OfficeConversion_Fatal Error trying to convert pptx to pdf with more than 100 pages via Graph API

Question

Dear Sir or Madam, There is an error appearing from converting pptx to pdf from o365 office via Graph API. We use a sharepoint from which we can read data via an o365 app registration. The error appears with documents starting form > 100 pages. The document which failed had 170 slides of the size 19,4 MB. Setting up a timeout for the request did not solve the problem. Please, see the attached code and the error message:

 

```

url = f"https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/{sharepoint_id}/drive/items/{document_id}/content?format=pdf"

headers = {'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + access_token}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)#, timeout = 10) # in minutes, default 30 sec

 

if response.ok:

    content_stream = BytesIO(response.content)

else:

   print("Failed to retrieve document:", response.status_code)

   print(response.content)

   content_stream = None

```

The error message is:

```

Failed to retrieve document: status code 500 

b'{"error":{\r\n  "code": "generalException",\r\n  "message": "Error from Office Service. Url=https://euc.pptcs.officeapps.live.com/document/export/pdf HttpCode=InternalServerError cert=subject:;thumbprint: ResponseHeaders=X-ErrorCode: Service_Timeout\r\nX-ErrorCategory: Fatal\r\nX-IsRetriable: False\r\nX-FileDownloadTimeInMs: 1439.3197\r\nX-ClientCorrelationId: 06524ba1-f01a-0000-1ec4-6e5e55678cec\r\nX-ServiceCorrelationId: 06524ba1-f01a-0000-1ec4-6e5e55678cec\r\nX-ConversionTimeInMs: 28111\r\nCache-Control: private\r\nDate: Fri, 30 Aug 2024 11:03:04 GMT\r\nETag: ce20b453b92a5c7fd1763d507747c787d4220f5c2a782dbef02f35059f20b1de\r\nServer: Microsoft-IIS/10.0\r\nX-AspNet-Version: 4.0.30319\r\nX-Powered-By: ASP.NET\r\n",\r\n  "innererror": {\r\n    "code": "OfficeConversion_Fatal"\r\n  }\r\n}}'

```

I have also tried using Graph SDK and it returned the same status_code:

```

from msgraph import GraphServiceClient

from msgraph.generated.drives.item.items.item.content.content_request_builder import ContentRequestBuilder

from kiota_abstractions.base_request_configuration import RequestConfiguration

 

query_params = ContentRequestBuilder.ContentRequestBuilderGetQueryParameters(

format = "pdf",

)

 

request_configuration = RequestConfiguration(

query_parameters = query_params,

)

result = await graph_client.drives.by_drive_id(drive_id).items.by_drive_item_id(document_id).content.get(request_configuration = request_configuration)

```

Output:

```

APIError Code: 500  message: None  error: MainError(additional_data={'innererror': {'code': 'OfficeConversion_Fatal'}}, code='generalException', details=None, inner_error=None, message='Error from Office Service. Url=https://euc.pptcs.officeapps.live.com/document/export/pdf HttpCode=InternalServerError cert=subject:;thumbprint: ResponseHeaders=X-ErrorCode: Service_Timeout\r\nX-ErrorCategory: Fatal\r\nX-IsRetriable: False\r\nX-FileDownloadTimeInMs: 1531.2778\r\nX-ClientCorrelationId: 21524ba1-f036-0000-1ee9-fc1fb99d1922\r\nX-ServiceCorrelationId: 21524ba1-f036-0000-1ee9-fc1fb99d1922\r\nX-ConversionTimeInMs: 28136\r\nCache-Control: private\r\nDate: Fri, 30 Aug 2024 11:04:56 GMT\r\nETag: 2a0def08fe76865e45d6f5d4f3227822036da8ccfb5beee8002cb72bc182f4d0\r\nServer: Microsoft-IIS/10.0\r\nX-AspNet-Version: 4.0.30319\r\nX-Powered-By: ASP.NET\r\n', target=None)

```

Best regards, 

Maryna

Answer 1

API Error500 is probably caused by the pptx file being too large, the backend server is under too much pressure to process data. For the large file (size greater than 4MB), it is not recommended to use Graph API to convert format.

As a workaround, open the pptx file in the browser, click the File tab -> Export -> Download as PDF.

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