FAQ & Troubleshooting

Quick answers to the questions we hear most, followed by fixes for the situations that stop people mid-case. Answers apply to both regimes unless a callout says otherwise.

Common questions

Does Veil decide redactions for me?

No — it suggests. Every detection starts pending, nothing is pre-redacted, and a person decides each one with “Redact” or “Don’t redact — keep visible”.

Can I undo a redaction after export?

No — exported redactions are permanent. At export the redactions are burned in and the withheld text is destroyed, not hidden. Before that point there is always a path: while a document is “Signed Off” its detections are locked, but a Senior Reviewer, Final Approver or Lead can “Send back” the signed-off document from “Finalise & Close” — it returns to “In Review”, unlocked, and the case must be re-attested. Only a released case is truly final.

Which package goes to the requester?

Only the “Requester Package” — it is the only one screened for external release. It omits the withheld-text column and reviewer reasoning, excludes the verification report, and anonymises filenames. Never send the Internal or Ombudsman package to a requester.

Who signs off?

A Final Approver (or the Lead) gives final sign-off with “Final Approval”. A Senior Reviewer reviews decisions and can send a document back with “Request Changes” → “Send Back”, but cannot sign off — that separation of duties is deliberate.

Can the Administrator see cases?

No — the Administrator handles system configuration only and has no case access. The Administrator also cannot generate any export package or run the Reports screen.

What happens to the original documents?

Original, unredacted documents are retained for the audit trail and the Ombudsman package. They are metadata-sanitised when included, but they are still the unredacted content — they must never be sent to the requester.

Can I upload a .ZIP folder or a .PST email archive?

No — Veil does not expand them; a ZIP is rejected at upload. Export emails as EML or MSG, or unzip the folder, and upload the files individually. Each email’s attachments then become their own child documents.

Can I upload images (PNG, JPG)?

No — standalone image files are rejected at upload with “Unsupported file type — supported: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, email (.eml/.msg), text.” Scanned material must arrive as a PDF, which is read through OCR as normal.

Does Veil screen audio or video files?

No. They may upload via drag-and-drop, but in a standard deployment Veil does not transcribe, detect, or redact them. Never treat a media file as reviewed or safe to release.

Why can’t I see a case I expect to see?

What cases you can see is set by your visibility scope, separately from your role. Reviewer visibility is normally scoped to your own department — if a case belongs to another team, it won’t appear. Ask your Lead.

What happens if the AI layer is unavailable?

Pattern detection of structured NZ identifiers (phone, email, IRD, NHI, address, bank account, passport, vehicle/driver) always runs, so documents still complete — but names and contextual sensitivities such as legal privilege are not detected. Review those by eye and add manual detections.

When should I use Sensitive mode?

Tick “Sensitive — process in New Zealand only (no AI)” at upload when a document’s content must not leave New Zealand. It is processed entirely in-country and never sent to the AI service: detection is pattern-matching, your custom rules and manual review only. Be honest with yourself about the trade: automated recall is lower — the AI’s contextual catches (names in prose, legal privilege, free-and-frank) don’t happen, so the reviewer must read harder; and it takes born-digital files only (Word, text-based PDFs, email) — a scanned document goes to “Error” rather than being read unscreened. The document wears a “Sensitive — in-region, no AI” badge so everyone downstream knows its recall posture. If the content can acceptably be processed by the AI service, leave the box unticked and keep the stronger automated net — see Sensitive mode in the feature reference.

I just signed in and see “Your department isn’t set yet”. What do I do?

Exactly what the banner says: “Your department isn’t set yet — ask an administrator or your OIA Lead to assign it so case work routes to you.” You cannot set your own department. Until an administrator assigns it, department-routed documents and collection confirmations won’t reach you. The banner is dismissible, but the underlying state isn’t — get the assignment done on day one.

Why is there a rule called “Auto: …” in Custom Rules?

A reviewer promoted a manual detection into a rule from the review screen. Veil names these “Auto:” plus the detected text (e.g. “Auto: Priya Nair”) and saves them as Drafts — they never match documents until someone reviews and activates them. Treat the “Auto:” list as a suggestion inbox from your reviewers, not as live detection.

