diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index e90429573..f11a6770e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 * **Treat YAML files as text.** Adds YAML MIME types to the file detection code and treats those
   files as text.
 * **Fix FSSpec destination connectors check_connection.** FSSpec destination connectors did not use `check_connection`. There was an error when trying to `ls` destination directory - it may not exist at the moment of connector creation. Now `check_connection` calls `ls` on bucket root and this method is called on `initialize` of destination connector.
+* **Handle common incorrect arguments for `languages` and `ocr_languages`** Users are regularly receiving errors on the API because they are defining `ocr_languages` or `languages` with additional quotationmarks, brackets, and similar mistakes. This update handles common incorrect arguments and raises an appropriate warning.
 * **Fix databricks-volumes extra location.** `setup.py` is currently pointing to the wrong location for the databricks-volumes extra requirements. This results in errors when trying to build the wheel for unstructured. This change updates to point to the correct path.
 * **Fix uploading None values to Chroma and Pinecone.** Removes keys with None values with Pinecone and Chroma destinations. Pins Pinecone dependency
 * **Update documentation.** (i) best practice for table extration by using 'skip_infer_table_types' param, instead of 'pdf_infer_table_structure', and (ii) fixed CSS, RST issues and typo in the documentation.
diff --git a/docs/source/core/partition.rst b/docs/source/core/partition.rst
index c39357b42..3c897822b 100644
--- a/docs/source/core/partition.rst
+++ b/docs/source/core/partition.rst
@@ -404,8 +404,8 @@ The ``partition_image`` function has the same API as ``partition_pdf``, which is
 The only difference is that ``partition_image`` does not need to convert a PDF to an image
 prior to processing. The ``partition_image`` function supports ``.png`` and ``.jpg`` files.
 
-You can also specify what languages to use for OCR with the ``ocr_languages`` kwarg. For example,
-use ``ocr_languages="eng+deu"`` to use the English and German language packs. See the
+You can also specify what languages to use for OCR with the ``languages`` kwarg. For example,
+use ``languages=["eng", "deu"]`` to use the English and German language packs. See the
 `Tesseract documentation <https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata>`_ for a full list of languages and
 install instructions.
 
@@ -420,7 +420,7 @@ Examples:
   elements = partition_image("example-docs/layout-parser-paper-fast.jpg")
 
   # Applies the English and Swedish language pack for ocr
-  elements = partition_image("example-docs/layout-parser-paper-fast.jpg", ocr_languages="eng+swe")
+  elements = partition_image("example-docs/layout-parser-paper-fast.jpg", languages=["eng", "swe"])
 
 
 The ``strategy`` kwarg controls the method that will be used to process the PDF.
@@ -449,7 +449,7 @@ have the Korean language pack for Tesseract installed on your system.
   from unstructured.partition.image import partition_image
 
   filename = "example-docs/english-and-korean.png"
-  elements = partition_image(filename=filename, ocr_languages="eng+kor", strategy="ocr_only")
+  elements = partition_image(filename=filename, languages=["eng", "kor"], strategy="ocr_only")
 
 For more information about the ``partition_image`` function, you can check the `source code here <https://github.com/Unstructured-IO/unstructured/blob/a583d47b841bdd426b9058b7c34f6aa3ed8de152/unstructured/partition/image.py>`__.
 
@@ -604,8 +604,8 @@ If you set the URL, ``partition_pdf`` will make a call to a remote inference ser
 ``partition_pdf`` also includes a ``token`` function that allows you to pass in an authentication
 token for a remote API call.
 
-You can also specify what languages to use for OCR with the ``ocr_languages`` kwarg. For example,
-use ``ocr_languages="eng+deu"`` to use the English and German language packs. See the
+You can also specify what languages to use for OCR with the ``languages`` kwarg. For example,
+use ``languages=["eng", "deu"]`` to use the English and German language packs. See the
 `Tesseract documentation <https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tessdata>`_ for a full list of languages and
 install instructions. OCR is only applied if the text is not already available in the PDF document.
 
