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Troubleshooting

Sign-in, upload, review, RealityCheck, billing, and add-in issues — what each message means and what to actually do about it.

Most of what looks like a bug is one of a small set of known states. Work through the section that matches what you are seeing before assuming something is broken.

Signing in

For single sign-on, SCIM, and domain problems, see Identity troubleshooting, which covers them in full.

  • A sign-in attempt fails, or you see “SSO authentication failed” — retry once. If your organization uses single sign-on, confirm you are using the same identity provider account your invitation was sent to; a personal account with the same email is a different identity.
  • “This verification link has expired” or “This reset link has expired” — request a new one rather than retrying the old link. Links are single-use and time-boxed by design.
  • “Organization membership is still being confirmed” — an invitation acceptance is still processing. Wait a moment before retrying.

Uploading

  • “Unsupported file type” — direct uploads accept .docx and .pdf only. Convert the file first if it is in another format, including an older .doc. Files opened from a connected Google Drive or OneDrive do not go through this check.
  • File will not upload at all — confirm the file is not empty and that you actually have access to the source. If it comes from a connected drive, reconnect the drive and choose the file again; see Integrations.
  • “Upload failed” from a drive source — the provider connection may have lapsed. Reconnecting usually resolves it.

Review is stuck or missing

  • “Queued — position N” or progress not moving — leave the review open. A queue position can appear during busy periods, and that is a real queue, not a stall. Do not upload the same document again to try to jump the line — a second upload starts a second, independent run.
  • “Analysis service is unavailable. Please try again later.” — the engine could not be reached. The document itself is safe; retry the review rather than re-uploading.
  • Progress stops advancing entirely — if the product offers Try again, use it once before reporting it.
  • A recent document will not open — check its expiry label in My Documents. An expired stored document has had its file deleted; its review metadata can still be listed, but there is nothing left to open. Re-upload the source file. See My Documents.

Suggestions or reports look stale

Refresh after changing the document — real-time updates are unavailable in Office Online and Outlook, so Refresh is the manual equivalent there. If you have edited a passage substantially, BriefCatch may no longer be able to anchor a suggestion to it; re-analyze to get findings that match the current text. See Review a document.

RealityCheck will not start

  • Confirm RealityCheck is available for the active account and license — it is Reality Check specifically that can be excluded from a commercial deal even when Document Review is included.
  • Confirm the credit balance can cover it; RealityCheck is the one feature that spends credits. See Usage and credits.
  • Only start a new run intentionally. Refreshing or reopening a saved document should not silently begin another run and should not silently charge credits again.

Billing and payment

  • “Payment processor unavailable. Please try again later.” — the payment provider could not be reached. This is on the provider’s side; retry rather than re-entering payment details repeatedly.
  • “Payment failed. Please try again.” — update the payment method at the provider’s hosted page, linked from Billing, then retry.
  • A confirmed purchase looks stuck — do not retry the payment. Refresh the billing screen first; confirmation is processed asynchronously and can take a short time to appear.
  • “Top up unavailable” — credit purchases can be temporarily disabled during a billing-provider issue. If you are an ordinary member of an organization, the more likely cause is that member self-purchase is off, which is the default. Use the Ask your admin button to request the top-up instead. Owners and admins are never blocked. See Usage and credits.

Word add-in

  • Real-time updates and inline suggestions are unavailable in Office Online and Outlook by design — use Refresh in those hosts instead of waiting for automatic updates.
  • If the add-in cannot reach your account, confirm you installed it from AppSource under the same account you use on the web, not a different Microsoft or Google identity.
  • Billing links inside the add-in open the web portal and remain subject to your role — an admin following a billing link still lands on the owner-only wall. See Billing.

Contacting support

Include the screen, the approximate time, the document type, and the exact visible error message. Do not attach a client document unless your organization’s policy permits it, and never send passwords, access tokens, or full payment-card details — to BriefCatch support or to anyone else who asks for them under that pretense.

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