docusealco/docuseal · error · Pdfium::PdfiumError

Failed to remove page object

Error message

Failed to remove page object

What it means

Raised by remove_page_object when FPDFPage_RemoveObject returns 0: pdfium declined to detach the object from the page, which happens when the object is not owned by that page, was already removed, or the page's object list is in an unexpected state. It is reached from the redaction paths (remove_redacted_chars, remove_blank_text_objects, unwrap_form_objects) that collected object pointers before other edits may have invalidated them.

Source

Thrown at lib/pdfium.rb:1396

                                         char[:origin_x], char[:origin_y]])

        Pdfium.FPDFPageObj_SetMatrix(new_object, matrix_ptr)
        Pdfium.FPDFPage_InsertObject(@page_ptr, new_object)
      end
    end

    def reset_memoization
      remove_instance_variable(:@text) if defined?(@text)

      @text_nodes = nil
      @text_objects = nil
      @line_nodes = nil
      @annotations = nil
      @objects = nil
    end

    def remove_page_object(object_ptr)
      raise PdfiumError, 'Failed to remove page object' if Pdfium.FPDFPage_RemoveObject(@page_ptr, object_ptr).zero?

      Pdfium.FPDFPageObj_Destroy(object_ptr)
    end

    def draw_redaction_rects(rect_bounds)
      rect_bounds.each do |left, bottom, right, top, color|
        next if color == 'white'

        rect_object = Pdfium.FPDFPageObj_CreateNewRect(left, bottom, right - left, top - bottom)

        raise PdfiumError, 'Failed to create redaction rect' if rect_object.null?

        Pdfium.FPDFPageObj_SetFillColor(rect_object, 0, 0, 0, 255)
        Pdfium.FPDFPath_SetDrawMode(rect_object, 1, 0)
        Pdfium.FPDFPage_InsertObject(@page_ptr, rect_object)
      end
    end

View on GitHub (pinned to 004a22c1c8)

Solutions

1. Re-open the original document and apply the redaction in a single pass
2. Merge overlapping/adjacent redaction rects for the same region before calling redact
3. Update libpdfium
4. If patching call sites, skip already-removed objects instead of failing the page

Example fix

# before
rects = raw_rects # overlapping rects hit the same text objects twice
page.redact(rects)

# after - merge overlaps first to avoid double-removal of objects
merged = merge_overlaps(raw_rects)
page.redact(merged)

begin
  page.redact(rects)
rescue Pdfium::PdfiumError => e
  raise unless e.message == 'Failed to remove page object'
  merged = merge_overlapping_rects(rects)
  Pdfium::Document.open_bytes(@original_bytes) { |d| d.get_page(page.page_index).redact(merged) }
end

When it happens

Trigger: An object pointer collected in an earlier pass is removed again after the page changed; objects shared or cloned across pages after form unwrapping; a stale pointer following a failed FPDFPage_GenerateContent.

Common situations: Redacting pages where one text object overlaps multiple redaction rects; multi-step edits where earlier steps already restructured the object list.

Related errors

• Failed to unwrap form object
• Failed to get image matrix
• Failed to generate page content
• Failed to load text page
• Failed to create redaction rect

AI-assisted analysis of docusealco/docuseal@004a22c1c8 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/a208985f5f2828a1. Report an issue: GitHub.