Upload Processed Data with a Load File

The processed uploader is Everlaw's tool to upload processed data sets so that your team can review them. This article offers step-by-step instructions on uploading processed data with a load file onto Everlaw. Should you encounter common errors along the way, this article gives you suggestions to resolve them.

When to upload processed data

You should use the processed uploader if:

• You received a production from another party that includes a load file and one or more of the following: images files, natives files, and/or text files. 
• You already have documents on the Everlaw platform, and you want to replace or add images, text, natives, and/or metadata. In this case, use the processed uploader to perform an overlay of this new or updated information.
• You exported native data off of Everlaw to archive your case materials. The matter has re-opened and you need to re-upload the data.
• You received a production without a load file, but the PDFs are Bates-stamped and named after their respective begin Bates.
  Note: In this instance, upload using the PDFs without a load file upload option. The process in this article will not work for documents without a load file.

Table of Contents

• Requirements
• Overview of uploading processed data with a load file
• Upload processed data with a load file
  
  • Step 1: Access the processed uploader
  • Step 2: Start the processed upload
  • Step 3: Load file selection
  • Step 4: Identity fields
    • Bates Prefixes
    • Confirm identity fields
  • Step 5: Metadata type and format
    • Confirm metadata types
    • Parse Datetime fields
  • Step 6: Combine datetime metadata
  • Step 7: Mapping
    • Step 7a: Resolve
  • Step 8: Additional Options
  • Step 9: Projects
  • Step 10: Summary
  • Step 11: Select Folders
  • Step 12: Verify Files
• Upload Card Summary
  • [Organization Administrators] Associate upload with source card
• Errors
  • Load file error
  • Identity field errors
    • Encountered non-Bates in Begin Bates column
    • Internal overlap: [Bates number] overlaps with [Bates number]External overlap: [Bates number] overlaps existing document: [Bates number]
    • Cannot determine page count from [begin Bates number] and [end Bates number
    • About the OPT File
  • Verify files errors
    • Missing files (images, natives text)

Requirements

Before you get started with your upload, here are a few things to confirm:

• Required permission: Database Uploads, Database Administrator, or Organizational Administrator If you cannot access the uploads page, please reach out to your database administrator
• Confirm that your dataset is processed data with a load file
  • Processed data sets often include separate image, text, and possibly native files representing the same document. Additionally, the metadata and identifying information for each document is organized separately in a load file. For example, if opposing counsel has shared a production with you, it is most likely processed data. 
    • Processed data should be in the standard format to upload successfully. If your data does not follow our standard format, it may encounter issues that will require troubleshooting to proceed with the upload.
    • Processed PDFs without a load file are uploaded using the PDF only uploader
  • Your data should not be native data. Native data are unprocessed or raw files (files in their original format). These files usually comes directly from the client, custodian, or data collection service 
    • • Tip: native data usually does not have a Bates number 
      • Native data sets should not  be uploaded through the processed uploader and should instead be loaded using our native uploader

Overview of uploading processed data with a load file

Everlaw's processed uploader walks you through the steps to make these files organized, easily accessed, and searchable on Everlaw. 

1. First you complete steps in the uploader to make sure that the identifying information and metadata are properly formatted.
2. Next. you can optionally apply review work to these documents, such as adding codes or putting them into a binder.
3. Finally, you direct the uploader to the image, text, and native files so that they can be uploaded and the separate files for each document are connected into a single, easily reviewed, record.

Upload processed data with a load file

Step 1: Access the processed uploader

When you're ready to begin your processed upload, you can navigate to the uploader:

1. Select Data Transfer > Uploads.
   
2. Select Processed.
   
3. Select Document sets with load file.
   
   
4. Select Start upload.

Step 2: Start the processed upload

Once you have accessed the processed uploads page, you can start your upload:

1. Drag and drop the unzipped folder containing your processed data set into the uploader. This opens the Processed upload details dialog.
   
2. [Optional] For Upload name, enter a name for the upload.
3. [Organization Administrators only]: For Authorized by, select the person authorizing the upload.
4. This can be used as an audit trail to see who has provided and/or approved the upload For Visibility, select the visibility configuration you prefer:
   • Visible: Upload is visible on the homepage. 
   • Hidden: Upload is not visible on the homepage. 
   • Merge: Merge the new upload with an existing upload. 
     
