Troubleshooting
Find solutions to common issues and get back on track quickly. If you cannot find an answer here, contact our support team.
Login & Authentication Issues
Can't Sign In
If you are unable to sign in to your account, work through the following steps:
- Verify your email address — Make sure you are entering the email address associated with your account. Check for typos and ensure you are using the correct domain (e.g., @company.com vs @gmail.com).
- Reset your password — Click the "Forgot Password" link on the login page. A reset link will be sent to your registered email. The link expires after 30 minutes.
- Check for account lock — After 5 consecutive failed login attempts, your account is temporarily locked for 15 minutes. Wait and try again, or contact support to unlock immediately.
Tip: Check your spam or junk folder if you do not receive the password reset email within a few minutes.
First, check your spam and junk folders. If the email still has not arrived after 5 minutes, try requesting a new reset link. If the problem persists, verify you are using the correct email address and contact support for further assistance.
Session Expired
Sessions automatically expire after a period of inactivity to protect your account. When this happens:
- You will be redirected to the login page with a "Session expired" message.
- Any unsaved changes in open forms may be lost. The application auto-saves drafts every 60 seconds where available.
- Simply sign in again to resume your work. Your token will be refreshed automatically upon successful login.
Warning: If you are being signed out repeatedly within short intervals, your account may have been compromised. Change your password immediately and enable two-factor authentication in Settings.
SSO Not Working
If Single Sign-On (SSO) authentication is failing:
- Check your SSO provider status — Visit your identity provider's status page to verify their service is operational.
- Clear browser cookies — Stale session cookies can interfere with SSO redirects. Clear cookies for both the Collections Manager domain and your SSO provider domain.
- Try an incognito window — Open a private/incognito browser window and attempt to sign in. This isolates the issue from cached data or extensions.
- Verify your SSO account — Confirm with your organization's IT administrator that your SSO account is active and has access to Collections Manager.
Collection Issues
Collection Not Loading
When a collection fails to load or displays an error:
- Check your permissions — You may not have access to view the collection. The owner may have changed sharing settings. Ask the collection owner to verify your access level.
- Verify network connectivity — Open a new tab and confirm your internet connection is working. Unstable connections can cause partial load failures.
- Refresh the page — Press Ctrl + R (or Cmd + R on macOS) to perform a standard refresh. For a hard refresh that clears the cache, use Ctrl + Shift + R.
This usually means the collection was deleted, archived, or your access was revoked. Check with the collection owner. If you are the owner, look in your Archived tab on the My Collections page. Deleted collections are retained in the trash for 30 days before permanent removal.
Items Not Appearing
If items you expect to see are missing from a collection:
- Check active filters — Look for active filter badges at the top of the collection view. Click "Clear all filters" to reset.
- Clear your browser cache — Cached data may be showing an outdated view. Hard-refresh the page or clear your cache in browser settings.
- Review permissions — Some items may have restricted visibility. Items tagged as "Private" are only visible to the owner and explicitly shared users.
Can't Create a Collection
If the "Create Collection" button is disabled or you receive an error:
- Check your quota — Free accounts have a limit of 25 collections. Upgrade your plan or archive unused collections to free up space.
- Complete required fields — Collection name is required and must be between 1 and 100 characters. Description is optional but recommended.
- Verify organization permissions — Some organizations restrict collection creation to certain roles. Contact your administrator if you believe this is an error.
Tip: You can check your current usage against your plan limits on the Settings page under "Plan & Usage."
Upload Problems
CSV Upload Failing
CSV uploads can fail for several reasons. Check the following:
Ensure your CSV file follows the expected format:
- Use commas as delimiters (not semicolons or tabs).
- The first row must contain column headers.
- Enclose fields containing commas in double quotes.
- Avoid blank rows in the middle of your data.
"My Collection","A sample collection","Books","fiction,classic"
Files must be encoded in UTF-8. If your file was created in Excel, save it as "CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited)" rather than plain "CSV." Other spreadsheet applications may default to different encodings based on your locale.
The maximum file size for CSV uploads is 10 MB. If your file exceeds this limit:
- Split the file into multiple smaller files.
- Remove unnecessary columns before uploading.
- Use the Bulk Upload tool which supports larger payloads for premium accounts.
