Script upload and AI analysis problems
Scripts arrive in every condition, from clean publisher PDFs to third-generation photocopies, and Proscene handles most of them. When an upload or an AI read goes sideways, the cause is usually the file itself, and there is a path through for each case.
My script won't upload
Two requirements catch most failed uploads. First, AI script analysis works on PDF files only; trying to analyze anything else is refused with "AI analysis supports PDF scripts only.", and the wizard's script step asks for a PDF up front. If your script lives in Word or as photos, export or print it to PDF first. Second, uploads are capped at 64MB ("File must be under 64MB."). Text PDFs almost never hit that, but heavy scans do; re-scanning at a lower resolution, compressing the PDF, or splitting it into acts gets you under.
Proscene also verifies that a file really is what its extension claims, so a file merely renamed to .pdf is rejected. If a valid, small PDF still will not go through, try again on a steadier connection.
My script is a scan and I can't select or search text
Scanned and photocopied scripts have no text layer, which is why select, copy, and find do nothing on them. Proscene has two separate answers, depending on what you need.
For AI analysis, you do not need to do anything: when a script has no extractable text, the analysis automatically reads the pages visually instead. It takes longer than a text PDF, page bookmarks on scans are best-effort estimates worth reviewing, and very long scans are capped at 250 pages (split those into acts).
For reading tools (select, copy, search, line highlighting), the script viewer detects the scan and offers managers a Run OCR banner. OCR runs in your browser, works through the script page by page, and can take several minutes for a full script; you can cancel and resume later. Once it finishes, the result is stored with the file, so the whole production benefits and nobody runs it twice.
The AI analysis failed or the results look odd
First, nothing the AI produces touches your production automatically: every analysis lands on a review page where you can rename characters, fix scene rows, and delete anything wrong before applying. Odd results are edited, not endured.
If the read is too far off to fix by hand, use the Not quite right? box on the review page: describe what it got wrong and re-analyze. The new pass uses your notes and the previous result to make a targeted correction. Analyses are capped at 5 per production every 30 days, so re-run deliberately rather than repeatedly.
If you would rather skip AI entirely, you can. Discard the analysis and set up cast and scenes by hand, and in the new-production wizard, switch off the Auto-fill cast from this script toggle: your PDF still uploads as the production's script, with no analysis, and you can run the AI read later from the Script tab if you change your mind. Results are best on cleanly formatted text PDFs; heavily stylized or irregular layouts are where manual setup wins.
My script analysis seems stuck
A normal analysis takes from about thirty seconds to a few minutes; long scripts and scans sit at the top of that range. The review page checks for results every few seconds, so leave it open and let it work.
If the run dies behind the scenes, it does not spin forever: an analysis still processing after about eight minutes is automatically marked failed ("The analysis timed out."), at which point you can simply run it again. If instead you see a message that an analysis is already running for this production, someone (possibly you, in another tab) has one in flight; wait for it to finish or time out before starting another.
If the upload itself stalls rather than the analysis, check the basics: the file is under 64MB, your connection is stable, and the page was not closed mid-upload. Re-selecting the file and retrying is safe.