5. Select Create upload. This creates an upload card with information about your upload in the In Progress tab. The card stays in this tab as you move through the upload steps. When the upload is complete, the card moves into the Complete tab.
   • The upload card saves your upload if you need to pause and resume at a later time. You can resume a paused upload by selecting the upload card when you return to it.

Step 3: Load file selection

After you initiate the upload, you will be prompted to identify the load file.

1. On the uploader’s Load file page, select the caret button to expand the folder containing the load file.
   Note: The load file is often in a folder called “Data”
2. Select the load file.
   • The following file formats are accepted: DAT (recommended), CSV, and TXT.
   • Do not select an OPT file at this stage. If your load file does not contain either number of pages or End Bates, Everlaw will prompt for an OPT at a later step
     
     
3. Select Upload load file.

Please see the load file errors section below if you get a warning that Everlaw has encountered errors parsing your load file.

Step 4: Identity fields

In the Identity fields step, the uploader uses information from your load file to automatically detect Bates prefixes, where documents begin and end, and identifies the paths for text and native files if provided. On this page, you confirm that these detected fields are correct. If you notice that the uploader has not correctly detected these fields, you can reassign them. 

The table in the middle shows all the metadata field names (headers) in your load file, as well as some randomly sampled values. These sample values can help you determine which fields should be used for your identity fields, as well as give you an overall sense of the metadata in your upload. 

Bates Prefixes

If the uploader has properly detected all the Bates prefixes in your upload, you can move onto confirming the identity fields.

 

Bates prefixes that do not yet exist on your database are identified with a preceding (!) icon.

If Everlaw did not detect prefixes automatically, you can add them manually so that the uploader can correctly identify the Begin Bates and End Bates columns of the load file. 

To manually add Bates prefixes, select the Bates prefixes edit button .This opens a dialog box to add prefixes and reanalyze your data.

Here are some situations where you need to manually enter Bates information:

•  If your upload contains documents with no Bates prefix:
  1. Select Allow Bates with empty prefix.
  2. Select Reanalyze. 
• If you notice that the Bates prefixes have not been accurately detected, you need to manually specify them:
  1. In the data-entry box, enter any Bates prefixes in the load file. If there is more than one prefix to be identified in your load file please add each one per line. Bates prefixes are case-sensitive.
  2. Select Reanalyze.
• If your upload includes a # prefix, you will be prompted to change the # prefix. This is because the # is a system-reserved prefix for natively uploaded documents. 
  1. Select Assign Bates prefix in the prompt.
  2. Enter any valid Bates prefix. Once you have assigned a Bates prefix, the document numbering is retained. For example, if the load file specifies a Begin Bates of '#123.1' and you assign the prefix 'ABC-', then the Bates number of the uploaded document will be 'ABC-123.1.'
     If you choose to proceed with a # prefix, the uploader will assume you are uploading an overlay. You will get an error notification in the following step if it cannot find an existing document with the same control number to overlay.

Confirm identity fields

If the uploader has properly detected all the identity fields in your upload, you can proceed by selecting Next. 

You should confirm the fields identified in the Confirm fields panel.

1. Confirm Begin Bates: Check if the detected field represents the Begin Bates of your documents. If it is not correct, you can click into the white box to select from a list of eligible fields.
   • This field is always required
   • It is the identifier for the first page of your documents
2. Confirm End Bates: Check if the detected field represents the End Bates of your documents. If it is not correct, you can click into the white box to select from a list of eligible fields.
   • This is the identifier for the last page of your documents
   • Either this field or “Page Count” are required so that the system knows where the end of the document is
3. Confirm Page Count: Check whether the field Everlaw has identified in your load file represents the Page Count of your documents. If it is not correct, you can click into the white box to select from a list of eligible fields.
   • Page Count is the length, in pages, for the image of your document
   • If there is no End Bates value, Page Count can be used to determine the end of documents. 
   • If your load file includes both page count and End Bates, select both fields to retain these fields as metadata on Everlaw. If the uploader prompts you for an .OPT file, that is an indication that the two values do not match up.
4. Confirm Native Path: If native files were included in your document set, select the field that contains a path to the produced native files. 
   • The native path specifies the location of the file within the folders provided
   • This field is necessary to upload native files
5. Confirm Text Path: If your load file includes a metadata field for "text path", select it here. 
   • The text path provides the location of the text files within the folders provided
   • The text path is required if your text files are not named exactly after their Begin Bates
6. [Optional] You can deselect any fields you do not want to include in your upload. Fields that have no values for any of the documents are automatically deselected.
   • If you are performing an overlay and want to learn how to delete metadata, visit  Overlaying Data
     
