anonym.plus Documentation

Quick Links

• Installation Guide
• User Guide
• Troubleshooting

Installation Guide

Learn how to install anonym.plus on your system and complete first-time setup.

System Requirements

Platform	Requirement
Windows	Windows 10 or later (x64)
macOS	macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or later
Linux	Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, or equivalent
Memory	4 GB RAM minimum, 8 GB recommended
Storage	500 MB for installation

Windows

Format	Instructions
.exe (NSIS)	Download and run the .exe setup for the standard installation — this is the only Windows installer published.

macOS

Download the .dmg file for your processor (Intel or Apple Silicon), open it, and drag the app into the Applications folder.

Linux

Format	Instructions
.deb	sudo dpkg -i anonym.plus_*.deb — this is the only Linux package published.

Check the package (optional). Every Linux package comes with a signature file, anonym.plus_<version>_amd64.deb.asc, on the release page. Import our signing key from anonym-plus-release-signing.asc and verify: gpg --import anonym-plus-release-signing.asc, then gpg --verify anonym.plus_*_amd64.deb.asc anonym.plus_*_amd64.deb. gpg must report a good signature from “anonym.plus Release Signing” with the fingerprint 4989 A93E 5268 A7D3 0C8C 21F8 B23A 53B7 64F3 78C5.

First-Run Setup Wizard

The first time you open anonym.plus, a guided setup wizard walks you through choosing how to get started, creating your secure vault, setting a PIN, activating your license, and choosing an output folder.

Step 1: Welcome Screen

The welcome screen offers four ways to get started:

Option	Description
Try Demo	Start a 30-minute demo session with text anonymization. No account needed — great for a quick test drive.
Get Free Account	Opens registration in your browser, then returns to the app to set up your secure vault.
I already have an account	Opens your browser to sign in — your license activates automatically.
I have a license key	Set up your vault and paste an existing license key.

A language switcher at the bottom lets you change the UI language before continuing. 48 languages are available.

Step 2: Recovery Phrase & Vault Creation

After choosing to get a free account, sign in with an existing account, or activate with a license key, the app generates a secure vault protected by a 24-word BIP39 recovery phrase. This phrase is the master key to your vault.

The phrase is hidden by default — click Show Phrase to reveal it. You can Copy it to the clipboard (auto-cleared after 30 seconds) or Save as TXT to a file, then click Hide to blur the words again for privacy. You must check “I have safely stored my recovery phrase” and click Continue before proceeding.

Verify Your Phrase — to confirm you saved the phrase correctly, the app asks you to enter 3 randomly selected words by their position number. Type the correct words and click Confirm. If any word is wrong, you'll be prompted to try again. Once verified, the vault is created and you proceed to PIN setup.

Step 3: PIN Setup

After vault creation, you can create a 6–8 digit PIN for quick daily access. The PIN lets you unlock the app without typing all 24 words each time.

• Quick unlock without typing your full 24-word recovery phrase
• Your recovery phrase remains stored securely in the vault
• You can always use the recovery phrase if you forget your PIN

Enter your PIN in both fields and click Set PIN & Continue. You can also click Skip for now to set a PIN later in Settings → Security.

Step 4: License Activation

With your vault ready, the next step is activating your anonym.plus license to unlock all features. Paste your license key and click Activate License, or click Import File to load a license file downloaded from your account.

You can also click Skip for now to activate later via Settings → License.

Step 5: Output Folder

The last step lets you choose where anonymized documents will be saved. The default folder is anonym.plus in your user folder (~/anonym.plus; up to version 8.8.20: Documents/anonym.plus). Click Browse... to select a different location — you can change this later in Settings → Preferences.

Click Finish Setup to complete the wizard and enter the main application.

User Guide

Step-by-step instructions for using anonym.plus features.

Main Interface Overview

After setup, the main interface is organized into a header bar, a processing area, and a status bar.

Header Bar

• Mode Toggle — switch between Anonymize and Deanonymize modes
• Preset Selector — quick-switch between detection presets (shown in Anonymize mode)
• History — open the processing history panel
• Settings — access app settings
• Help — open the in-app help panel (F1)
• Debug Log — open the embedded debug log viewer (Ctrl+Shift+D)

Processing Area

Four tabs switch between anonymization modes: File Drop, Text Input, Batch Mode, and Image. Below the active tab, a results panel lists detected entities grouped by type with controls to include or exclude each one, and output controls let you choose the output format and where the anonymized result is saved.

