Closed Trouble uploading photos
- Thread starter jbnbsn99
- Start date
I haven't been able to upload photos for weeks now, and a red box with ERROR 404 pops up each time. It's incredibly frustrating, but I have no idea why all of a sudden I'm having problems with photos.
Problems uploading photos ?
If you've been having trouble uploading photos, I suspect you may have been trying to use the new Flash upload utility.
It seems to have stopped working for some reason - I need to look at whether there is a new version that is more reliable.
In the meantime, I've disabled Flash uploads - so you should now see the normal upload system instead when you try and upload photos.
If you've been having problems, please try again and let me know if it still doesn't work for you.
[Edit: I've merged this post in from another thread I started, since I hadn't seen this thread as it was posted in the General forum not the Help and Feedback forum]
If you've been having trouble uploading photos, I suspect you may have been trying to use the new Flash upload utility.
It seems to have stopped working for some reason - I need to look at whether there is a new version that is more reliable.
In the meantime, I've disabled Flash uploads - so you should now see the normal upload system instead when you try and upload photos.
If you've been having problems, please try again and let me know if it still doesn't work for you.
[Edit: I've merged this post in from another thread I started, since I hadn't seen this thread as it was posted in the General forum not the Help and Feedback forum]
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I haven't been able to upload anything for ages. From various posts, it appears that some people seem to be having absolutely no trouble, some seem to be able to upload on one computer but not another, some are able to upload when they make their pictures smaller, but some of us don't seem to be able to make anything work!!
Sorry, I didn't see this thread - it was posted in the General forum and not the Help and Feedback forum (which is where I check for posts like this).
I had already started a new thread - but I've merged that into this thread, as per my post above.
I had already started a new thread - but I've merged that into this thread, as per my post above.
Hi HuxleyPig, I note from your account settings that you've been using the Flash uploader - I've found it to be a bit unreliable, so I've disabled this feature for now.
Can you please try again using the old upload mechanism and let me know whether you still have problems ?
Chlidonias are you uploading multiple photos at once or just one at a time?
Are you on dialup or do you have broadband ?
I just attempted 5 minutes ago to upload 2 photos using the standard option...nothing happening there after waiting a few minutes for the photos to process. In December I uploaded over 1,500 photos with the flash with zero problems, but neither option is working for me now.
snowleopard can you please try uploading a single photo no more than 1600x1200 resolution ?
I just want to verify whether it is a timeout problem or some other technical issue people are experiencing.
I've also just enabled additional error reporting - so if you try uploading again and you actually get an error message, please let me know what it is.
The difficulty I have with troubleshooting this problem is that it is not reproducible by me ... so I can't test anything myself.
The difficulty I have with troubleshooting this problem is that it is not reproducible by me ... so I can't test anything myself.
I tried uploading a single photo (3456 x 2592 = is that the resolution?) and it took a long time but once again there has been no success. How do I make photos smaller? I've never had to do that before, and if I have another 500 photos set to be uploaded to this site would I have to change each individual photo?
Okay - I've finally managed to find some photos which are causing me problems too.
It is a server timeout problem caused by the upload process taking too long (these are very very large photos I'm trying to upload - far larger than is reasonable for an online photo gallery!).
I'll need to spend some time working on things to see if I can optimise the way it handles this and see if I can make it work more reliably.
In the meantime, you can generally avoid the problem by resizing your photos to be no more than 1600x1200 resolution and uploading them one at a time. I'll see if I can make it work better with larger files and will let you know.
PS. a new version of the flash uploader is available - I'll see if that works properly now ... that should help most people who have trouble uploading.
I'll let you know once I've got something more you can test.
Thanks everyone for your patience with this ... I am as frustrated as you all are - I want the uploads to work smoothly for everyone!
It is a server timeout problem caused by the upload process taking too long (these are very very large photos I'm trying to upload - far larger than is reasonable for an online photo gallery!).
I'll need to spend some time working on things to see if I can optimise the way it handles this and see if I can make it work more reliably.
In the meantime, you can generally avoid the problem by resizing your photos to be no more than 1600x1200 resolution and uploading them one at a time. I'll see if I can make it work better with larger files and will let you know.
PS. a new version of the flash uploader is available - I'll see if that works properly now ... that should help most people who have trouble uploading.
I'll let you know once I've got something more you can test.
Thanks everyone for your patience with this ... I am as frustrated as you all are - I want the uploads to work smoothly for everyone!
Okay - I've learned one interesting thing today. There is a maximum file size you can upload directly via the browser - and it is only 2MB. For most pictures, 2MB is plenty big enough - but as digital camera resolutions increase, the full sized JPG images coming out are starting to hit this number.
The problem is that we can't change this limit on the server (at least not directly, this setting is controlled by the hosting company - and they are generally reluctant to increase it).
So this leaves us with two options for dealing with larger image files:
1. get the Flash uploader working again (I will do this)
2. inform users that they will need to ensure their files are no larger than 2MB in size before uploading if not using the Flash uploader (I will post more information about this shortly).
The problem is that we can't change this limit on the server (at least not directly, this setting is controlled by the hosting company - and they are generally reluctant to increase it).
So this leaves us with two options for dealing with larger image files:
1. get the Flash uploader working again (I will do this)
2. inform users that they will need to ensure their files are no larger than 2MB in size before uploading if not using the Flash uploader (I will post more information about this shortly).
It works fine now with one photo at a time using the standard option, but if the flash option becomes useful again then we should all be back to about 8 photos per upload.
... not so odd if you knew that I had adjusted a setting last night which should fix the upload problems for most people
I was just waiting on confirmation from another user before I announced it.
It turns out there was a setting on the server that was limiting uploaded files to no more than 2MB. Previously we had this set to 10MB which is why people were able to upload larger files in the past, but with server changes in recent months, it got reset back to 2MB which is just small enough to cause problems with some files (but not others).
Anyway, I know what the setting is now and how to change it, so we should be okay from here in.
I'm just about to try upgrading the Flash uploader to the latest version which should see it work for most people (if it does, I'll make that the default upload option).
Right ... I think we're back on track now.
The standard photo uploader should now work for files up to 10MB in size (but I suggest you still try and limit them to no more than around 2MB ... they'll only get resized by the server once you've uploaded anyway ... so if you can resize them first it will save you a lot of time during uploading).
The Flash photo uploader should now work for everyone (including people with Flash v10 who couldn't use the old Flash uploader) ... this will be the default upload option for people from now on, but if you still get the standard uploader page when trying to upload photos - click on the link on the upload page to enable the Flash uploader. While the Flash uploader is much more efficient than the standard uploader, you will still save yourself a lot of time if you are able to resize your photos before you upload.
Let me know if you have any problems uploading.
The standard photo uploader should now work for files up to 10MB in size (but I suggest you still try and limit them to no more than around 2MB ... they'll only get resized by the server once you've uploaded anyway ... so if you can resize them first it will save you a lot of time during uploading).
The Flash photo uploader should now work for everyone (including people with Flash v10 who couldn't use the old Flash uploader) ... this will be the default upload option for people from now on, but if you still get the standard uploader page when trying to upload photos - click on the link on the upload page to enable the Flash uploader. While the Flash uploader is much more efficient than the standard uploader, you will still save yourself a lot of time if you are able to resize your photos before you upload.
Let me know if you have any problems uploading.