A doc that was on a transaction yesterday and isn't today was almost always deleted, unassigned, filed in a permission category you can't see, or never finished uploading. Here's how to tell which.
Start with the Transaction's Activity History
Every upload, unassignment, and deletion on a transaction is recorded with who did it and when, so the history settles most of these in under a minute.
Watch the Action column. Only rows reading Uploaded are actual document uploads — a row reading Checked is a completed checklist task, which is the single most common thing mistaken for a missing doc. If there's no upload entry for the file at all, it never made it into Pipeline.
Pipeline records every change on a transaction — search that history by action, person, or date.
See Activity History
The Doc Was Deleted
If the history shows a deletion, the doc is on the transaction's Deleted Docs page waiting to be pulled back. Click [Deleted Docs] in the transaction's left menu, find the file, and download it.
One thing to know before you conclude it isn't there: unless you're a master admin, that page only shows the docs you deleted yourself. If a colleague deleted it, ask a master admin to look.
The Doc Was Unassigned
Unassigning is not deleting. An unassigned doc goes back to Unassigned Docs and keeps the transaction's location, so anyone with View All Transactions and Assign Docs in that location can see it sitting there. Check Unassigned Docs and assign it back to the transaction.
The Doc Is in a Permission Category You Can't See
This one has a tell: the doc is nowhere in your list, but re-uploading it throws a duplicate-doc error. That means the file is still on the transaction, filed in a doc permission category your role doesn't include.
Ask an admin with access to that category, or a master admin, to take a look — master admins see every category. If a master admin doesn't see the doc either, it genuinely isn't on the transaction.
To get access sorted out, see how doc permission categories decide who sees what.
Permissions decide what a user can do with documents: upload them, assign them, review them, delete them — and the category set on each doc decides who can see it.
The Upload Never Finished
If the history shows no upload, no unassignment, and no deletion, the file never landed. Uploads can be interrupted by a closed tab, a dropped connection, or navigating away before the upload confirms. Upload it again and wait for the confirmation before leaving the page.
Still Stuck?
Email us at help@paperlesspipeline.com with the transaction name, the doc name, and roughly when you last saw it — and mention what you already checked so we can pick up from there.
Learn More
Download a deleted doc back out of Deleted Docs, then upload it again — that's the whole recovery, and you can do it without emailing us.
See Doc Recovery
Delete a doc and it doesn't vanish. It lands in Deleted Docs, where it stays for a year with a record of who removed it and when.
See Deleted Docs