     
7. To move on to the next page, select Next.
8. If your upload contains a Bates prefix that isn't already present on documents in this database, you will be asked to confirm that you are intentionally adding a new prefix. This acts as a safeguard to ensure that you are uploading to the correct database. If you are in the correct database, select Add prefixes to move on to the next step.
   Note: In general, the dialog box to confirm new prefixes will not appear on the first upload to a new database.
   • [Organization Administrator only] When uploading processed data with new prefixes through the Organization Admin page, the dialog box prompting approval for new prefixes appears for all uploads (including the first upload).
     

Please see the Identity field errors section below if you get a warning that  Everlaw has encountered errors during the identity fields step.

Step 5: Metadata type and format

In this step, Everlaw detects the data type for each metadata field (e.g. text, number, etc.) and assigns colored icons to indicate its confidence that it has detected the fields correctly. If the uploader has properly detected the metadata type for all fields in your upload, select Confirm types to move onto the next step.

• Green checkmark: Everlaw is confident in the data type it has identified
• Yellow exclamation point: Everlaw is not confident in the data type it has identified because there is more than one valid non-text type
• Red X: There is a error with the detected type and you must take action to proceed to the next step

You should confirm that the fields are typed correctly and correct any that were mis-identified. Once you have clicked on a field to review it, the field will turn gray. When metadata information is typed properly, you can maximize functionality on Everlaw, such as searching for email participants or date ranges.

This table describes the data types you can select from, along with a description of each and some common metadata fields (headers) that use each data type. You can reference our Standard Fields article for more information.

 

Confirm metadata types

Examine each load file header and the detected type. If you agree with the detected field type, you do not need to take any action.

If you agree with the detected field type, you do not need to take any action. To adjust a data type: 

1. Select the field. A table will appear showing:
   • The set of possible types 
   • The number of values, errors, and null values for each type
   • Some sample values from your load file
     
2. Choose the correct type for this field. 
3. If the type that you want to select has errors for some values and not others, you can select Ignore errors to ignore just the values with errors and load the properly formatted values. 
   • For example, if some values in your Date Sent field are improperly formatted and are recognized as errors, you can still select a date type for this field and select Ignore errors at the bottom of the column. This will properly load the rest of your date values.
     Important: The values with errors will not be loaded.
   • If you do not want to upload this field, select Ignore field.
     Important: Choosing Ignore field means that none of the information in that field will be uploaded
4. Once you have confirmed the type for each of your load file fields, select Confirm types.

Parse Datetime fields

Everlaw automatically detects and parses datetime formats contained in your load file. For example, a date such as 2001/12/30 is parsed such that the system recognizes the year as 2001, the month as December, and the day as the 30th.

Since dates can be ambiguous, Everlaw will prefer either a Month-Day (US) or Day-Month (Non-US) ordering based on your login region. 

Everlaw recognizes most datetime formats, so it's uncommon that users need to adjust the parsing. If you do notice errors in parsing, you can fix them at this step. You can adjust how Everlaw parses datetime fields in two ways, either by changing the order or by changing the format.

• To change the order: Select the gear and select Change order to DMY.
• If you notice that a date is improperly interpreted, you can change the format:  Select the gear  and select Preferred formats. You will see a dialog showing samples from your load file, the current format being used by Everlaw, and a sample result for what that returns To choose a new format:
  1. Select a new format in the Choose format column. 
  2. Select Test formats to populate the New result and Error columns with the expected results. 
     1. All samples must have valid results in order to confirm and reanalyze the entire load file.
  3. If the datetime format you would like to select does not appear in the list, please contact Everlaw Support to have it added to the list.
  4. Once you have updated the formats, select Confirm and reanalyze.

Step 6: Combine datetime metadata

If your load file contains stand-alone date and time fields (e.g. Date Sent and Time Sent), you can combine them into one field at this step, which will simplify searching once the data is uploaded.  

