Bad Request
🚨 Update - October 24, 2023
We are seeing an increase in schools impacted by this error. Common App has confirmed this was due to an unexpected load from a maintenance process conducted on October 24, 2023. Additional capacity has been added and they are actively monitoring the system, but expect intermittent errors to continue for the next several hours. Cialfo will remain in regular contact with Common App to send feedback and support them for any recurring issues.
If you are affected, please reach out to Chat with Cialfo with this information:
Student's Name
Student's Common App ID
Type of Document being sent
Any urgent application deadline? If yes, please specify the university's name
✅ Update - October 30, 2023
We are no longer seeing recurring issues with this error message. We will continue to monitor the system for any anomalies. Should you encounter this error, please reach out to us with the above information immediately.
This error is showing because Common App may be experiencing an error on their system. Wait for a few minutes, then try again.
If the error persists, reach out to us through Chat with Cialfo.
Common App is experiencing an issue, please try again later.
🚨 Update - October 24, 2023
We are seeing an increase in schools impacted by this error. Common App has confirmed this was due to an unexpected load from a maintenance process conducted on October 24, 2023. Additional capacity has been added and they are actively monitoring the system, but expect intermittent errors to continue for the next several hours. Cialfo will remain in regular contact with Common App to send feedback and support them for any recurring issues.
If you are affected, please reach out to Chat with Cialfo with this information:
Student's Name
Student's Common App ID
Type of Document being sent
Any urgent application deadline? If yes, please specify the university's name
✅ Update - October 30, 2023
We are no longer seeing recurring issues with this error message. We will continue to monitor the system for any anomalies. Should you encounter this error, please reach out to us with the above information immediately.
This error is showing because Common App may be experiencing an error on their system. Wait for a few minutes, then try again.
If the error persists, reach out to us through Chat with Cialfo.
Request Timedout
🚨 Update - October 19, 2023
We are seeing an increase in schools impacted by this error. Common App has confirmed this is a technical issue occurring in their system, and they are currently working on pushing a permanent fix. Cialfo will remain in regular contact with Common App and assist them with troubleshooting until a resolution is reached.
If you are affected, please reach out to Chat with Cialfo with this information:
Student's Name
Student's Common App ID
Type of Document being sent
Any urgent application deadline? If yes, please specify the university's name
🚨 Update - October 30, 2023
We are continuing to monitor the system and stay committed to minimalizing any impact on our partner schools given the upcoming application deadlines. If you are affected, please reach out to us immediately. We are working with Common App across all time zones to resolve any affected documents on a case-by-case basis.
Common App has yet to provide a permanent resolution, and Cialfo will continue to provide full assistance to ensure a sound recovery for any school affected.
This error is showing because Common App may be experiencing an error on their system. Wait for a few minutes, then try again.
If the error persists, reach out to Chat with Cialfo.
+######### is invalid format
In the document you are trying to send, the phone number of the recommender used is deemed invalid either because it does not have a sufficient amount of digits or has been determined as a phone number that does not exist.
If you are sending a counselor document, use any of the following solutions:
If you are the Common App counselor for the student, check your Settings page to update your phone number and ensure the correct country code has been selected
If this is another counselor, have an admin go to the People page to update their phone number on their behalf
Under School Information, update the School Phone Number section
If you are sending a teacher document, apply any of the following solutions:
Inform the relevant teacher that they should go to their Settings page to update their phone number with the correct country code selected
Inform an admin to navigate to the People page to update the phone number on behalf of the teacher
Once the above has been completed, you may re-attempt sending the document.
A counselor is already invited outside of Cialfo. Please contact Common App
This error is showing because this student has already invited a counselor directly from Common App and is preventing Cialfo from linking recommenders to this student. Take the following steps to resolve this:
Reach out to the student and have them log in to Common App to cancel the recommendation request they previously made
Ensure they also check the Education section of their Common App profile that they have the correct school selected. The most accurate way for students to check this is by searching and using the school's CEEB code.
Alternatively, reach out to Common App's support team to inform them of the issue by providing the student's name and Common App ID. They will be able to assist by carrying out the removal of the recommendation request on your behalf.
Form already submitted
The document you are trying to send has already been successfully submitted to Common App. Refresh the page to check if there is a successful 'Sent' status.
Invalid answer format. Cannot validate upload file for ...
This error is showing because the document you are trying to send is deemed invalid as it does not meet the standard requirements.
👉🏻 Refer here for the Question ID List to understand which document this is
Please ensure the following conditions are met:
There must be no security or password protection settings in place
File format must be of Acrobat 5.0 (PDF 1.4) standard or lower
Once the document satisfies these requirements, please re-upload and replace the previous version before attempting to send the document again.
