Trying to upload a résumé or document in PCRecruiter and getting the error “Document does not contain any text” can be confusing—especially when the file looks completely fine. This issue often blocks recruiters and candidates from uploading documents to profiles or job submissions.
If you’re seeing this error, here’s exactly what it means and how to fix it quickly.
What This Error Really Means in PCRecruiter
When PCRecruiter says a document “does not contain any text,” it means that the system couldn’t extract readable, selectable text from the uploaded file. While the document might appear normal on your screen, the backend parsing tool doesn’t detect actual text content.
This usually happens because the document is:
- A scanned image or photo saved as a PDF
- An incorrectly formatted file
- A file type that the system doesn’t support
- Corrupted or encoded in a way the parser can’t process
Why Some Documents Aren’t Recognized
Even though your document looks okay, it might be unreadable to PCRecruiter. Here’s why:
Image-based PDFs – If your résumé is scanned or saved from a fax machine or photo app, it may be an image inside a PDF. These documents look like text, but they’re not machine-readable.
Non-standard file types – Files created in Pages, Google Docs, or OpenOffice and exported poorly can sometimes lose formatting or use unsupported encoding.
Corrupted or blank documents – If something went wrong while saving or exporting, the document might be technically “empty” even though it opens.
Supported Document Types in PCRecruiter
Make sure you’re using one of the accepted file types that PCRecruiter can properly read:
- PDF (must contain actual, selectable text—not scanned images)
- DOC (Microsoft Word)
- DOCX (Microsoft Word Open XML)
- RTF (Rich Text Format)
- TXT (Plain text)
If your file is in any other format—like .pages, .odt, or image-only PDF—it won’t upload correctly.
How to Fix and Reformat the Document
Here’s how to convert or repair the file so that PCRecruiter will accept it:
- Try selecting the text inside the document.
Open your PDF or Word file. If you can’t highlight the words with your mouse, it’s an image—not text. - Use OCR (Optical Character Recognition) if it’s scanned.
If you scanned a résumé or received a scanned document, use a tool like Adobe Acrobat, Google Drive OCR, or free online tools like onlineocr.net to convert it to readable text. - Open the file in Word or Google Docs and “Save As.”
This ensures the content is saved in a clean format. Choose.docxor export as text-based PDF. - Double-check the file size and formatting.
Oversized or damaged files can also fail. Avoid special characters in filenames and keep formatting simple. - Upload the new version to PCRecruiter.
Try uploading again after re-saving the file. If it still fails, move to manual entry or contact support.
When Manual Entry or Support Is the Best Option
If you’ve tried everything and still get the error, paste the résumé or document text directly into the profile or notes field in PCRecruiter. It’s not ideal, but it gets the information into the system without blocking your workflow.
If you’re a recruiter using PCRecruiter as part of your workflow, and this issue affects multiple uploads or team members, contact PCRecruiter Support. There may be a temporary parsing issue or configuration error that needs to be fixed on their end.
Final Tip: Prevent Future Errors by Saving Smart
To avoid this error again:
- Always save documents as .docx or text-based PDFs
- Avoid scanning documents unless you run OCR first
- Don’t use photos or screenshots of text as résumé files
- Stick to tools like Word or Google Docs, and avoid apps that export PDFs as images
Uploading a résumé shouldn’t be a tech issue. With the right file format and a quick OCR check, your documents should upload to PCRecruiter with no problem.
Still stuck? Let us know in the comments what worked—or didn’t work—for you.