Everlaw automatically detects fields to combine, and you should review and confirm that Everlaw is correctly detecting the fields to combine. The uploader assigns colored icons to indicate its confidence that it has correctly detected the fields to combine.

• Green checkmark: Everlaw is confident that the two fields should be combined
• Yellow exclamation point: Everlaw is not confident that the two fields should be combined

If you do not want to combine these fields into one, select Split.

If a field cannot be combined with anything else, Everlaw will let you know that this column cannot be combined with any others. 

Select Confirm combinations to move on to the next step.

Step 7: Mapping

During mapping you decide how the metadata fields in your load file will be displayed and searched for in Everlaw. Everlaw auto-maps each field in your load file.  If the uploader has properly mapped all the metadata fields in your upload, you can move onto the next step.

Mapping your fields correctly allows you to keep a consistent and manageable set of metadata fields on Everlaw, even if your uploads are coming from multiple parties with different metadata naming conventions. For example, load files might include information about the date that emails were sent. If multiple parties are producing documents to you, each different processed data set might assign this information a different load file header, such as “Date Sent,” “sentdate,” “datetime sent,” or “datesent.” Even though these are all different names, they are referencing the date that an email was sent. You can make sure that each of these gets mapped to the same metadata field on Everlaw so that your data on Everlaw is organized and easy to search.

There are three types of fields to select from when you are mapping. They are listed here in the preferred order in which you should select them for mapping:

• Standard field: a field from a curated list of the most commonly used metadata fields. Standard fields are denoted by a blue band in the dropdown list. Whenever possible, you should map your load file field name (header) to a standard field.
  

• Previously used custom fields: a field outside the Everlaw-designated standard fields that has been previously mapped to in this database. Previously used custom fields are denoted by a gray bar in the dropdown list. Since these fields already exist in this database, you are not creating a new field when you map your load file field name to one.
  
• New Custom fields: a nonstandard field that has not yet been mapped to in this database. New custom fields are denoted by a yellow bar in the dropdown list. If you map to a new custom field, you are adding a new metadata field to your database. It's important to be sure that the field you are mapping genuinely represents a new type of information that doesn't already exist on your database because once a custom field is created, the field cannot be deleted, only hidden.
  

Everlaw will auto-map each field in your load file: 

• Fields with a green checkmark next to them are mapped to standard fields or to custom fields that already exist on this database
• Fields with an orange exclamation mark are mapped to new custom fields

Check each mapping and adjust it if necessary. The Load file header shows the name of the field in your load file and the Everlaw display name shows the suggested mapping on Everlaw.

Note: the randomly sampled results for each field are independent as between fields. Just because a value lives in the same column as another value in the Random samples from the load file section of the tables does not mean the values are from the same document.

To re-map a field:

1. Select the pencil next to the Everlaw display name.
   • If you see a note saying mapped to another header, the uploader is letting you know that two different load file headers are being mapped to the same Everlaw display name. Unless you are certain that these fields are redundant, you should remap one of them to a different display name. If you are not sure that two fields are redundant, you can leave them mapped to the same header and the Resolve conflicting values page will notify you if there are conflicting values. 
2. Select the field you would like to map to. If there is not an appropriately named field in the list, type in a new field name, which will become a new custom field. Keep in mind the preferred order Standard → Custom → New.
3. When each field in your load file is correctly mapped, select Confirm mappings.

Step 7a: Resolve

If you have multiple load file headers mapped to the same Everlaw display name, you will be taken to the Resolve conflicting values page.  Otherwise, you will be taken straight to the Additional Options step.

Multiple headers mapped to the same field will show the number of Conflicting values, Same values, Only one value, and No value. 

If 100% of the values are the same, the Everlaw display name will have a green checkmark. This means that the fields truly are redundant and there are no conflicting values between. In this case, select Confirm configuration and move on to the next step.   

If there are conflicts, the Everlaw display name will have a red x. You have two options for addressing this conflict. First, You can select Reconfigure mappings to return to the mapping page. There, you can update your mappings so that you do not map multiple load file headers with non-redundant (conflicting) values to the same Everlaw display name.

