Scanning and text problems

Most scanning problems come down to the crop, the light or the camera permission, and each has a quick fix. Find your situation below.

Before you start

Scan uses Apple’s document camera when your iPhone has it, and Paperwise’s own camera otherwise. Either way, the page is cleaned up and its text is recognised on your iPhone, offline. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you choose an AI action. See Scan a document.

Page edges

What if Paperwise didn’t find the edges of the page?

On the review screen, Paperwise may say “Paperwise wasn’t sure where the page edges are. Check the crop.” Fix it like this:

Tap Crop under the page.
Drag the four corners onto the corners of the page (“Drag the corners to the page edges”).
Or tap Auto to let Paperwise look again, or Full page to keep the whole photo.
Tap Done.

If Auto says “Couldn’t find the page edges. Drag the corners into place.”, place the corners by hand.

What if the crop is wrong on a document I already saved?

Open the document and tap Edit → Crop, rotate and filter. See Edit pages.

What if edges keep failing?

Put the page on a surface that contrasts with it (a white sheet on a dark table), flatten it, and fit the whole page in the frame with a little margin around it.

Blurry, dark or messy pages

What if a page came out blurry?

On the review screen, swipe to the page and tap Retake. Hold the phone steady and parallel to the page, and wait for the camera to focus before the shot.

What if a page is too dark or the colours look wrong?

Tap Filter on the review screen and try Auto, Magic, Lighten, Grayscale or B&W. Original keeps the photo as it was. For better shots, scan in even light and avoid your own shadow over the page. You can change the filter later with Edit → Crop, rotate and filter.

What if a page is sideways or upside down?

Tap Rotate on the review screen (each tap turns it a quarter), or later with Edit → Crop, rotate and filter.

What if the review screen says “Couldn’t clean up this page”?

Your photo is kept as it is. Tap the message to try the clean-up again.

What if a page in my document shows “Not cleaned up yet”?

The clean-up didn’t finish. Tap Retry on the page.

Text recognition

What if the Text view says “No text found on this page.”?

Paperwise found no text it could read on that page. Check that the page is sharp and well lit, and rescan it if needed. A photo of a scene, or a page that’s mostly images, may have no text to find.

What if the Text view says “Paperwise couldn’t read this page.”?

Text recognition failed on that page. Rescan it (a sharper, straighter photo usually helps), or use Read handwriting below if you have Pro.

What if the Text view says “Reading the text on your pages…” for a long time?

Paperwise is still recognising the text on your iPhone. Keep the app open for a moment. Long documents take longer.

What if search doesn’t find a word I can see on the page?

Search looks in the recognised text, so the word may have been misread. Open the document’s Text view to check what was recognised. Search never looks inside Hidden. See Search your vault.

What if my handwriting isn’t recognised?

The on-device recognition is made for printed text and can miss handwriting. With Pro and the AI helper on, ask AI to read it:

Open the document and tap Ask → Read handwriting. (Or open the Text view and tap Read again with AI (handwriting).)
Read the notice. The page images are sent to our AI provider to read them. Tap Continue to go ahead, or Cancel.
Paperwise says “Text updated” when it’s done.

Privacy: Read handwriting sends the page images to our AI provider. It isn’t available for Hidden items or documents marked Never send to AI. See Read handwriting.

Unsaved scans

What if I see “You have an unsaved scan. Resume it?”

You started a scan and left before tapping Save, or the app was closed. Your pages are kept on your iPhone, encrypted as soon as you leave the app. Tap the banner on the Vault (or in All items) to go back to the review screen, then tap Save, or Cancel and Discard to throw it away.

Tapping Scan starts a new scan and discards the unsaved one. To keep it, tap the banner first and save it before you scan again.

What if my unsaved scan into Hidden is gone?

That’s on purpose. A scan going into Hidden is never offered for resuming in your vault. It’s kept only while Hidden is open, and deleted as soon as Hidden locks.

What if saving fails?

If Paperwise says “Couldn’t save. Check your storage and try again.”, free up space on your iPhone (Settings → General → iPhone Storage) and tap Save again. Your scan stays on the review screen meanwhile.

Camera access

What if Paperwise says “Paperwise needs the camera to scan”?

Camera access is off for Paperwise.

Tap Allow camera if it’s offered and accept the iOS prompt.
If the button says Open Settings instead, tap it, then turn on Camera for Paperwise.
Go back to Paperwise and tap Scan again.

Until then, you can tap From Photos to bring in pages you photographed with the Camera app. See Import from Photos.

What if I tapped “Not now” for the camera during setup?

Nothing is lost. The next time you tap Scan, Paperwise asks again, or shows Open Settings if iOS won’t ask twice.