@@ -620,7 +620,7 @@ Examples:
 
   # Applies the English and Swedish language pack for ocr. OCR is only applied
   # if the text is not available in the PDF.
-  elements = partition_pdf("example-docs/layout-parser-paper-fast.pdf", ocr_languages="eng+swe")
+  elements = partition_pdf("example-docs/layout-parser-paper-fast.pdf", languages=["eng", "swe"])
 
 
 The ``strategy`` kwarg controls the method that will be used to process the PDF.
@@ -859,7 +859,7 @@ type for the file. If you do not explicitly pass it, the MIME type will be infer
     elements = partition_via_api(file=f, metadata_filename=filename, api_key="MY_API_KEY")
 
 
-You can pass additional settings such as ``strategy``, ``ocr_languages`` and ``encoding`` to the
+You can pass additional settings such as ``strategy``, ``languages`` and ``encoding`` to the
 API through optional kwargs. These options get added to the request body when the
 API is called.
 See `the API documentation <https://api.unstructured.io/general/docs>`_ for a full list of
diff --git a/test_unstructured/partition/pdf_image/test_pdf.py b/test_unstructured/partition/pdf_image/test_pdf.py
index 73183477f..7ef71a872 100644
--- a/test_unstructured/partition/pdf_image/test_pdf.py
+++ b/test_unstructured/partition/pdf_image/test_pdf.py
@@ -745,14 +745,6 @@ def test_partition_pdf_warns_with_ocr_languages(caplog):
     assert "The ocr_languages kwarg will be deprecated" in caplog.text
 
 
-def test_partition_pdf_or_image_warns_with_ocr_languages(caplog):
-    filename = example_doc_path("DA-1p.pdf")
-    pdf.partition_pdf_or_image(
-        filename=filename, strategy=PartitionStrategy.HI_RES, ocr_languages="eng"
-    )
-    assert "The ocr_languages kwarg will be deprecated" in caplog.text
-
-
 def test_partition_categorization_backup():
     text = "This is Clearly a Title"
     with mock.patch.object(pdf, "_partition_pdf_or_image_local", return_value=[Text(text)]):
diff --git a/test_unstructured/partition/test_lang.py b/test_unstructured/partition/test_lang.py
index c262a7c7a..e8bb5fedf 100644
--- a/test_unstructured/partition/test_lang.py
+++ b/test_unstructured/partition/test_lang.py
@@ -1,3 +1,13 @@
+# pyright: reportPrivateUsage=false
+
+"""Unit-test suite for the `unstructured.partition.lang` module."""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import os
+import pathlib
+from typing import Union
+
 import pytest
 
 from unstructured.documents.elements import (
@@ -8,10 +18,14 @@ from unstructured.partition.lang import (
     _clean_ocr_languages_arg,
     _convert_language_code_to_pytesseract_lang_code,
     apply_lang_metadata,
+    check_language_args,
     detect_languages,
     prepare_languages_for_tesseract,
 )
 
+DIRECTORY = pathlib.Path(__file__).parent.resolve()
+EXAMPLE_DOCS_DIRECTORY = os.path.join(DIRECTORY, "..", "..", "example-docs")
+
 