The other option is to proceed uploading with conflicting values. To do so, you need to decide  how to load this information into Everlaw. For each field with conflicting values:

1. Choose whether to Upload conflicting values as supplementary metadata values or Only upload the primary metadata value and ignore conflicting values. The column on the left is designated as the primary field. If the field you want as the primary field is not already on the left, drag that column to the leftmost position. 
   • Upload conflicting values as supplementary metadata values: One field will be designated as the primary field. Values in this field have a green checkmark. These values will be displayed in the metadata tab of the document review panel and in the results table. Once the data is on Everlaw, supplementary values (those without a green checkmark) will be present when you hover your mouse over the field in the metadata panel in the review window, and when you search on that value. If the primary field is missing a value, the value in the supplementary field is displayed on the document. 
   • Only upload the primary metadata value and ignore conflicting values: If multiple fields have values for a particular document, only the primary value will be uploaded and no other values will not be uploaded onto Everlaw. The values that will not be loaded will be crossed out. If the primary field does not have a value, then the value in the secondary field will be loaded.
     Note: If you select this option, you are choosing not to upload the conflicting values that are included in your load file. This means that some information included in your dataset will not be loaded onto Everlaw.
2. Once you have confirmed your mappings, select Confirm configuration.

Step 8: Additional Options

This step allows you to apply work product (e.g. ratings, codes, binders, notes, etc.) and custom metadata values to documents in your upload. For more information, visit Applying Custom Values and Work Product During Upload. 

• If you initiate a processed upload from the Org Admin page, you will not see this step
• If you choose to apply custom metadata values for fields within your load file, the value you enter will overwrite any values contained in the load file

Step 9: Projects

You can choose to upload documents into the projects you have access to. If you only have one project, you will not be taken to the Projects page and you will go straight to the Summary step. Keep in mind when adding documents to multiple projects:

• Documents are always added to all complete projects within the database
• Documents are always added to the project from which you have accessed the uploader
• There are no billing implications for adding data to multiple projects within the database

Step 10: Summary

This page is a summary of selections you have made so far. It includes:

• The load file you chose 
• Any new Bates prefixes being added to the database  
• Ignored fields that are not being uploaded
• Your metadata configuration, including the preferred format for your date fields.

Important: Past this point you cannot return to the metadata mapping stage, so it's important to review your choices carefully before proceeding to the selection of folders stage.

Step 11: Select Folders

In this step you select the file folders to properly link the image, native (if present) and text files to the documents that will be uploaded to Everlaw.

For each file type on the left, select the corresponding folder(s) from your data set. To clear your folder selection, select Clear all.

To select folders:

1. The uploader will prompt you to select the folder(s) containing your image files. Select the folder(s) containing your images.
   • Even if you do not have image files, the uploader will prompt you to select a folder. Select an empty folder or the text folder; neither should not contain any image files. This allows the upload to continue. If you select a folder with text files, these text files will not be uploaded twice.
2. If your upload contains natives, click Select folders under Natives and then select the folder(s) containing your natives.
   • If you did not identify a native path field at the Identity fields step, the Native file type will not be present.
3. Click Select folders under Text and then select the folder(s) containing your text files. 
   • Even if you do not have image files, the uploader will prompt you to select a folder. Select an empty folder or the images folder; neither should not contain any text files. This allows the upload to continue. If you select a folder with image files, these images files will not be uploaded twice.
4. Select Verify files.

See the Missing files errors section below if you get a warning that  Everlaw has encountered missing files.

Step 12: Verify Files

Once you have properly selected the folders, the uploader will proceed to verify the files. There is no action you need to take at this step. For context, the uploader checks the following: 

• For images: 
  • Confirms that the image files are present 
  • Checks the filenames of each of the files you are trying to upload 
    • Filenames must exactly match their Bates number with no extraneous text
• For text:
  • Confirms that the text files are present 
  • If you identified "text path" in the identity field step, the uploader checks that the paths of the text files exactly match the text path in the load file. 
  • If you did not use text path, the uploader makes sure that the text files are named exactly after their Bates number with no extraneous text
• For natives (if present): 
  • Confirms that the native files are present 
  • Checks that the paths of the native files match the native path exactly in the load file

Once this information is confirmed, Everlaw uploads your documents to your database. Upload time varies depending on the size of the upload and the speed of your internet connection.

As the upload progresses, documents are indexed and become available in the database as they are ingested into the system. This means the number of documents displayed on the upload card will update to reflect the number of documents from this upload currently in the project.  

Important: While the upload continues, do not leave the Processed Data tab, as doing so will interrupt the file transfers.

