XREF Chunks missing in scanned and downloaded PDFs

[jtroth]

Hi - this is an annoying problem, but not a show-stopper. This problem started when I set up my new Win 10 PC. I had been on Win 7 and never experienced it. When I scan a document to my pc from my HP printer, or download a pdf (just now it was a PG&E bill), when I then open the pdf in PDF-XChange there is a read banner on top that reads: "Some problems were detected in the document. You may save a copy to solve it. If I click the Show Problem Details it says "One or more XREF chunks were not found". If I do a "save as" the problem goes away (I don't have to close the file and open the newly saved copy).

These are the same PDFs that the program was handling fine on Win 7, so I wonder what's going on? If there's anything I can send to you all for diagnostics let me know.

As I say, it's not a show-stopper or anything, just an annoyance - the red banner is kind of unaesthetic

And btw - Thanks for a really great program. I've been using it for many many years.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi jtroth,

Thanks for the post - this error means that the document is either damaged, or was not created according to the ISO Specification that governs the format. If you are using HP's scanners and creating the PDF's with their scan software, then we've attempted to contact them about this, as they are not adhering to the ISO Spec. when creating these documents, but they refuse to acknowledge any fault (and refused to acknowledge that they made software, for about 30 minutes).

For now, I would advise scanning via File --> New Document --> From Scanner in the Editor, or re-saving these documents to fix the issue. In the future, we plan to implement a mechanism to fix these errors silently, so that this message does not appear.

Thanks,

[jtroth]

Thanks Will, yes - silently fixing it would be great!

Just FYI, it's also happening with other PDFs - e.g. the bill I just downloaded from PG&E.

This never happened on my old pc, which was running WIN7, and undoubtedly an older version of your software. So something changed in the more recent software.

Anyway, not a huge deal. For me, at most it's an an aesthetic issue.

Thanks for the response.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi jtroth,

This would be because previous releases of the Editor did not have the ability to notify the users about the issue implemented, so you would have seen any notification.

It's possible PDF's that you have downloaded did not download correctly and might be fine if you downloaded again with a different browser, or over a different network. But it's more likely that they were created incorrectly or were damaged by some change that was made to them, before they were uploaded to the website.

Cheers,

[Willy Van Nuffel]

Hello,

Just for information...

I did find an interesting thread about the message "One or more XREF chunks were not found":
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Scanning-F ... -p/4855230

If I understand it correctly, there are one or more objects in the PDF of which the definition - in number of bytes - is larger than their size in reality. So, it is obvious that the PDF reader/editor expects more bytes/information than it can find, and generates an error message (or in a more worse case, does not show the PDF at all).

Luckily, by the built-in correction mechanism in some PDF editors - like PDF-XChange Editor - this kind of problem is resolved automatically without loosing any information. Just re-Save the PDF to have it repaired.

Best regards.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Willy,

The issue with HP is that they are not forming the XREF table properly. It's a non-critical mis-structure, but it's not ISO compliant and they refuse acknowledge that they have an issue (as demonstrated by the thread that you linked - interesting read and good to know that my support experience with them wasn't unique).

I've attached an explanation sent to another user, regarding the issue with HP's software:

hp_xref_issue_explanation.pdf

(10.35 KiB) Downloaded 120 times

Cheers,

[jtroth]

Thanks Will (and Willy !) for all the info.

[Willy Van Nuffel]

With pleasure.

[Will - Tracker Supp]

[Robert13]

I just started seeing this with scans from an HP 7610.

Any update on;

"In the future, we plan to implement a mechanism to fix these errors silently, so that this message does not appear."

[Will - Tracker Supp]

Hi Robert,

I'm afraid that there's been no update yet, but the best course of action is to either contact HP directly and request that they adhere to the specification, or use the Editor to scan.

Thanks,

[Robert13]

I'm guessing contacting HP would be nothing more than frustrating!

I receive the scans from a friend that I work with, so at this point I'll just "save as" and the message goes away.

As always thanks for the quick response.

Robert

[Will - Tracker Supp]

No worries Robert!