 def test_prepare_languages_for_tesseract_with_one_language():
     languages = ["en"]
@@ -146,3 +160,87 @@ def test_clean_ocr_languages_arg(input_ocr_langs, expected):
 def test_detect_languages_handles_spelled_out_languages():
     languages = detect_languages(text="Sample text longer than 5 words.", languages=["Spanish"])
     assert languages == ["spa"]
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ("languages", "ocr_languages", "expected_langs"),
+    [
+        (["spa"], "deu", ["spa"]),
+        (["spanish"], "english", ["spa"]),
+        (["spa"], "[deu]", ["spa"]),
+        (["spa"], '"deu"', ["spa"]),
+        (["spa"], ["deu"], ["spa"]),
+        (["spa"], ["[deu]"], ["spa"]),
+        (["spa+deu"], "eng+deu", ["spa", "deu"]),
+    ],
+)
+def test_check_language_args_uses_languages_when_ocr_languages_and_languages_are_both_defined(
+    languages: Union[list[str], str],
+    ocr_languages: Union[list[str], str, None],
+    expected_langs: list[str],
+    caplog,
+):
+    returned_langs = check_language_args(languages=languages, ocr_languages=ocr_languages)
+    for lang in returned_langs:  # type: ignore
+        assert lang in expected_langs
+        assert "ocr_languages" in caplog.text
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ("languages", "ocr_languages", "expected_langs"),
+    [
+        # raise warning and use `ocr_languages` when `languages` is empty or None
+        ([], "deu", ["deu"]),
+        ([""], '"deu"', ["deu"]),
+        ([""], "deu", ["deu"]),
+        ([""], "[deu]", ["deu"]),
+    ],
+)
+def test_check_language_args_uses_ocr_languages_when_languages_is_empty_or_None(
+    languages: Union[list[str], str],
+    ocr_languages: Union[list[str], str, None],
+    expected_langs: list[str],
+    caplog,
+):
+    returned_langs = check_language_args(languages=languages, ocr_languages=ocr_languages)
+    for lang in returned_langs:  # type: ignore
+        assert lang in expected_langs
+        assert "ocr_languages" in caplog.text
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ("languages", "ocr_languages"),
+    [
+        ([], None),  # how check_language_args is called from auto.partition()
+        ([""], None),
+    ],
+)
+def test_check_language_args_returns_None(
+    languages: Union[list[str], str, None],
+    ocr_languages: Union[list[str], str, None],
+):
+    returned_langs = check_language_args(languages=languages, ocr_languages=ocr_languages)
+    assert returned_langs is None
+
+
+def test_check_language_args_returns_auto(
+    languages=["eng", "spa", "auto"],
+    ocr_languages=None,
+):
+    returned_langs = check_language_args(languages=languages, ocr_languages=ocr_languages)
+    assert returned_langs == ["auto"]
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize(
+    ("languages", "ocr_languages"),
+    [
+        ([], ["auto"]),
+        ([""], "eng+auto"),
+    ],
+)
+def test_check_language_args_raises_error_when_ocr_languages_contains_auto(
+    languages: Union[list[str], str, None],
+    ocr_languages: Union[list[str], str, None],
+):
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError):
+        check_language_args(languages=languages, ocr_languages=ocr_languages)
diff --git a/unstructured/partition/auto.py b/unstructured/partition/auto.py
index 7707232ca..446bd7c80 100644
--- a/unstructured/partition/auto.py
+++ b/unstructured/partition/auto.py
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ from unstructured.partition.email import partition_email
 from unstructured.partition.html import partition_html
 from unstructured.partition.json import partition_json
 from unstructured.partition.lang import (
-    convert_old_ocr_languages_to_languages,
+    check_language_args,
 )
 from unstructured.partition.text import partition_text
 from unstructured.partition.utils.constants import PartitionStrategy
@@ -252,23 +252,7 @@ def partition(
         )
     kwargs.setdefault("metadata_filename", metadata_filename)
 
-    if ocr_languages == "":
-        ocr_languages = None
-
-    if ocr_languages is not None:
-        # check if languages was set to anything not the default value
-        # languages and ocr_languages were therefore both provided - raise error
-        if languages is not None:
-            raise ValueError(
-                "Only one of languages and ocr_languages should be specified. "
-                "languages is preferred. ocr_languages is marked for deprecation.",
-            )
-        else:
-            languages = convert_old_ocr_languages_to_languages(ocr_languages)
-            logger.warning(
-                "The ocr_languages kwarg will be deprecated in a future version of unstructured. "
-                "Please use languages instead.",
-            )
+    languages = check_language_args(languages or [], ocr_languages)
 
     if url is not None:
         file, filetype = file_and_type_from_url(
diff --git a/unstructured/partition/image.py b/unstructured/partition/image.py
index 27e1fb03b..d94ead56c 100644
--- a/unstructured/partition/image.py
+++ b/unstructured/partition/image.py
@@ -3,10 +3,9 @@ from typing import List, Optional
 from unstructured.chunking import add_chunking_strategy
 from unstructured.documents.elements import Element, process_metadata
 from unstructured.file_utils.filetype import add_metadata
-from unstructured.logger import logger
 from unstructured.partition.common import exactly_one
 from unstructured.partition.lang import (
-    convert_old_ocr_languages_to_languages,
+    check_language_args,
 )
 from unstructured.partition.pdf import partition_pdf_or_image
 from unstructured.partition.utils.constants import PartitionStrategy
@@ -21,7 +20,7 @@ def partition_image(
     include_page_breaks: bool = False,
     infer_table_structure: bool = False,
     ocr_languages: Optional[str] = None,
-    languages: Optional[List[str]] = ["eng"],
+    languages: Optional[List[str]] = None,
     strategy: str = PartitionStrategy.HI_RES,
     metadata_last_modified: Optional[str] = None,
     chunking_strategy: Optional[str] = None,
@@ -87,27 +86,7 @@ def partition_image(
     """
     exactly_one(filename=filename, file=file)
 