Upload Card Summary

Once the upload has completed, the upload card moves from the In Progress tab to the Complete tab of the Processed Data Uploads page. 

You can do several things from the upload card:

• Select the number on the upload card to open a results table of the documents.
  •  Note: the number of documents displayed on the upload card reflects the number of documents from this upload currently in the project, not the total number of documents that was first uploaded. If you delete documents from the upload, the number will be updated accordingly. 
• Select View results to see a summary report of your upload
  • Organization Administrators can add a link to a file transfer card from here. See the section below for more information.
• Select the three-dot menu to:
  • View your upload configuration, which is a summary of the choices you made during the upload process
  • Download the load files that were used to configure this upload
  • Download any error reports generated during the upload
  • Delete the upload by clicking on the trashcan
    • Note: Deleting the upload will remove the documents from the database and all its associated projects, not just delete the uploads table entry. Deleting a mixed upload will only delete the new documents that were created by that upload. Modifications to documents will remain.
• Rename the upload
  • Click into the name of the upload. Then you can edit the name of the upload.
    

[Organization Administrators] Associate upload with source card

When users transfer zip files of processed documents to the platform via the File Transfers page, a file transfer card is created for the source. After an Organization Administrator has completed the upload of these transferred files, they can associate processed data cards with their original file transfer source(s). 

To do this:

1. Go to the Complete tab on the Processed Data Uploads page
2. From the completed upload card, select View results.
3. Select Add a link.
   
4. Select the file transfer source(s) from the dropdown.
5. Select Save.

Uploads associated with their file transfer source are automatically marked as complete on the file transfer card. Additionally, the card will have a document icon linking users to the uploaded documents.

Errors

As you upload your data, you might encounter error messages or warnings. You can check out our Processed Data Errors article for more commonly encountered processed upload issues. If you are not able to resolve these errors, you can transfer the files to our support team to upload. 

Below are common issues that you may encounter during each stage of your upload process and possible ways to resolve them. 

Load file error

If you receive a warning in Step 3: load file selection that Everlaw has encountered an error parsing your load file, you can:

• Select Skip errors and continue: This will not upload all of the documents in your processed upload, and will skip documents associated with the lines in your load file that contain errors.
• Troubleshoot your load file: If you choose to troubleshoot, you should select Download error report and load files. This downloads 3 files in a zip folder:
  1. A load file (DAT) listing only lines with errors  
  2. a CSV describing the error(s) and the lines that the errors occur on
  3. A load file (DAT) listing only lines without errors (DAT)

You can either:  

• Proceed with uploading documents without errors now (as in the bullet point above) and separately troubleshoot and upload just the documents with errors later
• Troubleshoot the load file first to resolve any errors. Then, proceed with uploading all documents  

To learn more about troubleshooting syntax errors in your load file, visit  Processed Data Errors. 

Return to Step 3: Load file selection

Identity field errors

In Step 4: Identity Fields, it is possible to encounter issues within your data that may need to be addressed outside of Everlaw to proceed with the upload. In this section, we will highlight a few common data issues and the cause for these errors.

Encountered non-Bates in Begin Bates column

If you receive this warning, it might be because:

• The header you have selected as your Begin Bates has values that are not being parsed as unique and valid Bates. First, check that you have correctly identified all Bates prefixes within your document set and manually add them if needed.
• The uploader identified documents that are not named by a unique identifier that represents the beginning of a document.  For example, if you have two documents uploaded with the prefix "ABC", and one is named ABC001_001 and the other is named ABC001_002, the uploader will flag that there cannot be duplicate documents that share a document ID. On Everlaw, suffixed documents (such as _001, _002) cannot be identified as separate documents. This prevents confusion when searching and referencing documents during review. 

Internal overlap: [Bates number] overlaps with [Bates number]
External overlap: [Bates number] overlaps existing document: [Bates number]

What is an overlap?

• An overlap is when the Bates range of two documents overlap. 
  • For example, documents ABC001(3 pages) and ABC002 (1 page) have overlapping Bates ranges because ABC001 (as a three page document) reserves ABC001, ABC002, and ABC003, which overlaps ABC002. 

There are two types of overlap: 

• Internal: Overlaps in documents within the same upload

Error: “Internal overlap: [Bates number] overlaps with [Bates number]”

In this case, the upload contains documents that have a range of Bates numbers that overlap with other documents within the document set you are uploading.