Status Bar

The bottom of the window shows the app version. The PII detection engine's running/stopped status is available under Settings → About.

Document Anonymization

The core feature — detect and anonymize personal information in documents.

Workflow

1. Drop Files — drag and drop files onto the dropzone or click to browse
2. Select Preset — choose a detection preset that matches your use case (GDPR, HIPAA, Financial, etc.)
3. Start Analysis — click Start Analysis (or Analyze Only for pasted text) to extract text and detect entities
4. Review Entities — review detected entities grouped by type (names, emails, phones, etc.)
5. Choose Output — select an output format (same as input, PDF, DOCX, or TXT) and a save option
6. Save — click Anonymize & Save as New File or Anonymize & Replace Original to complete

Step by Step: Text Anonymization with Replace

Anonymize text by replacing personal data with type labels like <PERSON> and <EMAIL_ADDRESS>. The original values are permanently removed.

1. Paste a document containing personal information — names, email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, IBANs, and organization names — into the Text Input tab.
2. Choose General PII Detection from the preset dropdown. This preset detects Person, Email Address, Phone Number, Location, Date Time, and several additional entity types.
3. Click Analyze Only to run detection. A brief loading state shows while the text is scanned for PII.
4. Review the detected entities, shown as color-coded badges grouped by type. Toggle individual entities on or off, or use Select All / Deselect All.
5. In the Configure Operators panel, each entity type defaults to Replace: every PII value is substituted with its type label in angle brackets, e.g. <PERSON>. Quick-action buttons (All Replace, All Redact, All Mask, All Hash, All Encrypt) switch every entity type at once.
6. Click Anonymize with Selected Operators to process.
7. The anonymized text appears with all PII replaced by type labels. Use Copy to Clipboard or Clear to reset.

Step by Step: Text Anonymization with Encrypt

Anonymize text using reversible encryption — each PII value is encrypted with your key and can be decrypted later via the Deanonymize feature.

1. Paste text containing personal information — same as the Replace workflow.
2. Choose General PII Detection to detect a broad range of entity types.
3. Click Analyze Only to detect all personal data entities.
4. Review the detected entities with color-coded badges — the same entity types as Replace.
5. Click All Encrypt to set every entity type to the encrypt operator, then select an encryption key from the dropdown (for example, a key you named “Production Key” using 256-bit AES). Unlike Replace, encrypt produces reversible tokens that can be decrypted later.
6. Click Anonymize with Selected Operators to encrypt all PII with the selected key.
7. The output contains reversible encrypted values: each one is a Base64 string of IV and ciphertext, for example q8vJ3kL0…==. These can be decrypted back to the original PII using the Deanonymize feature with the same encryption key.

Step by Step: File Anonymization with Replace

Drop a document file to anonymize — text is extracted, PII detected, and a new anonymized file is saved to your output folder.

1. Open the File Drop tab. The dropzone accepts PDF, DOCX, XLSX/XLS, TXT, CSV, JSON, and XML files, up to the size limits below.
2. Drop a file. It appears in a “Ready to Analyze” card with the filename, size, and the “General PII Detection” preset pre-selected. Click Start Analysis.
3. The file card shows an “Analyzing...” progress bar while text is extracted and processed by the detection engine.
4. The entity review panel lists all detected PII with color-coded badges and checkboxes; Select All / Deselect All is available, alongside the output format selector and operator configuration.
5. Configure the Replace operator for all entity types. Choose an output format — same as input, PDF, or DOCX — then click Anonymize & Save as New File.
6. The file card shows an “Anonymizing...” progress bar while the output file is reconstructed and saved.
7. A green “Complete” status shows the entity count, and the anonymized file is saved to the output folder.

Step by Step: File Anonymization with Encrypt

Encrypt PII in document files for reversible anonymization — output files contain encrypted tokens that can be decrypted later.

1. Open the File Drop tab — the same dropzone as Replace.
2. Drop a file. It appears in “Ready to Analyze” with the preset pre-selected.
3. A progress bar shows while text is extracted and PII detected.
4. Review the detected entities in the same review panel with color-coded badges.
5. Click All Encrypt to switch every entity type to the encrypt operator, then select an encryption key.
6. The file is processed with the encrypt operator and saved to the output folder.
7. The output file contains encrypted values (Base64 strings such as q8vJ3kL0…==) that can be decrypted later using the Deanonymize feature.

Supported Formats

Input: PDF, DOCX, XLSX/XLS, TXT, CSV, JSON, XML.
Output: PDF, DOCX, TXT, or the same format as the input.