-    if languages is None:
-        languages = ["eng"]
-
-    if not isinstance(languages, list):
-        raise TypeError(
-            'The language parameter must be a list of language codes as strings, ex. ["eng"]',
-        )
-
-    if ocr_languages is not None:
-        if languages != ["eng"]:
-            raise ValueError(
-                "Only one of languages and ocr_languages should be specified. "
-                "languages is preferred. ocr_languages is marked for deprecation.",
-            )
-
-        else:
-            languages = convert_old_ocr_languages_to_languages(ocr_languages)
-            logger.warning(
-                "The ocr_languages kwarg will be deprecated in a future version of unstructured. "
-                "Please use languages instead.",
-            )
+    languages = check_language_args(languages or [], ocr_languages) or ["eng"]
 
     return partition_pdf_or_image(
         filename=filename,
diff --git a/unstructured/partition/lang.py b/unstructured/partition/lang.py
index d2aa6a6a2..64228ba76 100644
--- a/unstructured/partition/lang.py
+++ b/unstructured/partition/lang.py
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ PYTESSERACT_LANG_CODES = [
 ]
 
 
-def prepare_languages_for_tesseract(languages: Optional[List[str]] = ["eng"]):
+def prepare_languages_for_tesseract(languages: Optional[List[str]] = ["eng"]) -> str:
     """
     Entry point: convert languages (list of strings) into tesseract ocr langcode format (uses +)
     """
@@ -167,34 +167,65 @@ def prepare_languages_for_tesseract(languages: Optional[List[str]] = ["eng"]):
     return TESSERACT_LANGUAGES_SPLITTER.join(converted_languages)
 
 
-def check_languages(languages: Optional[List[str]], ocr_languages: Optional[str]):
-    """Handle `ocr_languages` and `languages`, defining `languages` to ['eng'] as default and
-    converting `ocr_languages` if needed"""
-    if languages is None:
-        languages = ["eng"]
+def check_language_args(languages: list[str], ocr_languages: Optional[str]) -> Optional[list[str]]:
+    """Handle users defining both `ocr_languages` and `languages`, giving preference to `languages`
+    and converting `ocr_languages` if needed, but defaulting to `None.
+
+    `ocr_languages` is only a parameter for `auto.partition`, `partition_image`, & `partition_pdf`.
+    `ocr_languages` should not be defined as 'auto' since 'auto' is intended for language detection
+    which is not supported by `partition_image` or `partition_pdf`."""
+    # --- Clean and update defaults
+    if ocr_languages:
+        ocr_languages = _clean_ocr_languages_arg(ocr_languages)
+        logger.warning(
+            "The ocr_languages kwarg will be deprecated in a future version of unstructured. "
+            "Please use languages instead.",
+        )
+
+    if ocr_languages and "auto" in ocr_languages:
+        raise ValueError(
+            "`ocr_languages` is deprecated but was used to extract text from pdfs and images."
+            " The 'auto' argument is only for language *detection* when it is assigned"
+            " to `languages` and partitioning documents other than pdfs or images."
+            " Language detection is not currently supported in pdfs or images."
+        )
 
     if not isinstance(languages, list):
         raise TypeError(
             "The language parameter must be a list of language codes as strings, ex. ['eng']",
         )
 
-    if ocr_languages is not None:
-        if languages != ["eng"]:
-            raise ValueError(
-                "Only one of languages and ocr_languages should be specified. "
-                "languages is preferred. ocr_languages is marked for deprecation.",
-            )
+    # --- If `languages` is a null/default value and `ocr_languages` is defined, use `ocr_languages`
+    if ocr_languages and (languages == ["auto"] or languages == [""] or not languages):
+        languages = ocr_languages.split(TESSERACT_LANGUAGES_SPLITTER)
+        logger.warning(
+            "Only one of languages and ocr_languages should be specified. "
+            "languages is preferred. ocr_languages is marked for deprecation.",
+        )
 
