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Google Play (Stuck in Needs Action) poor quality .pdf?

8.7K views 12 replies 12 participants last post by  Lexxie Couper  
#1 ·
Google Play is has a very annoying and difficult interface for uploading books for distribution to the Google Play bookstore. I pulled the .epub and .pdf file from Smashwords. The first thing I did was run an epub check online and it passed. I uploaded the epub first and I got this error:

Needs Action:

Internal processing error (001)
Quality of the PDFs or scanned hardcopy is too poor; please provide new content

So I uploaded a pdf and I got the same error:

Internal processing error (001)
Quality of the PDFs or scanned hardcopy is too poor; please provide new content

Frustrated, I deleted the book and started the entire process all over again. This time I only uploaded my cover and the pdf. This was around 5:30 pm est. Processing went through and the status went to unknown. I checked the unknown status and it's explanation was that changes to your book will take several hours to take effect in the Google Play store. I thought it was all over and waited. Woke up this morning and check everything and around 6 am my files are rejected with the same stupid error:

Internal processing error (001)
Quality of the PDFs or scanned hardcopy is too poor; please provide new content

My question is:
Does anyone know if there are formatting guidelines to upload to Google Play? This is so annoying! They won't accept my epub which passes 100%, I've added all of my payment and billing information correctly and that shows Active on my account. I don't know what's going on here. Should  I upload the same pdf I used to upload to Createspace?
 
#2 ·
I am NOT a GPlay guru... My main reason for responding is to hopefully bump this thread and some of the really sharp people here have a better chance to see it. I can, however tell you what I would do...
1. They're saying your files are (((bad))) and that you downloaded them from SW. Is it possible that SW adds something below the surface in terms of formatting identifying it as a SW created doc that GooglePlay doesn't like?
      - not saying it's the case, but if so, how about trying to just convert your orig Word doc file (my assumption) into PDF and uploading that?

2. My uploads of Epubs went through Calibre for formatting, and there were no problems

Note: GPlay takes longer to process- 24-72 hrs for a book to go live.

Finally if this doesn't work, fire off an email and wait: it seems to take 24-48 or longer according to threads here for their tech people to respond. See TKenyon's massive post on GPlay.
Good luck!
 
#4 ·
I got the same error today on one of the books I was uploading.  I uploaded a new PDF, but left the ePub alone, and I'm still getting the same error for the PDF.  Everything else is filled out completely except for the verification of the bank account, but that shouldn't affect the PDF.  I'll wait another day and see what happens since I'm not in a rush to get the book live yet.
 
#5 ·
Just a little tip - check your epub file.

I was getting the PDF error repeatedly and couldn't work out why the hell it wasn't working. I went into an individual book and looked at the files and there, sat at the bottom, was an epub error saying it couldn't sanitize the file. I know; nothing to do with the PDF. However, after I cleaned up the epub and uploaded a new one, the PDF error vanished and the books went live within a couple of hours.

Geoff
 
#6 ·
I have had the same problem for 2 days now. The first two books I uploaded went through smoothly (last week), but the new stuff I've been trying to upload keeps giving me the same error message, even if I don't upload PDF files at all. I'm not seeing that 'epub failed to sanitize' thing Geoff mentioned, so I don't think it's that. Looks like it's a bug. I think I'll just pull all of those books needing action and give it another try next week (or once Customer Support gets back to me; they were very responsive at first but they might be closed on weekends?)
 
#7 ·
I'm having the same problem re quality of pdf file. I emailed support and they said I'd uploaded a lot of books at once and it was just taking time for them to go live. So far, 24 hours later, still getting the same message. I think it's a glitch on their end. Oh and my pdfs didn't come from SW. They were done exactly as all my other books on google play, all of which were approved easily.
 
#8 ·
I too got that annoying poor quality pdf error 001 the first time I uploaded an epub. And the second through tenth times. This thread is the top google search I found for the issue, so I thought I’d post what fixed it for me so the whole world can see.

I opened the title that needed action and unchecked the box ‘Show Photos in eBook’ in the Google Play settings tab. All of those boxes in that list are unchecked except for the DRM one and I think I unchecked another one at an earlier point but the show photos seemed to be the fix for me.

I’m sure there are literally 10,000 other reasons that this could happen, but this helped me and hopefully it will help someone else.
 
#9 ·
It's not a true error.

By this I mean the PDF's are usually perfectly fine. Check them, if they look fine, they are fine.

I had this error a lot. You can do another PDF if you wish (but it'll be exactly the same as the first one,) and upload it. New files overwrite the older files of the same type. Usually that'll do it.

To be honest though, the books are often already up and on sale although you wouldn't think so, and that error disappears after the new upload after a while. After a re-upload just leave it for a day and go back and check it, if its still there check if you can find the title on the site. It often self corrects and those messages disappear.

It is a pain sometimes... but ya, the problem isnt your PDF, it's their upload issue.
 
#10 ·
Another idea: Just be patient.

I've had the same error messages a couple of times after uploads, simply ignored it for a few hours, then when I've gone back to GP the error messages were gone and my e-books were live.

But maybe I'm just lucky. I've seen a lot of complaints/concerns about the GP interface, and how long it takes for books to go live, but I've found it fairly easy to use and my books usually go live within 6 or so hours.

Not a lot of sales yet, but so far I'm pleased with my freebie downloads.
 
#11 ·
Ty Johnston said:
Another idea: Just be patient.

I've had the same error messages a couple of times after uploads, simply ignored it for a few hours, then when I've gone back to GP the error messages were gone and my e-books were live.

But maybe I'm just lucky. I've seen a lot of complaints/concerns about the GP interface, and how long it takes for books to go live, but I've found it fairly easy to use and my books usually go live within 6 or so hours.

Not a lot of sales yet, but so far I'm pleased with my freebie downloads.
This. My error was magically delicious ... and fixed with no effort from me.
 
#12 ·
Reply #8 fixed it for me -- I was getting repeated errors (with 2 titles) that the cover image was not high enough quality. All my other titles with exactly same image quality were fine. After uploading 11 different versions of these files and trying various other bug fixes, this fixed it immediately. I'm still pretty frustrated by the whole thing. Amazon had no problem with the same ePub files. Thank you anyway.