File Size Limits

Format	Max Size
PDF	50 MB
TXT	50 MB
DOCX	30 MB
CSV	30 MB
JSON	30 MB
XML	30 MB
XLSX	20 MB or 100,000 rows

Image Anonymization

Detect and redact personal information directly in images. anonym.plus uses Tesseract OCR to extract text from images, then applies the same PII detection engine to find and visually redact sensitive data.

Workflow

1. Switch to Image Mode — click the Image tab in the anonymization panel
2. Upload Image — drag and drop an image file (PNG, JPG, BMP, or TIFF) or click to browse. Max: 10 MB.
3. Select Preset & Language — choose a detection preset and the OCR language matching the text in your image
4. Analyze — click Analyze to extract text via OCR and detect PII entities with bounding boxes
5. Redact — click Redact Selected to generate a new image with PII covered by colored redaction boxes
6. Download — save the redacted image as a PNG

Step by Step: Image Anonymization

Detect and redact PII in images using OCR text extraction and entity detection.

1. Open the Image tab. The dropzone accepts PNG, JPG, BMP, and TIFF images up to 10 MB.
2. Drop an image. The preview shows it with a fill color selector (black, white, red, green, blue, or gray), a detection preset (“General PII Detection”), and transform tools (rotate, flip). Click Analyze.
3. The app runs Tesseract OCR to extract text, then the PII detection engine to find entities and their positions within the image.
4. The image shows colored bounding boxes over each detected PII area, with entity type filter badges and checkboxes to choose which to redact. Click Redact Selected.
5. A loading indicator appears while the selected areas are covered with fill-color rectangles.
6. A before/after comparison shows the original image alongside the redacted version, with the entity count. Use Save to download the redacted image.

Supported Formats

PNG, JPG/JPEG, BMP, TIFF.

OCR Languages

31 languages are supported: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Maltese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Serbian (Cyrillic and Latin script), Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Urdu, and Vietnamese. Select the language matching the text in your image for the best OCR accuracy.

How It Works

1. The image is uploaded and its EXIF orientation is corrected automatically.
2. Tesseract OCR extracts text with character-level bounding boxes.
3. The PII detection engine analyzes the extracted text.
4. Bounding boxes are padded and adjacent boxes for multi-word entities are merged.
5. Redaction boxes are drawn over the detected PII regions.

Known Limitations

Issue	Detail
Photos of screens	Moiré patterns, glare, and reflections degrade OCR. Use screenshots instead.
Handwritten text	Tesseract is optimized for printed/typed text only.
Low resolution	Below 150 DPI may have poor accuracy. Use 300+ DPI for scans.
Rotated/skewed text	Text at angles greater than 15° may not extract correctly.
Complex backgrounds	Watermarks and colored backgrounds can interfere.
Very small text	Below ~8pt at the image's effective resolution may not be detected.
Multi-column layouts	OCR may mix columns in complex layouts.
NER language	Named entity recognition uses the English model. Pattern-based entities (phones, IBANs, emails) work in all languages.

Tips

• Use screenshots instead of camera photos of screens for much better results
• Select the OCR language matching the text in your image
• Ensure images are well-lit with good contrast between text and background
• For scanned documents, use 300 DPI or higher resolution
• Crop images to focus on the text area for faster processing
• EXIF orientation is applied automatically — no need to manually rotate photos

Batch Processing

Process multiple documents at once with parallel file handling. Batch mode is available for document anonymization.

Workflow

1. Drop Multiple Files — drag and drop files onto the dropzone, or click to browse and select multiple files
2. Select Preset — choose a detection preset; the same preset applies to all files in the batch
3. Start Batch Analysis — all files are extracted and analyzed in parallel for faster processing
4. Review Per File — review detected entities for each file individually; accept, reject, or modify detections
5. Save All — save all processed files to your output folder

Step by Step: Batch Processing with Replace

Process multiple files at once with the Replace operator — all PII is substituted with type labels and saved as a ZIP archive.

