Microsoft Online OCR (Computer Vision) does not work

One of the OCR options you can choose in the General Configuration is Microsoft Online OCR (Computer Vision API).

This is an online service from Microsoft available via Microsoft Azure. At this moment (2018/09) it's free to sign up, but pricing for the services is subject to change. Some APIs have limited free usage.

Troubleshooting

One of the reasons this OCR option does not work in Print&Share, could be because the subscription keys were not added in Print&Share.

Subscription keys are missing

Obtaining subscription keys

To be able to use the Microsoft Online OCR (Computer Vision API) you need to have subscription keys.

  1. Go to https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-services/ and follow the steps.
    At this moment (2018/09) you can subscribe for free. It is possible that Microsoft asks for credit card and billing information when creating an account for their verification process.
  2. To verify that you successfully obtained an API key, visit https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/try/cognitive-services/my-apis/.

Using the subscription keys

  1. Go to the Print&Share [General Configuration]
  2. Select the [General settings] tab
  3. At the [Use OCR...] option select [Microsoft Online OCR (Computer Vision)]
  4. Click the gear-icon to open the Options-dialog.
  5. In this dialog you can fill in the [Microsoft API key] that you obtained.
    (In case you forgot this information, visit: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/try/cognitive-services/my-apis/

Microsoft Online OCR (Computer Vision) stopped working

There could be several reasons why this stopped working. We give you a little help with the most frequent reasons:

  • Internet connection was lost. The OCR service needs an active internet connection.
  • You reached your (free) (Azure) subscription limit.
  • Your (Microsoft Azure) Region changed. Subscription keys are only valid for a specific region (e.g. West US, West Europe, Southeast Asia,...)
  • The terms and conditions or pricing of the service was subject to change.

See also

🏷 ocr