Warning: Do not close or navigate away from the page while an upload is in progress. This will cancel the upload and you will need to start over.
Upload Stuck in "Processing"
Large uploads may take several minutes to process. If your upload appears stuck:
- Wait at least 5 minutes — Processing time depends on file size and server load. A 10 MB file may take up to 3 minutes.
- Check the status page — Navigate to My Bulk Uploads to view the real-time status of your uploads.
- Do not re-upload — Submitting the same file again may create duplicate entries. Wait for the current upload to complete or fail before retrying.
Missing Data After Upload
If some data is missing after a successful upload:
- Check column mapping — During the upload wizard, verify that your CSV columns are mapped to the correct collection fields. Unmapped columns are silently skipped.
- Review required fields — Rows missing required fields (such as "name") are skipped entirely. Check the upload report for a list of skipped rows.
- Check data types — Dates must be in ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD). Numbers should not contain currency symbols or commas within the value.
Performance Issues
Slow Page Loading
If pages are loading slowly, try the following in order:
Outdated cached files can cause slowdowns. Go to your browser settings and clear cached images and files. You do not need to clear cookies or saved passwords.
Run a speed test to verify your internet bandwidth. Collections Manager requires a minimum of 1 Mbps for optimal performance. Switch to a wired connection if available.
Ad blockers, VPN extensions, and other browser add-ons can interfere with page performance. Try loading the page in an incognito window with extensions disabled to test.
Search Not Returning Results
If search results appear empty or incomplete:
- Indexing delay — Newly created or updated items may take up to 60 seconds to appear in search results. Wait a moment and try again.
- Check your filters — Active filters narrow search scope. Clear all filters before searching to get the broadest results.
- Try different keywords — Search matches against titles, descriptions, and tags. Use broader terms if specific queries return no results.
- Check spelling — The search engine performs basic fuzzy matching but significant misspellings will not match.
Tip: Use the global search shortcut Ctrl + K (or Cmd + K on macOS) for the fastest search experience from anywhere in the application.
Browser Compatibility
Supported Browsers
Collections Manager is tested and supported on the following browsers:
| Browser | Minimum Version | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Google Chrome | 90+ | Fully Supported |
| Mozilla Firefox | 88+ | Fully Supported |
| Apple Safari | 14+ | Fully Supported |
| Microsoft Edge | 90+ | Fully Supported |
Known Issues by Browser
Safari versions below 15.4 have a known issue with drag-and-drop file uploads. As a workaround, use the "Browse files" button to select files manually. Updating to Safari 15.4 or later resolves this issue.
Firefox uses its own built-in PDF renderer which can be slower for large documents. If you experience slow PDF previews, try opening the PDF in an external viewer by clicking the download button on the preview toolbar.
API Errors
If you are using the Collections Manager API or encountering error codes in the application, here are the most common status codes and what they mean:
| Code | Meaning | What to Do |
|---|---|---|
| 401 | Unauthorized | Your session has expired or your API key is invalid. Sign in again or regenerate your API key in Settings. |
| 403 | Forbidden | You do not have permission to perform this action. Verify your role and ask an administrator to grant access if needed. |
| 404 | Not Found | The requested resource does not exist or has been deleted. Double-check the URL or resource ID. |
| 429 | Too Many Requests | You have exceeded the rate limit. Wait before making additional requests. Check the X-RateLimit-Remaining response header to monitor your usage. |
| 500 | Internal Server Error | An unexpected error occurred on our end. Try again in a few minutes. If the problem persists, contact support with the request ID from the error response. |
Rate Limiting
The Collections Manager API enforces rate limits to ensure fair usage and system stability:
- Standard accounts: 100 requests per minute.
- Premium accounts: 500 requests per minute.
You can check your remaining request quota using the following response headers:
X-RateLimit-Remaining: 87
X-RateLimit-Reset: 1700000060
The X-RateLimit-Reset value is a Unix timestamp indicating when your rate limit window resets. See the API Reference for full details.
Getting More Help
If the solutions above did not resolve your issue, you have several options for further assistance:
Tip: When contacting support, include your browser version, operating system, and the steps to reproduce the issue. Screenshots or screen recordings are extremely helpful for faster resolution.