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What to Do When Files in the Import Folder Don’t Show Up

Sometimes you drop documents into your Import folder, but nothing appears in the Paperless dashboard. This usually isn’t a bug — it’s just how Paperless watches for new files. Here’s a quick guide to diagnose and fix it.

Paperless watches the import folder using inotify, which only reacts to new events:

  • a file is created

  • a file is modified

  • a file is moved into the folder

If the files were already in the folder before Paperless started watching, no event fires — so Paperless never notices them.

  1. Make sure the files are visible inside the container by running following command inside a VM
docker exec -it paperless-webserver-1 ls -l /usr/src/paperless/consume
  1. Trigger Paperless to Notice Files by running touch command
sudo touch /mnt/nas/Import/*.pdf
  1. Also, it might be optional but good idea to restart webserver 
docker restart paperless-webserver-1

 

Premissions matter. If paperlerless can't write to the folder, imports will fail. To check permissions:

docker exec -it paperless-webserver-1 touch /usr/src/paperless/consume/test.txt

 

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