Newbie uploading question

marieboyer

I just signed up with smugmug tonight. I am trying to load some photos. I have Windows XP and use Firefox.

I downloaded the beta uploader. That seemed really slow so I followed the instructions and downloaded the latest java software. No difference. I then tried the "standard" version.

I went to drag a folder of photos into the uploader and it gave me an error message about only accepting .jpegs and gif. I was trying to upload 8 jpegs. I tried just uploading one photo at a time, but it gave me same error message. These are definitely jpegs, so I am at a loss. (Same result using both uploaders.)

Can someone help?

Thanks in advance.

Andy

marieboyer wrote:

I just signed up with smugmug tonight. I am trying to load some photos. I have Windows XP and use Firefox.

I downloaded the beta uploader. That seemed really slow so I followed the instructions and downloaded the latest java software. No difference. I then tried the "standard" version.

I went to drag a folder of photos into the uploader and it gave me an error message about only accepting .jpegs and gif. I was trying to upload 8 jpegs. I tried just uploading one photo at a time, but it gave me same error message. These are definitely jpegs, so I am at a loss. (Same result using both uploaders.)

Can someone help?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Marie,

Welcome to SmugMug and Dgrin! I'm sorry you are having troubles. We can help. Be sure you're not dragging any file called "thumbs.db" that can cause an error like this.

Are the files you are uploading smaller than 8megabytes (standard and power acct) or 16megabytes (pro account)? And smaller than 48 megapixels?

marieboyer

Thanks Andy.
Hi Andy. Thanks for the welcome.

I should have put in my post that I have tried all the advice in the "help" FAQ on this subject.

I have read about people dragging 100 photos onto the uploader and whoosh, off it goes. Not the case for me. I finally used IE and was able to get the explorer to take a group of photos (8). It was still very slooooow.

Would love to use Firefox and get it running FASTER.

Thanks for your help.

Andy wrote:

Hi Marie,

Welcome to SmugMug and Dgrin! I'm sorry you are having troubles. We can help. Be sure you're not dragging any file called "thumbs.db" that can cause an error like this.

Are the files you are uploading smaller than 8megabytes (standard and power acct) or 16megabytes (pro account)? And smaller than 48 megapixels?

marieboyer

Update:

Not one of my photos (in the 8 that I uploaded last night with the IE method shows on my website). I have about 10 photos right now, and I was able to get them onto my site by uploading one at a time. And that was really SLOOOOW too.

marieboyer wrote:

Hi Andy. Thanks for the welcome.

I should have put in my post that I have tried all the advice in the "help" FAQ on this subject.

I have read about people dragging 100 photos onto the uploader and whoosh, off it goes. Not the case for me. I finally used IE and was able to get the explorer to take a group of photos (8). It was still very slooooow.

Would love to use Firefox and get it running FASTER.

Thanks for your help.

marieboyer

Okay, now I am thinking my files are too big. Here is my link:
http://marieboyer.smugmug.com/

How do you quickly assess file size and convert to megabites? I see 2000px by 3000px, but how does that convert?

I thought I could archive my original sized photos on this site? Is that not the case? I am reading the help FAQ. Sorry for not understanding the basics.

If, in fact, I have to downsize my photos before uploading, is there a downloader that will do that as part of the uploading process? The Flickr uploader allows that as an option (e.g., "upload all photos with longest side at 1000 px").

wellman

marieboyer wrote:

Okay, now I am thinking my files are too big. Here is my link:
http://marieboyer.smugmug.com/

How do you quickly assess file size and convert to megabites? I see 2000px by 3000px, but how does that convert?

I thought I could archive my original sized photos on this site? Is that not the case? I am reading the help FAQ. Sorry for not understanding the basics.

If, in fact, I have to downsize my photos before uploading, is there a downloader that will do that as part of the uploading process? The Flickr uploader allows that as an option (e.g., "upload all photos with longest side at 1000 px").

Marie,

Make sure you don't get megabytes and megapixels confused. Your 3,000 x 2,000 pixel photo is 6,000,000 pixels (6 megapixels). If there were no compression used on that image, each pixel would take 3 bytes of memory, meaning your file would take up 18 million bytes (about 17.1 MB)! However, thanks to the wonder of JPG compression, that 6 MP / 17.1 MB file becomes a 1.5-3.0MB file, and no one execpt a computer can see any loss in quality. Hope this makes sense...

