Uploading Documents
Upload files to My Documents, your personal document library. Once a file is there, you can open it, download it, and ask the AI about it in chat.
My Documents is always personal. Everything you upload here belongs to you alone — there is no access level to choose and no step where you decide who else can see it. If you need to share files with your team or department, use the Knowledge Base instead.
Where to Upload
- Open the sidebar.
- Click My Documents. Admins find it inside the WorkSpace group.
The page opens with the heading My Documents and the subtitle "Your personal documents for AI conversations". The Upload button sits in the top-right of the page header.
:::info Who can upload By default everyone who has My Documents can upload to it. Your organization can change this through roles — see Roles & Permissions. If your role does not allow uploading, the Upload button is not shown and dragging files onto the page does nothing. :::
Two Ways to Upload
There is a single Upload button, and there is drag and drop. Both do the same thing.
| Method | How | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Upload button | Click Upload in the page header, then pick your file(s) in your computer's file picker | Choosing files from a specific folder |
| Drag and drop | Drag files from your computer straight onto the My Documents page | Files already visible on your desktop or in a folder window |
When you drag files over the page, a full-page overlay appears reading "Drop files to upload". Release the files anywhere on the page to start.
:::info There is no separate "Bulk Upload" button You do not switch modes to upload several files. The single Upload button handles both cases: pick one file and it uploads on its own, pick several and Arketic automatically uploads them together as a batch. Drag and drop works exactly the same way. :::
Uploading One File
- Click Upload (or drag the file onto the page).
- Select the file and confirm in your file picker.
- The Upload button itself turns into a progress bar and shows the percentage — for example
42%— while the file is going up.
While the upload runs, the button shows a spinner and cannot be clicked again. When it finishes, a message with the file name confirms that it was uploaded successfully, and the file appears in your document grid.
Uploading Several Files at Once
- Click Upload (or drag the files onto the page).
- In the file picker, select more than one file — hold Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac) while clicking, or drag a selection box around them.
- Confirm. Arketic detects that you picked more than one file and starts a batch automatically.
A progress window appears and stays on screen until the batch is done.
The batch progress window
| Stage | What you see |
|---|---|
| While uploading | Title Uploading..., a loading animation, the text "Uploading N files..." and, underneath, "Please wait" — replaced by a running count such as "3/8 processed" once the first file is done |
| Stopping early | A Cancel Upload button below the count. It is shown only if your role allows cancelling a batch |
| When finished | Title Upload Complete with a result icon: green check if every file succeeded, red X if all failed, amber if some succeeded and some did not |
| Result line | "N files uploaded successfully", "Failed to upload N files", or "N uploaded, N failed" |
| Closing | A Close button dismisses the window. The Esc key works too once the batch is finished |
A short notification also appears in the corner summarising the result, such as "5 files uploaded successfully" or "Upload complete: 4 succeeded, 1 failed".
The progress window stays open until the batch finishes; you can watch the running count and close it when it is done.
Cancelling a batch
Click Cancel Upload while the batch is still running to stop it.
Cancelling undoes the whole batch. Files from this batch that had already gone up are removed again, and the remaining ones are not uploaded. Documents you uploaded earlier are not affected.
When Some Files Fail
If part of a batch does not go through, the finished window shows a Failed files: list. Each line gives the file name and a short reason.
| Reason shown | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Already uploaded | You have already uploaded a file with exactly this content | Nothing — the existing copy is already in your library |
The files that did succeed are already in your library — you only need to deal with the failed ones.
Some problems stop the whole batch before it starts. In that case you see an error message instead of the progress window, and none of the selected files are uploaded:
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| One of the files is a type that cannot be added to My Documents | Leave that file out, or convert it — see Supported Formats |
| One of the files is over the size limit | Leave that file out, compress it, or split it into smaller files |
| Your plan's document allowance does not have room for all the files | Delete documents you no longer need, select fewer files, or ask your administrator about upgrading |
| You selected more than 20 files | Upload them in smaller groups |
Empty files in a batch are skipped without a message — they are neither uploaded nor counted.
Upload Limits
| Limit | Detail |
|---|---|
| File size | Up to 50 MB per file |
| Files per batch | Up to 20 files in one go. If you select more, you'll see "Maximum 20 files allowed" |
| Empty files | A file with no content is rejected with "This file is empty." — choose a file that actually has something in it |
| File type | A single file of a type that is not supported is rejected with "This file cannot be used." |
| Duplicates | Uploading a file whose content is already in your library is rejected with "This file has already been uploaded." This check only looks at your documents |
| Plan allowance | When your plan's document allowance is full, uploads stop with "You have reached your plan limit. Please upgrade to continue." |
| How often | There is an hourly limit on how many uploads you can start. If you hit it, you see "You have uploaded too many files. Please wait a moment and try again." |
The duplicate check compares file contents, not file names. Renaming a file you already uploaded will not let you upload it a second time.
What Happens After Upload
Arketic reads the text out of your file automatically, so that you and the AI can find and use it later.
- Small files are ready within seconds.
- Larger files finish processing in the background — you can carry on working while that happens.
- Images have their text read automatically too, so words inside a photo or a scan become searchable.
- Audio files are turned into text, so you can ask the AI about what was said in a recording.
Reading status on the card
A document that was read without problems shows nothing extra on its card. When something needs your attention, a status line appears under the file size and date:
| Status on the card | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| "Still being read — the AI cannot use it yet" (grey) | The file is uploaded and is still being processed | Wait — the line disappears on its own when the file is ready |
| "Text could not be read — the AI cannot use this file" (amber) | The text could not be taken out of the file | Click Try again |
| "Indexing failed — the AI cannot find this file" (amber) | The text was read, but the file could not be made searchable for the AI | Click Try again |
| "No readable text found — probably a scan without OCR" (amber) | No text was found in the file — typical for a scanned page or a picture | Click Try again. If it stays, upload a version with real text |
Try again is a link on the status line itself. While it runs it reads "Retrying…", and a message then tells you whether the file could be read this time. The file stays in your library either way — you can still preview and download it.
Once a document is in your library, you can preview, download, rename or delete it. See Managing Documents.
Tips
- Upload before you chat. If you want the AI to work from a document, put it in My Documents first, then ask about it in a conversation.
- Use descriptive file names.
Q3-Marketing-Budget-2025.pdfis far easier to find later thanreport-final-v2.pdf. Search in My Documents matches file names — and you can rename a document after uploading it. - Group your batches. Uploading related files together makes the progress window easier to read and any failures easier to spot.
- Check the format first. A quick look at Supported Formats saves you a refused upload.
- Check the card after uploading a scan. If an amber status line appears, the AI cannot use that file yet.
- For a one-off question, you can attach a file directly to a chat instead of uploading it here — see Attachments.
Related Pages
- Supported Formats — what you can upload
- Managing Documents — search, preview, download, rename, delete
- Knowledge Base — sharing documents with your team or department
- Attachments — sending a file straight into a conversation