📣 If the error persists even after meeting all requirements, proceed to re-export the PDF from your original transcript system then re-upload and try sending it again.
Invalid answer format. Upload exceeds size limit for ...
This error is showing because the document you are trying to send is deemed invalid as the file size is too large.
👉🏻 Refer here for the Question ID List to understand which document this is
Please ensure the following:
The file size should be less than 2000kb according to Common App requirements
(Cialfo recommends less than 1900kb)
Once the document satisfies the above, please re-upload and replace the previous version before attempting to send the document again.
Invalid answer format. Validation Failed ...
This error is showing because one or more values required in the document you are trying to send is deemed invalid and does not fulfill Common App requirements.
👉🏻 Refer here for the Question ID List to understand which document this is
If this pertains to the Job Title, ensure that the Job Title listed in the profile of the teacher or counselor is limited to 60 characters and does not contain any special characters.
Invalid answer format. Value should be between [date & time]...
In the document you are trying to send, there is a date entered that is outside of and hence not relevant to the current application cycle on Common App.
💭 For example, during the 2023-2024 application cycle on Common App, any date entered on the document should be between Jan 1, 2023 and Dec 31, 2024.
Check the School Information section for the dates used in the following questions:
School Profile -- Graduation Date
GPA -- GPA Date Range
Mid-Year Report -- Approximately when are mid-year grades typically available?
Class Rank -- Rank date range (mm/yyyy)
Invitation already exists
This student has already invited a recommender directly via Common App, hence the recommender invitation that's supposed to be made from Cialfo cannot be completed.
The student will need to cancel their recommender request directly on Common App. Alternatively, counselors may write to the support team at Common App via live agent support during business hours or through their contact form all year round.
Recommender has been invited by Common App or a different partner
The email address of the counselor has already been used with Common App, likely because a student has directly invited them on Common App. Note: This can be any student, it does not have to be the same student you are sending the document for.
Once the student removes this recommender request, it will automatically unblock any obstacles in document sending. However, most of the time, information about which student made this request is not available. Use ONE of the following methods instead:
Contact Common App Support for assistance with removing the recommender request
This allows the relevant teacher or counselor to retain the email used on Cialfo as the primary recommender email for document sending with Cialfo for students of the school.
Counselors may write to them via live agent support during business hours or through their contact form all year round by providing details of the situation, and their name and email address from which recommender requests should be removed.
Retain the email used on Cialfo, and change the one used with Common App
This allows the relevant teacher or counselor to retain the email used on Cialfo as the primary recommender email for document sending with Cialfo for students of the school, and also keep a separate Common App recommender account with an alternate email.
The teacher or counselor will need to log in to their recommender account on Common App and make the necessary changes to their registered email address. Proceed to send the document again once this step is complete.
Use an alternate email address on Cialfo
This does not allow the relevant teacher or counselor to retain the email used for their Cialfo account. Typically, this is not preferred because this forces the relevant teacher or counselor to use their non-school or personal email addresses to use Cialfo from herein.
Any admin can navigate to the cDocs Recommenders page, select the relevant teacher or counselor, then update the email used to 'Create [a new] Recommender ID'. Once complete, attempt to send the document again.
Secondary School Report must be submitted first.
The Common App School Report needs to be submitted before you can send the next document. If you have already sent it, refresh the page until you see a successful 'Sent' status before proceeding to send your next document.
Your email address could not be successfully linked to Common App
Please ensure that the email you have provided in Cialfo has not been used elsewhere for Common App. An example of this is linking a Cialfo student’s account to Common App using the same email.
This error is showing because the email of the recommender* of the document you are trying to send is already registered on Common App.
*If Counselor A is trying to send Teacher X's evaluation and recommendation letter, this error points out that the email of Teacher X is already registered on Common App, it does not refer to Counselor A in any way. Note: This is a common mistake.
This could mean either one of the following scenarios:
The recommender has already used their email to register for a student, recommender, or advisor account on Common App
For this scenario, the recommender will need to log in to their Common App account (whichever it is) to change their email to a different one than the one used with Cialfo.
Once the email change is successful, return to Cialfo and attempt to resend the document again. Note: The error does not disappear automatically.
One or more students have invited the recommender directly on Common App to request a recommendation
Note that this could be any student and does not necessarily mean that it is the student you are trying to send the document for. In this case, contact Common App's support team here by providing them the recommender's email address in order for them to remove any recommendation request on your behalf.
Prevent future occurrences by letting your teachers know they should provide alternative (non-school) email addresses if past students or students outside of your school would like to invite them to write recommendations on Common App directly.