• Uploading .xls instead of .xlsx
• Uploading .zip archives -- extract the files first and upload them individually

2. File is too large

The maximum file size is 100 MB per file. If your file exceeds this limit, SecureAI will display an error and reject the upload. For large documents:

• Split multi-section PDFs into smaller files by chapter or product line
• Compress images before uploading if they are unusually large
• Export spreadsheets without embedded images to reduce file size

Files under 25 MB process fastest. See What file types and sizes are supported for upload? for recommended sizes.

3. Storage quota exceeded

Your organization may have a storage limit configured by your administrator. If you see a storage-related error, ask your administrator to check the current usage in the Admin Panel. They can free up space by removing outdated documents or increase the quota.

4. Browser or network issue

Upload failures can be caused by your browser or network connection:

• Slow or unstable connection: Large files may time out on slow connections. Try a wired connection or a more stable network.
• Browser cache: Clear your browser cache and cookies, then try again.
• Browser extensions: Ad blockers or privacy extensions can interfere with uploads. Try disabling extensions or using a private/incognito window.
• Outdated browser: Use the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari.

5. File is corrupted or empty

SecureAI cannot process files that are corrupted or contain no extractable content. Try opening the file locally to confirm it is not damaged. If a PDF opens but appears blank, it may be an image-only scan without an OCR text layer -- run it through OCR software and re-upload.

6. Permissions issue

You may not have permission to upload files in your current context:

• Knowledge bases: Only users with edit access to a knowledge base can upload documents to it. Ask the knowledge base owner or an administrator to grant you access.
• Workspace restrictions: Your workspace administrator may have restricted file uploads. Check with your administrator.

7. Upload stuck or processing

If your file appears to upload but never finishes processing:

• Wait a few minutes -- large files are indexed in the background and may take time.
• Refresh the page. If the file still shows as processing after several minutes, delete it and re-upload.
• If the problem persists, try uploading a smaller test file to confirm uploads are working in general.

Still not working?

If none of the above resolves your issue, contact support with:

• The file name and format you are trying to upload
• The exact error message (or a screenshot)
• The knowledge base or conversation where you are uploading
• Your browser and operating system

Related articles

• What file types and sizes are supported for upload? -- supported formats and size limits
• How should I structure knowledge bases? -- organizing documents for better retrieval
• How does RAG work in SecureAI? -- how uploaded documents are searched and used in responses

When you upload documents to a knowledge base, SecureAI parses, chunks, and creates embeddings for each file. This process -- called indexing -- runs in the background and must finish before documents become searchable. Several factors can make indexing take longer than expected.

Common causes of slow indexing

Large or complex files

Factor	Impact
File size	Files over 25 MB take significantly longer to process. A 100 MB PDF may take several minutes to index compared to seconds for a small text file.
Page count	PDFs with more than 100 pages require proportionally more time for text extraction, chunking, and embedding.
Complex formatting	Documents with dense tables, nested columns, embedded images, or mixed layouts require more processing to extract clean text.
Scanned PDFs	If a scanned PDF includes an OCR text layer, the extracted text may be noisy, leading to more chunks and slower embedding. If it lacks an OCR layer entirely, indexing may appear to complete but the content will not be searchable.

Bulk uploads

Uploading many documents at once queues them all for processing. Each document is indexed sequentially within a knowledge base. If you upload 200 files at once, the last file in the queue will not start indexing until the previous 199 have finished.

Embedding model load

Embedding generation is the most compute-intensive step. During periods of high usage across your organization -- for example, when multiple users are uploading documents simultaneously -- the embedding service may take longer to process each request.

How to check indexing status

After uploading documents to a knowledge base, you can monitor progress:

1. Open the knowledge base in the SecureAI interface.
2. Look for a progress indicator next to each document. Documents still being indexed will show a processing status.
3. Once indexing completes, the document status changes to indicate it is ready and searchable.

Documents that are still indexing will not appear in search results. If a user asks a question and a relevant document was recently uploaded, the answer may be incomplete until indexing finishes.

How to speed up indexing

Split large files before uploading

Rather than uploading a single 500-page catalog, split it into smaller files by section or product line. Each smaller file indexes faster, and the first files become searchable while later ones are still processing.

Upload in batches

Instead of uploading your entire document library at once, upload in batches of 10-20 files. Wait for each batch to finish indexing before starting the next. This also makes it easier to spot problem files that stall the queue.

