General Discussions

When a file upload in Glean Assistant/Chat fails to process in time, the user only sees "file processing timed out" (on hover). The message gives no indication of

why it failed or what to do next, leaving users stuck. This idea proposes updating the error to include actionable guidance.

Files that lack a usable text layer — most commonly PDFs exported from slide decks (e.g., Google Slides → PDF), scanned/image-based PDFs, or image-heavy documents —

fall back to OCR, which is the slowest step in processing and can exceed the timeout window. The file is often well under the 64 MB size limit, so the failure is

confusing: users assume it's a size or system problem rather than a file-format/OCR issue.

Today the only feedback is "file processing timed out," with no resolution path. Users either give up or open a support ticket to learn the workaround.

Update the timeout error to surface a short, actionable message and/or suggested next steps, such as:

- "This file took too long to process. For slide decks, try uploading as PowerPoint (.pptx) instead of PDF."

- "Try a text-based format (.pptx, .docx, .txt) — image-only PDFs require OCR and may time out."

- "Try splitting the file into smaller files (up to 5 can be uploaded at once)."

Ideally the guidance adapts to the file type (e.g., detect a slide-export/image-only PDF and recommend .pptx specifically).

- Reduces user frustration and abandoned uploads.

- Deflects support tickets by giving users a self-serve fix.

- Improves output quality — text-based formats (.pptx/.docx) yield more accurate, searchable content than OCR of a rendered PDF, so steering users toward them is a

Feature Request - Make the "file processing timed out" error actionable with suggested next steps

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