Smugmug will indeed take all your originals, but it will be slow (even on a cable connection). I tend to start a batch and go play with the kids for a while. Having my originals in a safe place other than my PC gives me warm fuzzies.

Welcome to Smugmug and DGrin!

Andy

Marie, what sort of connection do you have to the internet?

marieboyer

Andy:
I have broadband cable.

Wellman:
Thanks for the quick lesson. You cannot believe how badly I needed that jiffy explanation. Now I know my original files do not break any limits, but are large and will therefore load slowly.

Someone also recommended not permitting people to see the orginals as that uses up bandwith more quickly. That seems fine to me. The originals are larger than necessary for viewing purposes.

Although I still do not understand what happened to my 8 photos that I uploaded?

Thanks so much guys!

marieboyer

Only part of my photos are loading?
Why does this continue to happen to me? I uploaded them using the new beta uploader. I did them as a batch (copied them and moved them into the uploader)?

http://marieboyer.smugmug.com/gallery/1388670

I am really trying to get this to work. But I am starting to think I am jinxed and perhaps I should stick with Flickr, which gave me no uploading problems whatsoever, but which I do not like as much.

I have 5 more days of my trial left to see if I can figure this out. Thanks!

Andy

We will get you sorted trust me.

OK - you say you tried Firefox at first -are you on FF 1.5? It should just work. Try clearing all your temp files and cookies there, and give it one more go.

The partial files sure look like a connection issue though. It's rare, but it happens sometimes. There's a free test, you can run it, at www.dslreports.com - you must register, and then take the "packet loss" test under 'tools' - report the link they give you back here.

Andy

marieboyer

Andy:
Thanks for your help and confidence! You are my lifeline at this point. I have Firefox 1.5.0.2.

I logged into that site and I think i ran that test. Not sure what you want me to post here. There was lots of information on the page. No idea what it means.

Andy

marieboyer wrote:

Andy:
Thanks for your help and confidence! You are my lifeline at this point. I have Firefox 1.5.0.2.

I logged into that site and I think i ran that test. Not sure what you want me to post here. There was lots of information on the page. No idea what it means.

the test results page gives a link, it says copy this link and share it with othes, or some such.. can you find that?

marieboyer

Andy:
My daughter's 4th birthday party today has been a slight distraction, as you can probably imagine.

I went to the site and it appears that my Zone Alarm-free firewall is not allowing the "ping." I went to the instructions to fix Zone Alarm-free for the test and my Zone Alarm is not the version that they use to describe the fix. I would need to download the latest zone alarm and I have heard negative things about the latest build so I have been hesitant to install it.

I should let you know that all my latest uploads to smugmug are partial photos only and I downsized all of them to 1000 px for longest side. I thought that would surely help. Made no difference?

Should I download the latest Zone Alarm? Something makes me hesitate.

marieboyer

One more thing, Andy, to put "in the mix." I never had a problem with the Flickr uploader, and I was uploading my original images. Something tells me it is not my internet connection but some problem with the smugmug uploading software.

Also, I have no problems with smugmug if I do it one at a time. It is when I do it as a batch (a whole folder for instance) that I get the partial images.

But one of the nice features of smugmug was supposed to be the batch uploading.

Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate you paying attention to this and helping me.

Andy

marieboyer wrote:

Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate you paying attention to this and helping me.

Marie, we have really very few folks who can't upload - so I'm sure we can lick this.

Turn of zone alarm for a test, and upload some photos - what are the results?

You can try other uploaders, too: SendToSmugMug is used by thousands and it's available right here:
http://wiki.shahine.com/default.aspx/MyWiki.SendToSmugMug

Let us know!

marieboyer

EUREKA!
"Send to Smugmug" worked without a hitch, and I did not even turn off Zone Alarm, nor did I down-size any of them! Wow! Psyched! It was SO easy too! Thanks so much for sticking with me today and offering this last idea!
I am sticking with Smugmug. Yeah!
THANK YOU ANDY!

Andy

marieboyer wrote:

EUREKA!
"Send to Smugmug" worked without a hitch, and I did not even turn off Zone Alarm, nor did I down-size any of them! Wow! Psyched! It was SO easy too! Thanks so much for sticking with me today and offering this last idea!
I am sticking with Smugmug. Yeah!
THANK YOU ANDY!

Glad we have a happy ending