When you upload a PDF transcript to the Review workspace, Deposely has a size limit of 50 MB per PDF. If your file is larger than that, you will see a message that says "PDF files cannot exceed 50 MB."
That message is not an error and nothing has gone wrong. It is just letting you know the file is too big to upload as-is. The good news is that there are a few simple ways to get your transcript in for analysis. This article walks through them, starting with the option we recommend first.
This 50 MB limit applies to PDF uploads in the Review workspace. Audio and video files have a much larger limit of 4 GB. For more detail, see the related articles at the end of this page.
Why is my transcript PDF so large?
A plain transcript is usually well under 50 MB, so if yours is over the limit, one of these is often the reason:
Exhibits are appended to the file. Many transcripts arrive with the exhibit pages added to the back of the transcript, like an appendix. Those extra pages, especially if they include photos or scanned documents, can make the file much larger than the testimony alone.
The pages are scans (pictures) rather than text. If the transcript was scanned instead of saved as a text PDF, every page is stored as an image, which takes up far more space.
Knowing which of these is going on will help you pick the best fix below.
First, try to get your file under the limit
These two options make the file itself smaller so it fits under the 50 MB limit. If either one works, you can upload the transcript to the Review workspace the usual way and get the full analysis.
Separate the exhibits from the transcript (recommended)
If your PDF has exhibits appended to it, this is the best approach. It brings your file under the limit and gives you a better analysis at the same time, because Deposely will treat those exhibits as real exhibits tied to the testimony.
Open the PDF in your PDF program (such as Adobe Acrobat).
Save the exhibit pages as one or more separate files, and save the transcript testimony (without the exhibits) as its own file.
In your deposition, upload the exhibit files as exhibits. See How do I upload exhibits to a deposition? if you need a refresher.
Upload the transcript-only file to the Review workspace for analysis.
Once the exhibits are added to the deposition, Deposely's analysis automatically takes them into account, so you do not lose anything by separating them out. You end up with a smaller transcript file and a cleaner, more useful analysis.
Shrink/Optimize the PDF
If your transcript does not have appended exhibits, or it is still a little over the limit after separating them, you can try to reduce the file size directly.
Open the PDF in your PDF program. Most PDF tools have this feature, including Adobe Acrobat and many free or lower-cost programs.
Look for an option to reduce or compress the file size. Depending on your program, it may be called something like Reduce File Size, Compress PDF, or Optimize PDF.
Run it, save the smaller file, and try uploading it again.
This works well when the transcript is a true text PDF. If the pages are scans (pictures of the text rather than the text itself), shrinking usually will not save much space. An easy way to tell: if you can highlight or select the words on the page with your cursor, it is a text PDF and shrinking should help. If you cannot select the words, the pages are images, and one of the options in the next section will be the better path.
If it still won't fit, analyze it another way
If your transcript is still over 50 MB after trying the options above, you can still get it analyzed using one of these approaches. They take a little more effort or give a slightly different result, but they let you work with a large transcript.
Split the transcript into smaller parts
You can split the transcript into sections that are each 50 MB or smaller and analyze them separately.
Using your PDF program, split the transcript into two or more parts, each under 50 MB.
Create a separate deposition for each part and upload one part to each.
Run the analysis on each part.
Review the summaries together to get the full picture.
This takes a little more setup, but it lets you analyze a large transcript that will not fit in a single upload.
Analyze it through Deposely LX chat
If you would rather not split the file, you can add the transcript to your case as a document and ask Deposely LX about it in chat.
Go to the Case Details page and upload the transcript as a case document.
Open Deposely LX chat, add that document to the chat, and ask your questions.
Keep in mind this is not quite the same as running a transcript through the Review workspace. You will not get the full automatic summary with chapters, page-and-line summaries, and the other Review workspace features. You can still ask LX for many of the same kinds of insights by prompting it directly, so this is a solid option when you mainly need answers and analysis from the testimony.
Still need a hand?
If none of these options work for your file, reach out to our support team through the chat icon in the bottom right corner of the app and we will be glad to help.
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