1. Open the Batch Mode tab. The dropzone accepts multiple files (PDF, DOCX, XLSX/XLS, TXT, CSV, JSON, XML) — up to 50 MB per file (see File Size Limits for per-format caps).
2. Drop your files. Each appears in a card with a pending status. The Batch Configuration panel shows the preset selector, operator mode, concurrency, auto-approve toggle, and export settings.
3. Review the full configuration: detection preset, Replace operator, concurrency (1–5 parallel files, default 2), Auto-Approve Entities (skips manual review for faster processing), Continue on Error, output format, and export as ZIP archive, folder, or individual files. Click Start Batch.
4. Monitor progress — each file shows a status (queued, extracting, analyzing, complete) along with elapsed time, estimated remaining time, and a running entity count. Pause and Cancel are available.
5. When complete, each file shows a green checkmark with its entity count, plus a total entity and error count.
6. Review the results summary — success rate, completed/failed counts, total entities found, and the export location. Use Export Results or start a New Batch.

Step by Step: Batch Processing with Encrypt

Process multiple files with reversible encryption — output files contain encrypted tokens that can be decrypted later.

1. Open the Batch Mode tab — the same dropzone as Replace.
2. Add your files, then select Encrypt as the operator mode. An encryption key dropdown appears.
3. Configure the batch: Encrypt operator, an encryption key (for example, a key named “Production Key” using 256-bit AES), concurrency, auto-approve, and export settings. Click Start Batch.
4. Monitor progress the same way as Replace mode.
5. When complete, every file's output contains reversible encrypted values (Base64 strings such as q8vJ3kL0…==).
6. Review the results summary — the exported files can be decrypted later using the Deanonymize feature and the same encryption key.

Limits

Parameter	Limit
Files per batch	No fixed maximum — bounded by available memory and disk space
Total batch size	Combined per-file size limits apply — see File Size Limits
Parallel processing	1–5 files processed concurrently (default 2), configurable per batch

Progress Tracking

During batch processing, each file shows its own progress indicator with status (queued, extracting, analyzing, complete). Files that fail are flagged individually without stopping the rest of the batch.

Deanonymization

Restore original PII values from anonymized documents using your encryption keys. Works with any document that was anonymized using the Encrypt operator.

Input Modes

• File Drop — drop an anonymized document (PDF, DOCX, XLSX/XLS, TXT, CSV, JSON, XML). Text is extracted and automatically matched against your history to load the correct encryption keys.
• Text Input — paste anonymized text directly. The app automatically searches your history for matching encrypted chunks and loads the correct keys — even if the surrounding text was edited.
• From History — select a previous anonymization entry. All entity positions and key mappings are loaded instantly.

Step by Step: Deanonymize from History

Restore original PII from a previously encrypted anonymization by selecting it from your processing history.

1. Click Deanonymize in the header bar. The panel shows three tabs: File Drop, Text Input, and From History.
2. Switch to the From History tab. Previously anonymized files are listed with their filename, format, entity count, preset, and a key icon if encryption was used. Click an entry to select it.
3. The encrypted text loads in the Text Input tab with its encrypted values (Base64 strings such as q8vJ3kL0…==). The encryption key selector shows the available keys, and a banner confirms how many encrypted entities were loaded.
4. Click Deanonymize to decrypt each token.
5. The restored original text appears. Copy and Download buttons are available.

Step by Step: Deanonymize via File Drop

Drop an encrypted file to automatically extract text, match it against your history, and decrypt all PII.

1. Open the File Drop tab. The dropzone accepts anonymized documents (PDF, DOCX, XLSX/XLS, TXT, CSV, JSON, XML) up to 50 MB.
2. Drop the encrypted file — its text is extracted and shown with the encrypted values (Base64 strings such as q8vJ3kL0…==) visible.
3. The app automatically searches your processing history and matches the file; a banner confirms how many encrypted entities were loaded and the correct key is selected.
4. Confirm the encryption key selection.
5. Click Deanonymize to decrypt all tokens using the matched key.
6. The restored original text appears. Copy and Download buttons are available.

How to Deanonymize

1. Switch to Deanonymize mode using the toggle in the header
2. Drop a file, paste text, or select from history — keys load automatically
3. If auto-match fails, manually select the encryption key
4. Click Deanonymize to restore original values
5. Copy or download the restored text

Encrypt → Share → Edit → Decrypt

You can encrypt a document, share it with collaborators, receive it back with edits, and still decrypt the PII:

1. Anonymize a document using the Encrypt operator with your encryption key
2. Share the anonymized document (email, cloud storage, etc.)
3. Collaborators edit the document — adding text, rewriting around encrypted chunks
4. You receive the modified document back
5. Drop it in Deanonymize → File Drop — the app auto-detects encrypted chunks
6. Click Deanonymize — all intact encrypted chunks are decrypted

Detection Presets

Pre-configured entity detection profiles for different use cases. 121 built-in presets across 7 categories: Auto-Detect, Country, Regional, Industry, Technical, Healthcare, and Financial.

