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Marking.ai Help Centre

Combined PDF wasn't split correctly

Marking.ai’s automatic split for combined PDFs works well in most cases — but messy scans, missing page breaks, or unusual layouts can trip it up. Here’s how to recover.

Step 1: review the splits manually

The split-review panel lets you adjust each detected submission. From the Combined upload flow:

  • Adjust the page range for each submission to match where one student ends and the next begins
  • Edit the student name if the wrong name was extracted
  • Add a missing submission if Marking.ai didn’t detect a split
  • Remove an extra submission if it detected one that doesn’t exist

See Combined PDFs (multiple students in one file) for the full review flow.

Step 2: re-run detection on a cleaner file

If the PDF was scanned at low resolution or has unclear page breaks, a cleaner version often gets a much better auto-split. Try:

  • Re-scanning at higher resolution
  • Adding a blank page between students
  • Adding a clear name on the first page of each student’s section

Step 3: switch to Individual mode

If the combined file is too messy to auto-split reliably, give up on combined mode and:

  1. Cancel the combined upload
  2. Switch the upload mode to Individual
  3. Either upload each student’s file separately, or split the PDF yourself (most PDF tools have a split function) before uploading

Step 4: ask for help

For combined files that consistently won’t split well, drop us a line at connect@marking.ai with the file — we can take a look and either help directly or improve the detection over time.

Need help?

Click the chat icon in the app or email connect@marking.ai.

FAQs

Will I be charged for the bad splits?

No — you only pay for submissions that successfully mark. If a split was wrong and you fix it before marking, no charge.

Can I un-split a combined PDF after marking?

Not directly. Delete the bad-split submissions and try again from a clean upload.

My PDF has 30 students and Marking.ai only detected 25 — what now?

Use the review panel to add the missing five manually, or re-upload a version with clearer page breaks.