> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://elephas.app/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Why Elephas Says an Answer Isn't in Your Documents

> Elephas answers only from the documents you choose and never browses the web. Learn why it says it found nothing, and how to rephrase, rescope or add sources.

Elephas answers only from the documents you chose for the question. If the passages it finds don't support an answer, it tells you so instead of guessing or filling the gap from the internet. That is the point of a knowledge workspace: an answer you can trace to your own files, or an honest "not found".

## Before you start

Look at the chips in the question box. They are the only places Elephas searched. If the file you had in mind is in another Brain, it was not part of the question.

## What you might see

| Message | What it means |
| - | - |
| **I did not find a matching indexed occurrence.** | The search found no passage that matches. |
| **The available evidence does not support that conclusion.** | Elephas found related passages, but they don't support the answer you asked for. |
| **Elephas could not read this source location.** | The page or section you asked about has no readable text, for example a scanned page without text recognition. |
| **I could not uniquely identify the file/location.** | Your question names a file or place that matches several documents, or none. |
| **This scope holds no documents, so an answer would have nothing to cite.** | The chosen Brains are empty. Shown before you ask. |
| **The answer couldn't be fully supported by your sources after one revision, so it wasn't shown.** | Elephas wrote an answer, checked it against your documents, and it didn't hold up. |
| **Partial answer** | Everything shown was checked against your sources, but some of what you asked couldn't be. |

The line above an answer can also say **No indexed match in 4 documents**, or that a document **has only 12 pages** when you asked about page 30.

## Steps

<Steps>
  <Step title="Check what was searched">
    Open the Sources panel (⌥⌘I on Mac, Ctrl+Alt+I on Windows). Under the line, it lists documents that were searched and **not used**, and any that **couldn't be read**. If the right file isn't listed at all, it wasn't in scope. See [Check every answer with citations](/docs/ask/citations-and-sources).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose the right Brains or files">
    Click **Choose Brains & files** and tick the Brain that holds the answer, or pick the exact document. See [Ask about specific documents only](/docs/ask/ask-specific-documents).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Make sure the files are ready">
    Open the Brain. A document that still shows **Indexing…** can't be searched yet, and one marked **Couldn't be read** never will be until the problem is fixed. See [File import errors](/docs/troubleshooting/file-import-errors).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Rephrase with your document's words">
    Use the terms your documents use. "Termination notice period" finds more in a lease than "how do I get out of this". Name the file, the page or the section if you know it: "What does page 4 of the lease say about notice?" See [Tips for better answers](/docs/ask/tips-for-better-answers).
  </Step>

  <Step title="Add the source">
    If the answer is in a file, web page or note you haven't added, add it to a Brain and ask again. See [Add files and folders](/docs/brains-and-documents/add-files-and-folders) and [Add web pages](/docs/brains-and-documents/add-web-pages).
  </Step>
</Steps>

Click **Try again** under the answer to ask the same question again after you change the scope.

## How it works

* **Ask never browses the web.** It reads only the documents in scope, and only text that Elephas could extract from them. It never uses content from Brains you did not choose.
* **"Not found" is about the search, not the whole document.** For most questions Elephas searches its index and reads the passages that match best. A miss means that search didn't find support. It is not proof the document never mentions the subject. When you ask for every mention ("find all references to the indemnity clause"), Elephas searches exhaustively and tells you how much it covered, including any pages it couldn't read.
* **Unreadable pages are reported, not skipped silently.** Scanned pages without text, failed pages and empty pages are counted as unreadable. See [Scanned PDFs and images](/docs/brains-and-documents/scanned-pdfs-and-images-ocr).
* **Elephas is not a general chatbot.** It doesn't answer questions about the world from its own training. For "What's the capital of Peru?", use a general AI tool. For "What did our board minutes decide about Peru?", use Elephas.

## Troubleshooting

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="The file is in scope but Elephas still finds nothing">
    The text may not have been extracted. A scanned PDF needs text recognition, and a password-protected PDF can't be read until it's unlocked. See [Scanned PDFs and images](/docs/brains-and-documents/scanned-pdfs-and-images-ocr) and [Password-protected PDFs](/docs/brains-and-documents/password-protected-pdfs).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Ask says the search stopped making progress">
    The full message is **The search stopped making progress. Try rephrasing the question or narrowing the sources.** Ask a more specific question, or pick the documents that matter.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Ask says this question needs your documents">
    The message **This question needs your documents. Select a Brain or documents, then ask again.** means nothing was in scope. Choose a Brain in **Choose Brains & files**.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related articles

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Tips for better answers" href="/docs/ask/tips-for-better-answers" />

  <Card title="Check every answer with citations" href="/docs/ask/citations-and-sources" />

  <Card title="Ask about specific documents only" href="/docs/ask/ask-specific-documents" />

  <Card title="Supported file types" href="/docs/brains-and-documents/supported-file-types" />
</CardGroup>


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