Finding & reusing past work

Why did a similar case appear that I can’t open?

Because knowing it exists is useful even when reading it isn’t yours to do — you can ask the team that holds it. You see its shape (reference, department, dates, status, outcome, document count) but no requester name, no summary and no link. For a fuller walkthrough, see Find a similar past request.

I found a perfect match at intake — why can’t I attach its documents from there?

Your case doesn’t exist yet, so there is nowhere to copy them to. Create the case, then use Find Similar on the case page.

Do attached documents affect the case I took them from?

No. They are copies. The source case is never modified, and nobody working on it is notified or disturbed.

Why is my imported document showing dozens of pending detections?

That’s the design. Everything the AI ever flagged on that document is brought across for you to decide — including items the previous reviewer rejected — so you see the complete picture rather than one filtered by someone else’s judgement. Nothing imported is ever pre-decided.

Veil won’t let me sign off. Why?

Usually: some detections are still undecided. On an Imported document every detection arrives pending, so they all need deciding first. The message names how many are outstanding — decide every one, then sign off. See working with imported analysis. A second cause on some cases: “Cannot sign off: this case requires senior endorsement — the document must be endorsed before final sign-off.” — a senior must “Endorse” the document first (see senior endorsement).

Can I trust the previous reviewer’s grounds?

Treat them as informed suggestions. They tell you what a colleague concluded on similar material — useful context, not a decision you can inherit.

Troubleshooting

Jump straight to your symptom:

A scanned or image-only PDF won’t process, or its text looks wrong

PDFs — including scanned ones — rely on OCR, a configured cloud service. If OCR is unavailable, the document goes to “Error” with “OCR service temporarily unavailable…”. Ask your administrator to confirm OCR is configured. For poor OCR, you can add or correct a manual detection on the reconstructed text view — a scanned document shows a banner explaining it has no selectable text and is showing a reconstructed view.

A document is stuck in processing or shows “Error”

A document in “Error” carries a plain-English reason (file not found, corrupted, password-protected, service timeout, rate limit…).

• Password-protected / encrypted files upload with an amber warning, then show “Error” during processing — remove the protection and re-upload.
• Corrupted files — verify the file opens in its native application, then re-upload.
• Service timeouts and rate limits often clear on a retry; re-upload if it persists.

A red “{N} unlocatable” badge — “could not be located” detections

An accepted detection’s text could not be found in the document, so it was not redacted — for example, the AI paraphrased a long passage that isn’t a literal string in the file. Open the detection and correct its text to match the document exactly, or escalate it. Long AI “summary” detections are routed to a whole-document text search; the verifier at export is the final authority on whether anything leaked.

An export is blocked — “Export Failed” instead of a package

At least one document was not verified clean: a leak was found, the verifier couldn’t run, or redaction errored on that document. Check which documents are flagged, correct the detections (often an “unlocatable” one), and regenerate. Other common blockers: accepted detections with “Missing Grounds”, unreviewed documents selected, the case not fully attested, or the agency name not set.

A document is read-only, or my change wasn’t saved

Two people editing the same document can clash; Veil protects against silent overwrites — and a document assigned to a colleague is read-only for everyone else.

• If the document is assigned to someone else, you’ll see “Read-only — this document is assigned to [name]”. Only the assignee can act on it — ask your Lead to reassign it if it should be yours.
• If someone else is editing, you’ll see “This document is read-only — another reviewer is editing it.” Do other work and come back, or ask them to finish.
• If the document changed under you, Veil shows “This document was changed by another reviewer — reloading the latest.” and refreshes — your stale change is not saved; re-apply it against the fresh state.
• If a lock is held by someone who has stepped away, a Lead can use “Take over editing”. Ask your Lead; don’t try to work around a lock.

An amber “Duplicate” warning on upload

Re-uploading the same file shows a non-blocking amber “Duplicate” warning — the file is still added to the case. If it really is a duplicate, remove it yourself before continuing to review.