• External: Overlaps with existing documents
  Error: [Bates number] overlaps existing document: [Bates number]

In this case, the upload contains documents with Bates numbers that overlap with documents that are already on Everlaw. 

You can address overlaps by adjusting the naming of your documents outside of Everlaw. Reach out to support to learn more about adjusting prefixes and/or utilizing suffixes to address overlapping Bates. 

If you choose not to rename your documents outside of Everlaw, there are two ways to proceed with the upload on Everlaw.

Note: Neither one of these options address the underlying issue of having overlapping Bates numbers. We suggest proceeding with caution with these two options:

• First, skip errors and continue.This skips documents with overlapping Bates ranges and continues to upload documents that do not overlap with other documents. Everlaw selects the overlapping document with a lower Bates number to be uploaded and skips any overlapping documents with a higher Bates number. 
  • The consequence is that you will not upload all of the documents in your document set. After the upload is complete, you can download an error report to identify the documents that were not uploaded.
• Second, a Database Administrator can enable the Overlapping Bates setting so that you can ignore overlapping Bates warnings and continue uploading documents with overlapping Bates ranges to the same database. Learn more about the “Overlapping Bates” setting.
  • Overlapping Bates can make overlaying documents and searching tricky. The section of the article linked above describes these potential consequences in more detail.  

Cannot determine page count from [begin Bates number] and [end Bates number

This error appears if Everlaw cannot determine the page count based on the provided Begin and End Bates. This could be due to a discrepancy between the page count and End Bates fields in your load file or a difference in numbering conventions between the Begin and End Bates. 

The uploader will prompt you to select an OPT file.

If selecting the OPT file does not work, you can deselect either Page Count or End Bates if both are selected in the Identity Fields stage. 

About the OPT File

An OPT file contains Image Path information that can be used to locate the image file for each document and tells the uploader where each document begins and ends.

An OPT file is required whenever there is an inconsistency between the number of pages indicated by the Page Count column and the implicit number of pages described by the Bates range. It can also be helpful to determine the intended image file(s) for a document, as well as End Bates and/or page counts if they are not provided in the load file.

Return to Step 4: Identity fields

Verify files errors

In Step 12: Verify Files, the processed uploader verifies the files in the folders you have selected. It will present an error if it cannot verify all the files.

Missing files (images, text, native)

If the uploader cannot verify the presence of all your files, you will receive the error message: “Some documents are missing image/PDF, text, or native files.”  This might be because:

• Your upload is missing files identified in the load file
• The current selection is not directing the uploader to the files correctly
  • This might happen because your image files are not named exactly after their Begin Bates. Ensure that the filenames are named exactly after their Bates number with no extraneous text. For native and text files, ensure the file paths are exactly as specified in the native and text paths, if provided.

You will be presented with four options to proceed: 

• Reselect your folders: If you choose Reselect folders, you will be taken to the previous step, where you can change your folder selection. 
  • Ensure that you select all folders containing a given file type (images, natives, text) 
• Continue anyway
  • If you choose Continue anyway, you will proceed with your upload despite the missing files
• Download a missing files report
  • Select Download missing files report to export a CSV summary of files that you are missing.Then you can request the missing files from the producing party.
    • Once you have downloaded the report, you can proceed with the upload with the non-missing files first, and later use this CSV to identify files to overlay after. 
    • You may also choose not to proceed with the upload until you have a complete set of documents.
• Generate the missing files: you can choose to generate missing files to reprocess non-Everlaw processed documents
  • Select PDFs & Text to generate new images and text for your documents
    • For documents without natives, this converts existing images to searchable PDFs, preserving Bates stamps and other features. Then, text is extracted from the PDF.
    • For documents with natives, this replaces the existing images with new PDFs generated from the natives. Then, text is extracted from natives (if present)
    • If there is no existing image or native, an image file cannot be generated

Important: This discards Bates stamps and other features not present in the native.
Important: Generating PDFs may increase the billable size of the documents as a result of newly generated and stored image files. 

• Select Text to generate new text for your documents and keep existing PDFs. 
  • Text is extracted from natives (if present) 
  • Text is extracted from images/PDFs (embedded text or OCR) if the native is not present. This will not change or replace any existing PDFs or images.

Return to Step 12: Verify Files