Error while opening document from bytes 'bad allocation'

Updated:June 22, 2025

Processing large PDF documents can be crucial for some businesses.

When using IronPDF to load an existing PDF file, IronPDF allocates a portion of memory to store the loaded PDF. Applications running on 32-bit have a memory limit of 2 GB per process. Loading a PDF file larger than 500 MB can exceed this limitation, resulting in a 'bad allocation' exception.

Exception message:

IronPdf.Exceptions.IronPdfNativeException: 'Error while opening document from bytes: 'bad allocation'.

Solution

To solve this, please set the application to run on 64-bit. This allows the application to access a larger memory space, avoiding the 'bad allocation' error. Follow these steps to configure your Visual Studio project to target a 64-bit platform:

// Open your project in Visual Studio
// In the Solution Explorer, right-click on your project and select 'Properties'

// Navigate to the 'Build' tab

// Select 'x64' from the 'Platform target' dropdown
<PropertyGroup>
  <PlatformTarget>x64</PlatformTarget>
</PropertyGroup>

// Save your changes and rebuild the project

// Open your project in Visual Studio
// In the Solution Explorer, right-click on your project and select 'Properties'

// Navigate to the 'Build' tab

// Select 'x64' from the 'Platform target' dropdown
<PropertyGroup>
  <PlatformTarget>x64</PlatformTarget>
</PropertyGroup>

// Save your changes and rebuild the project

' Open your project in Visual Studio
' In the Solution Explorer, right-click on your project and select 'Properties'

' Navigate to the 'Build' tab

' Select 'x64' from the 'Platform target' dropdown
(Of PropertyGroup) (Of PlatformTarget) x64</PlatformTarget> </PropertyGroup>

' Save your changes and rebuild the project

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By setting the platform target to x64, the application can utilize the expanded memory capacity of a 64-bit system, thereby preventing memory allocation issues related to large PDF files.

Chaknith Bin

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Software Engineer

Chaknith works on IronXL and IronBarcode. He has deep expertise in C# and .NET, helping improve the software and support customers. His insights from user interactions contribute to better products, documentation, and overall experience.