Thursday, September 05, 2019

Centrelink PDF upload error - Unexpected error happend. Please try again later. Error code - undefined

If you're trying to upload a PDF document to Centrelink and receive the error message: "Unexpected error happend. Please try again later. Error code - undefined", the following may help.

This type of error has been occurring for years. Not sure why, but it can be frustrating when you're trying to upload a document. If the document is a single page document that can be viewed on a computer screen the following tip may help.

To get around the "Unexpected error..." you can try to convert your PDF file to an image file. The image file can then be uploaded and this has worked.

Convert the PDF document into a PNG graphic file as follows.

Open the PDF document either using your browser or Acrobat PDF Reader. Other PDF readers may also work.

Enlarge the document to full-screen mode. That is you can only see the document and it takes up the entire screen. You may also wish to rotate the document so the document takes up more of the screen and the information is larger. For example if you have an A4 document rotating the document may give a better result.

Press PrtSc to perform a print screen (this captures an image of the screen into the clipboard)

Open Microsoft Paint

Paste the captured image into Paint (use the Paste option or Control+V)

Save the image as a PNG file

Now you can upload the file to Centrelink.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support

Update 17 Sep 2021
It's interesting this problem still exists years later. I decided to try a different approach which worked.

Open the PDF file using Acrobat Reader
Select File -> Print
Change the Printer to Microsoft Print to PDF
Click Print
Save the file using a slightly different name (e,g. add a suffix) so you can tell the files apart.

This new PDF file for me was able to be uploaded.

12 comments:

  1. Kelvin,

    I don't understand what's meant when you write, 'select Printer and printer'.
    If I click Printer at the bottom of Acrobat's Print dialog box, Acrobat will only let me print by taking me to my operating system's Print function and then when I do so, and try to Save as PDF there, Acrobat tells me.'Saving a PDF file when printing is not supported. Instead, choose File > Save.
    When I do that (which turns out to be 'Save as') and change the name for the copy which ensues, I still get the same "Unexpected error happened. Please try again later. Error code - undefined' when I try to upload the copy to Centrelink.

    But you must have got it right; could you amplify your instructions please?


    Regards,

    Peter

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Peter,

      My apologies for any confusion. I should have written better instructions. I've updated the instructions so hopefully they're easier to follow. Thanks for your feedback.

      Kelvin

      Delete
  2. Thanks for this information - tried it and it worked straight away after numerous failed attempts 🤦‍♂️

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  3. A bit annoying that they don't make it work, but it worked for me to convert to .png.

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  4. Thank you. The printer instruction worked perfectly as png format method is not applicable for multiple page files

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  5. What about when its already in pdf format and comes up with same error message when uploading?

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  6. Hi lissmmo. The update I posted above on the 17th of September describes exactly what you're asking I think. It's not really intuitive to have a PDF and then print to a PDF again, but that's a way I found around the problem. Hope that helps.

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  7. Print to PDF does not work on a Mac. I tried opening in Preview and doing 'Export to PDF' which worked. Why it is so difficult to start with is beyond me ...

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