Troubleshooting
What to do if the app won't open, a PDF won't open, your documents don't come back, or compression shrinks a file less than expected.
The app won’t open or gets stuck on the loading screen
- Deste draws its interface with WebGL and runs on WebAssembly. If hardware acceleration is off in your browser or WebGL is blocked, it won’t open. Check that hardware acceleration is turned on in your browser’s settings.
- Try a current version of Chrome or Edge. Firefox and Safari (iPhone, iPad) haven’t been tested enough yet.
- Reload the page. If the connection dropped while loading, some of the app’s files may not have downloaded.
- If you see a code such as E_PANIC in an error message, send that line and the version line from Settings → About to info@destepdf.com.
A PDF won’t open
Look at the code in the status line:
| Code | Meaning | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| E_PASSWORD | The PDF is password-protected. | It can’t be opened for now; use a copy without a password. |
| E_FORMAT / E_FILE | The file is damaged or isn’t a PDF. | Open the file in another viewer and save it again. |
| E_NO_PAGES | The PDF has no pages. | — |
| E_FILE_SIZE | The file is over the 250 MB limit. | Split the file, or shrink it with a desktop program first. |
| E_BUDGET | The open documents add up to more than 400 MB. | Remove some documents or reload the page. |
Supported image formats are PNG, JPG, WebP, BMP, GIF and AVIF.
On a phone, “Add Files” only opens the camera or gallery
In the current version, Add Files opens the phone’s file picker. If you still see only the camera or gallery, reload the page; the browser may be keeping an old version in its cache.
I reopened the tab and my documents are gone
- If Settings → Keep history in this browser is set to Off, nothing is stored.
- The document’s period may have ended, or it may have been deleted from History. The status line tells you how many documents are no longer available.
- If you opened the site in a private window or a different browser, that window has its own, empty storage.
- Clearing the browser’s site data also deletes the history. When the disk fills up, the browser may clear this storage on its own.
Compression didn’t shrink the file much
Deste’s compression works best on scanned documents. In a PDF full of photos that are already compressed, or in a document that’s mostly vector text, the gain may be small. Try a higher level (Strong, Extreme) or Advanced → Grayscale. Details: PDF compression.
I clicked a page and the preview opened on a different page
The preview sometimes shows the right page number but opens on the first page; this is a known bug and will be fixed. In the meantime, go to the page you want with the ‹ › buttons or from the strip on the left.
Dark mode or the language resets every time I open the site
In the web version these two choices aren’t saved yet; reloading the page returns them to the defaults.
If it’s still not solved
Write to info@destepdf.com. Include your browser’s name, the version line from Settings → About and, if possible, a screenshot. There’s no need to send your document; please don’t.