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office_unavailable

HTTP 503 · code: "office_unavailable" · type: https://docs.formfeed.dev/errors/office-unavailable

The converter that turns Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents into PDFs is busy or not reachable right now. Formfeed already tried again within the 60 seconds a conversion has. The answer carries Retry-After (5 seconds). It happens on /pdf/convert and when a Word or PowerPoint template is rendered. Nothing was charged.

Example​

{
  "type": "https://docs.formfeed.dev/errors/office-unavailable",
  "title": "Office conversion unavailable",
  "status": 503,
  "detail": "The office converter is busy; retry shortly",
  "code": "office_unavailable",
  "request_id": "req_4b7c1e9a2f3d4c5b8a6e7f9012"
}

A synchronous render of a template also carries its render_id.

Common causes​

  • Many conversions at the same time in your region. Each document is converted on its own, so bursts queue up.
  • The converter restarting after an update (The office converter is not reachable; retry shortly).
  • A Word or PowerPoint template with WebP, GIF or AVIF pictures, which need the browser to be drawn, when no browser slot was free (No browser slot was free to draw the document's pictures).

How to fix it​

  • Retry after the number of seconds in the Retry-After header, with the same Idempotency-Key.
  • Spread large numbers of conversions over time, or send template renders async or as a batch: the queue retries this failure by itself, 5 and then 10 seconds later. When all three attempts fail, the render fails as worker_exhausted with this message.

Retry?​

Yes, after the seconds in Retry-After, with the same Idempotency-Key; answers of 503 are not stored under the key. The SDKs do this for you.