Preset	Description	Threshold	Entity Types
General PII Detection	Comprehensive detection of common PII entities for general use cases with multi-language support	0.85	12
European Auto-Detect	Auto-detect European PII including GDPR-relevant identifiers across all EU languages	0.85	68
Financial Auto-Detect	High-confidence detection of financial identifiers across all languages	0.85	24
Healthcare Auto-Detect	Detect healthcare and medical PII with high confidence across languages	0.85	26
Development & Testing	Lightweight detection for development and testing environments	0.70	5

Custom Presets

Create your own presets in Settings → Presets. Select entity types, set operators, and configure confidence thresholds. Custom presets are stored in your vault.

What a threshold changes is measured, per language: detection accuracy on test documents. Above 85% detection drops in one step, and the app says so when a preset is set higher.

Custom Entities

Define your own PII entity types using regular expression patterns. Custom entities are detected alongside built-in types during anonymization.

Creating a Custom Entity

1. Open Settings → Custom Entities — navigate to the Custom Entities tab in Settings
2. Add New Entity — click “Add Custom Entity” and provide a name and regex pattern
3. Test Your Pattern — use the inline pattern tester to verify matches with real-time highlighting
4. Save — save the entity; it's now available in all presets and analyses

Pattern Guidelines

• Use standard JavaScript regex syntax (no delimiters needed)
• Patterns are validated for ReDoS safety — catastrophic backtracking patterns are rejected
• Test with real sample data using the inline tester before saving
• Use named groups (?<value>...) to capture only the relevant part of a match

Import & Export

Custom entity definitions can be exported as JSON and imported on another machine or shared with team members. This makes it easy to standardize detection rules across an organization.

Limits

Parameter	Limit
Maximum custom entities	50
Patterns per entity	10
Pattern length	500 characters
ReDoS protection	Enabled — unsafe patterns are rejected

Encryption Keys

Manage encryption keys for reversible anonymization.

• Create and store encryption keys securely in your vault
• Apply encryption to specific entity types
• Keys are stored locally — only you can decrypt

How to Use

1. Go to Settings → Encryption Keys to manage encryption keys
2. Create a new key
3. When processing, select an encryption key in the review panel
4. Anonymized data can be decrypted later using the same key

Processing History

View and manage your anonymization history.

• View all processed files with timestamps
• See entity counts and tokens used
• Copy original or anonymized text
• Use history entries for deanonymization
• History stored locally in encrypted vault

Settings

The Settings window is organized into the following sections:

Account

• Sign in with browser or ZK authentication
• View license plan and activation status
• Sign out

Preferences

• Language selection (48 languages)
• Theme (Light / Dark / System)
• Output folder configuration
• Auto-update settings

Security

• Change or set PIN (6–8 digits)
• View recovery phrase
• Vault lock settings
• Reset vault

Encryption Keys

• Create and manage encryption keys
• Set default key and entity type binding
• Rotate key values (one-time display)
• Keys stored locally in encrypted vault — values never leave your machine

Presets

• 121 built-in presets across 7 categories
• Create custom presets with entity selection
• Configure per-entity-type operators
• Set default preset for auto-selection
• Duplicate built-in presets as custom

Entities

• Enable/disable 340+ PII entity types globally
• Search and filter by entity group
• Per-group and global Enable All / Disable All

Custom Entities

• Define custom PII types with regex patterns
• Inline pattern tester with real-time highlighting
• Import/export custom entity definitions
• Max 50 custom entities, ReDoS-safe validation

Models

• Download additional language models for PII detection
• 23 spaCy-based languages available
• Check for model updates
• Delete unused models to save disk space

Advanced

• Embedded debug log viewer with cross-window log broadcasting
• Log level configuration
• Data management: export, import, delete, move vault data

About

• App version and build info
• Engine status (PII detection engine)
• Download and install updates
• Links to documentation and support

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
F1	Open help panel
Ctrl + O	Open file
Ctrl + H	Toggle history panel
Ctrl + Shift + D	Toggle debug log window
Escape	Close panels

Security

Vault Encryption

Your sensitive data is protected with military-grade encryption.