Optimize documents before upload

• Remove unnecessary pages. Strip cover pages, tables of contents, indexes, and legal boilerplate. These create low-value chunks that slow indexing and dilute search results.
• Use text-based formats. PDFs with selectable text, Word documents (.docx), Markdown, and CSV files parse faster than scanned images or complex PowerPoint files.
• Simplify formatting. Documents with clean headings and simple layouts extract faster than those with multi-column layouts, text boxes, or heavy graphical elements.

Avoid re-uploading during peak hours

If your organization has many concurrent users, schedule large uploads during off-peak hours when the embedding service has more capacity.

When indexing appears stuck

If a document has been in a processing state for an unusually long time (more than 15-20 minutes for a typical document):

1. Check the file format. Unsupported or corrupted files may stall without a clear error. Try re-uploading the file or converting it to a different supported format.
2. Check the file size. Files close to the 100 MB limit take the longest. Consider splitting the file into smaller parts.
3. Remove and re-upload. Delete the stuck document from the knowledge base and upload it again. A transient processing error may have caused the stall.
4. Contact your administrator. If multiple documents are stuck or the problem persists after re-uploading, there may be a system-level issue that requires administrator attention.

Related articles

• What file types and sizes are supported for upload? -- supported formats and size limits
• How does RAG work in SecureAI? -- how document search and retrieval works under the hood
• How should I structure knowledge bases? -- organizing documents for better retrieval

When you send a message in SecureAI and the model does not respond -- or the response hangs, times out, or returns an error -- there are several possible causes. Work through these checks in order.

1. Check the model status indicator

Look at the model selector in your chat interface. If the model shows a warning icon or "unavailable" label, the model's upstream provider may be experiencing an outage. SecureAI connects to external AI providers (such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google), and their availability is outside SecureAI's control.

What to do: Try selecting a different model from the model dropdown. If one provider is down, another model from a different provider may still be available.

2. Verify your message is not too long

Each model has a maximum context length measured in tokens. If your message -- combined with the conversation history and any attached knowledge base content -- exceeds this limit, the model may fail silently or return an error.

What to do:

• Start a new chat to clear the conversation history.
• Shorten your message or break it into smaller parts.
• If you are using an assistant with knowledge bases attached, the retrieved context adds to the token count. See What is a token and how is usage measured? for details.

3. Check your network connection

SecureAI requires an active internet connection to reach the AI model providers. If your network is down or a firewall is blocking outbound requests, the model cannot respond.

What to do:

• Confirm you can load other websites.
• If you are on a corporate network, check whether your IT team restricts access to AI provider endpoints.
• Try refreshing the page or switching to a different network.

4. Review your usage limits

Your organization's plan includes token usage limits. If your team has exhausted its allocation for the billing period, model requests may be throttled or blocked.

What to do: Ask your administrator to check usage in the Admin Panel. See How is SecureAI billed? for information on plan limits and overages.

5. Check for assistant configuration issues

If you are chatting through an assistant rather than a direct model chat, the assistant's configuration may be causing the problem:

• Invalid or removed model: The model assigned to the assistant may have been removed from your organization's available models by an administrator.
• Broken tool or function call: If the assistant uses tools (API integrations, function calling), a misconfigured tool can cause the response to fail. See Can assistants call APIs and use tools? for setup guidance.
• Overly long system prompt: A very long system prompt consumes tokens from the context window, leaving less room for the conversation. This can trigger context-length errors on shorter-context models.

What to do: Try chatting with the same model directly (without the assistant) to isolate whether the issue is with the model or the assistant configuration.

6. Clear your browser state

Occasionally, stale browser state can interfere with the chat interface.

What to do:

• Hard-refresh the page (Ctrl+Shift+R or Cmd+Shift+R).
• Clear your browser cache and cookies for the SecureAI domain.
• Try a private/incognito window.
• Try a different browser.

7. Contact support

If none of the above steps resolve the issue, contact support with:

• The model you were trying to use
• The approximate time the issue started
• Any error messages displayed (exact text or a screenshot)
• Whether the issue affects all models or only a specific one
• Whether other users in your organization are experiencing the same problem

Related articles

• What AI models are supported? -- available models and providers
• What is a token and how is usage measured? -- understanding token limits
• How is SecureAI billed? -- plan limits and usage tracking
• Can assistants call APIs and use tools? -- troubleshooting tool configurations