Troubleshooting content inspection errors

This article provides a list of content inspection statuses and their meanings.

Content inspection status

The table lists each content inspection status and its description.

Content inspection status	Description
Completed	The content inspection completed successfully.
Not applicable	Content inspection wasn't applicable for this file. This status might appear because no policy requires content inspection of this file or because the file type isn't supported.
Pending	The file is currently in the content inspection queue.
Failed: Download error	Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps couldn't download the file for inspection.
Failed: File is encrypted	The file couldn't be decrypted.
Failed: File is corrupted	The file is corrupted in some way and couldn't be inspected.
Failed: Internal error	Something undetermined went wrong when trying to inspect the file.
Failed: File size exceeded	The file exceeded the maximum file size of 30 MB.
Failed: File is too long and was partially scanned	The file exceeded the maximum of 1 million characters. For the part of the content that was scanned, relevant policy matches were applied.
Failed: File access denied	The file is external to your cloud and couldn't be accessed by Defender for Cloud Apps.
Failed: File was deleted	The file no longer exists in your cloud and couldn't be inspected.
Failed: Unsupported file type	Defender for Cloud Apps can't perform content inspection on this file type. This status may appear because the file type isn't supported or because the file isn't actually in the format of the expected file type.

Note

If you see a dash in the scan status, this means that the file is not queued to be scanned. See File policies for information on setting content inspection policies.

Next steps

Best practices for protecting your organization

If you run into any problems, we're here to help. To get assistance or support for your product issue, please open a support ticket.