• AES-256-GCM encryption for all stored data
• Argon2id key derivation (64 MB memory, 3 iterations)
• BIP39 24-word recovery phrase
• PIN-based quick unlock for daily use
• Sensitive data zeroized from memory when locked

How Your Data is Processed

1. Files are read locally on your computer
2. Text is extracted locally — documents never leave your machine
3. PII detection runs on the local Presidio engine (bundled with the app)
4. Detected entities are anonymized locally via the Rust backend
5. Encryption keys never leave the local vault (zero-knowledge boundary)
6. Document reconstructed in original format (PDF, DOCX, XLSX, etc.)
7. Output saved to your chosen folder
8. Results stored in encrypted vault history for deanonymization

What We Never Store

Local API & MCP server (Enterprise)

The Local API is part of the Enterprise licence only — it is not included in Free, Basic, Pro or Expert and is issued by hand after a conversation with Sales. On any other plan the switch stays off, and the app re-checks the licence at every start.

Switching it on

1. Open Settings → Local API and turn the server on. It binds to the loopback interface only (127.0.0.1) — nothing on the network can reach it out of the box.
2. The page shows the port and a bearer token. The token is generated on your machine and never sent anywhere.
3. For AI tools that speak MCP (Claude Desktop, Cline and others), click Copy MCP config and paste the ready-made server entry into the host's configuration.

Every request needs

• Authorization: Bearer <token> (all routes except the liveness probe)
• X-Local-Api: 1 — a required client header on every route, including /v1/health, so a web page cannot even probe whether the server is running
• A matching Host and no cross-origin Origin; CORS is deny-by-default

REST routes (base http://127.0.0.1:<port>)

• GET /v1/health — liveness (no token) · GET /v1/ping — authenticated echo
• POST /v1/analyze — detect PII in text · POST /v1/anonymize — anonymize text · POST /v1/deanonymize — reverse a mapping
• GET /v1/entities — the entity types the engine knows
• POST /v1/analyze-image · POST /v1/redact-image — OCR-based detection and redaction on images

MCP

POST /mcp is an MCP Streamable-HTTP endpoint exposing six tools: analyze_text, anonymize_text, deanonymize_text, list_entity_types, analyze_image, redact_image. Anything else is refused. Air-gapped mode does not affect the Local API — it only blocks the app's own outgoing calls.

Troubleshooting

Common issues and their solutions.

Issue	Solution
App shows white screen	Try restarting the app. If it persists, use Delete All Local Data in Settings → Security to reset the vault.
Forgot PIN	Switch to recovery-phrase mode on the unlock screen and use your 24-word recovery phrase to unlock the vault.
Lost recovery phrase	The recovery phrase is shown only once, during vault setup, and is never stored anywhere. If it's lost, the vault's encrypted data cannot be recovered.
Files not processing	Check the file size limits (see File Size Limits) and confirm the file format is supported.
Sign in with Browser not working	Ensure your default browser allows the anonym-plus:// protocol.
Presets not loading	Check your internet connection. The app falls back to its bundled built-in presets when offline.
Image analysis returns no entities	Verify the correct OCR language is selected. Ensure the image has clear, readable text at sufficient resolution (300+ DPI for scans) — screenshots generally work better than photos of a screen.
Image redaction misses some text	OCR may struggle with handwritten text, very small fonts, skewed text, or complex backgrounds. Straighten the image and increase contrast before uploading.
Image upload fails	Check that the file is a supported format (PNG, JPG, BMP, TIFF) and under 10 MB.
'No anonymized entities found'	The text doesn't contain entity markers. The app tries to auto-match it against your history, or select the file from the “From History” tab.
'Decryption failed'	Make sure you're using the same encryption key that was used during anonymization. Verify it in Settings → Encryption Keys.
PII detection engine not running	Check the engine status in Settings → About. Restart it from Settings → Advanced (“Restart PII Engine”). Check the debug log (Ctrl+Shift+D) for details.
Custom entities not detected	Make sure the entity is enabled in Settings → Custom Entities and that its regex pattern matches the text.

Error Messages

Message	Meaning
No text content found	The file appears to be empty, or OCR found no text on its pages.
Analysis failed	Make sure the PII detection engine is running. Check Settings → About.
Extraction data not found	The file needs to be re-analyzed.
Image too large	The image exceeds the 10 MB size limit. Resize or compress it before uploading.
No text detected in image	OCR couldn't extract any text. Make sure the image has readable printed text with sufficient contrast.
No anonymized entities found	The text doesn't contain entity placeholders or recognizable encrypted chunks. Select the file from the From History tab instead.
Decryption failed	The encryption key doesn't match. Verify the correct key is selected in the key dropdown.
Encryption keys not found	The keys need to be re-imported. Go to Settings → Encryption Keys.