+    # --- Clean `languages`
+    # If "auto" is included in the list of inputs, language detection will be triggered downstream.
+    # The rest of the inputted languages are ignored.
+    if languages:
+        if "auto" not in languages:
+            for i, lang in enumerate(languages):
+                languages[i] = TESSERACT_LANGUAGES_AND_CODES.get(lang.lower(), lang)
+
+            str_languages = _clean_ocr_languages_arg(languages)
+            if not str_languages:
+                return None
+            languages = str_languages.split(TESSERACT_LANGUAGES_SPLITTER)
+        # else, remove the extraneous languages.
+        # NOTE (jennings): "auto" should only be used for partitioners OTHER THAN `_pdf` or `_image`
         else:
-            languages = convert_old_ocr_languages_to_languages(ocr_languages)
-            logger.warning(
-                "The ocr_languages kwarg will be deprecated in a future version of unstructured. "
-                "Please use languages instead.",
-            )
-    return languages
+            # define as 'auto' for language detection when partitioning non-pdfs or -images
+            languages = ["auto"]
+        return languages
+
+    return None
 
 
-def convert_old_ocr_languages_to_languages(ocr_languages: str):
+def convert_old_ocr_languages_to_languages(ocr_languages: str) -> list[str]:
     """
     Convert ocr_languages parameter to list of langcode strings.
     Assumption: ocr_languages is in tesseract plus sign format
@@ -251,7 +282,7 @@ def _get_iso639_language_object(lang: str) -> Optional[iso639.Language]:
         return None
 
 
-def _get_all_tesseract_langcodes_with_prefix(prefix: str):
+def _get_all_tesseract_langcodes_with_prefix(prefix: str) -> list[str]:
     """
     Get all matching tesseract langcodes with this prefix (may be one or multiple variants).
     """
@@ -342,7 +373,9 @@ def apply_lang_metadata(
     languages: Optional[List[str]],
     detect_language_per_element: bool = False,
 ) -> Iterator[Element]:
-    """Detect and apply metadata.languages to each element in `elements`."""
+    """Detect language and apply it to metadata.languages for each element in `elements`.
+    If languages is None, default to auto detection.
+    If languages is and empty string, skip."""
     # -- Note this function has a stream interface, but reads the full `elements` stream into memory
     # -- before emitting the first updated element as output.
 
@@ -359,6 +392,7 @@ def apply_lang_metadata(
         yield from elements
         return
 
+    # Convert elements to a list to get the text, detect the language, and add it to the elements
     if not isinstance(elements, List):
         elements = list(elements)
 
@@ -369,7 +403,7 @@ def apply_lang_metadata(
         and len(languages) == 1
         and detect_language_per_element is False
     ):
-        # -- apply detected language to each metadata --
+        # -- apply detected language to each element's metadata --
         for e in elements:
             e.metadata.languages = detected_languages
             yield e
diff --git a/unstructured/partition/pdf.py b/unstructured/partition/pdf.py
index 3cc2a2063..721d10880 100644
--- a/unstructured/partition/pdf.py
+++ b/unstructured/partition/pdf.py
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ from unstructured.partition.common import (
     spooled_to_bytes_io_if_needed,
 )
 from unstructured.partition.lang import (
-    check_languages,
+    check_language_args,
     prepare_languages_for_tesseract,
 )
 from unstructured.partition.pdf_image.pdf_image_utils import (
@@ -208,7 +208,7 @@ def partition_pdf(
 
     exactly_one(filename=filename, file=file)
 
-    languages = check_languages(languages, ocr_languages)
+    languages = check_language_args(languages or [], ocr_languages) or ["eng"]
 
     return partition_pdf_or_image(
         filename=filename,
@@ -494,8 +494,6 @@ def partition_pdf_or_image(
 
     validate_strategy(strategy, is_image)
 
-    languages = check_languages(languages, ocr_languages)
-
     last_modification_date = get_the_last_modification_date_pdf_or_img(
         file=file,
         filename=filename,