I have 40,000 photos that I want to upload and store on SmugMug - please help!

barsky · February 23, 2008

I have 40,000 photos that I want to upload and store on SmugMug - please help! Of course I would like to do be able to do this quickly and I would like the folders transferred with their current names (I simply use the date the file was created). Is there a new tool for speedy uploading? Thx!!

Andy · February 23, 2008

Welcome! Remember, uploading is a function mostly of how large your files are, how many you have, and how fast your connection is, not for downloading but uploading - and that can vary significantly by ISP.

Tell us more - PC or Mac for instance?

jww · February 23, 2008

barsky wrote:

I have 40,000 photos that I want to upload and store on SmugMug - please help! Of course I would like to do be able to do this quickly and I would like the folders transferred with their current names (I simply use the date the file was created). Is there a new tool for speedy uploading? Thx!!

If windows or Vista... I suggest Send to SmugMug. You can send whole folders at a time via a right click on the folder. It will default the gallery name as the folder name you are sending. You can also set most all the important features (except for true vs auto color and proof delay). ..and thereafter will stay the default for the next folder you send.

http://www.shahine.com/garage/content/SendToSmugMug.aspx

..but as Andy says, how long depends on the size of the files and the speed of your ISP. (...your mileage may vary...)

miss5pink · April 19, 2008

Send to Smug MUG.... too sloooowwwwww

jww wrote:

If windows or Vista... I suggest Send to SmugMug. You can send whole folders at a time via a right click on the folder. It will default the gallery name as the folder name you are sending. You can also set most all the important features (except for true vs auto color and proof delay). ..and thereafter will stay the default for the next folder you send.

http://www.shahine.com/garage/content/SendToSmugMug.aspx

..but as Andy says, how long depends on the size of the files and the speed of your ISP. (...your mileage may vary...)

I have comcast on a PC... I have a second hardrive and plenty of just updated RAM. I run lightroom super speedy as well as other programs. It took me 4 hours and 15 minutes to upload 165 PREWEDDING photos today. I still have three more galleries of wWedding shots to upload for a client. HELP! Is there a faster way. Is this typical speed?

dancorder · April 19, 2008

I've just uploaded some photos and they took about as long as usual. Uploading photos is usually slow and would almost certainly be equally slow with any other online photo service.
How big are the pictures you're uploading on average (in bytes not pixels)? The bigger the picture the longer it will take.

For what it's worth your computer speed, RAM, hard disc space are almost completely irrelevant for uploading photos. Things that matter are:
- How fast your upload speed is (this is usually much lower than your download speed) which is dependant on your ISP. This is almost always the limiting factor.
- Whether there is a bottleneck between you and Smugmug (which would be unusual)
- Whether Smugmug's connection is working properly (which is almost certainly not the problem as they tend to notice and fix this kind of thing pretty fast, plus my photos were OK)

You can get a rough idea of your connection speed here:

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest.html

Remember it's the upload speed that matters for sending photos to Smugmug (which is marked as "Upstream" and "Speed Up" on that site)

PBolchover · April 19, 2008

I've found that comcast ruthlessly throttle your internet connection, as soon as you upload more than a couple of photos.

As far as I can tell, this is totally on the comcast side, so there's nothing smugmug can do about it.

jfriend · April 19, 2008

miss5pink wrote:

I have comcast on a PC... I have a second hardrive and plenty of just updated RAM. I run lightroom super speedy as well as other programs. It took me 4 hours and 15 minutes to upload 165 PREWEDDING photos today. I still have three more galleries of wWedding shots to upload for a client. HELP! Is there a faster way. Is this typical speed?

It doesn't sound like you fully understand that the upload speed of your internet connection is almost always the single item that determines your upload speed to Smugmug. This has nothing to do with Smugmug and everything to do with your own personal connection to the internet.

I would suggest going to http://smugmug.speedtest.net/ and running a speed test. That will tell you what your upload speed is to Smugmug's general location on the internet. For reference: 300kbps is sort of average for DSL upload speed. Faster is obviously much better for large photo uploads. If you wanted your upload speed to be faster, you would contact your internet ISP and ask them about faster speed options. To help you understand this, 300kbps = 300 kilobits per second = 300/8 = 37.5 kilobytes per second. This is an ideal speed including upload communication overhead and no other internet traffic on your connection. It is more common to realize 50-75% of this speed in real life. So, for a real life 2MB photo, that would be 2*1024/(37.5 * 50%) = 109 seconds = 1 min 49 secs per 2MB image.

Using these guesses for internet connection speed and average image size, 165 images would take 165 images * 109 seconds / image = 5 hours. So, this seems in the range of what you are getting.

The ways to speed it up without changing your connection speed are to decrease the size of your images or increase the speed of your internet connection. Images can be made smaller by saving them at a higher JPEG compression level (e.g. level 8 instead of 10 or 12) or by downsizing them (reducing their pixel count). Downsizing is not recommended if you want prints to be ordered directly through Smugmug.

FYI. I have 44GB of photos stored across two accounts. I regularly upload a few GB after a big school event in a long unattended overnight upload.

peestandingup · April 19, 2008

See what the maximum internet plan that Comcast has in your area is. Mine has 8Mbps down & 768Kbps up. But I've read some areas have an even faster option (forget the marketing name they call it). Call in & sign up for it (it'll be available instantly). Hook your computer up directly to the cable modem via ethernet (turn off wireless). Make sure to set your Mac to never sleep. Load up the photos a few hundred at a time right before bedtime & let it ride.

Its best to do this late at night since the connection won't be shared by others in your area hogging the bandwidth. It might take a few weeks, but you can do it. Afterwards, call back in to Comcast & go back to your previous internet plan (if you didnt wanna keep the speed increase).

Thats really about all you can do & the best advice I can give you.

miss5pink · April 21, 2008

peestandingup wrote:

See what the maximum internet plan that Comcast has in your area is. Mine has 8Mbps down & 768Kbps up. But I've read some areas have an even faster option (forget the marketing name they call it). Call in & sign up for it (it'll be available instantly). Hook your computer up directly to the cable modem via ethernet (turn off wireless). Make sure to set your Mac to never sleep. Load up the photos a few hundred at a time right before bedtime & let it ride.

Its best to do this late at night since the connection won't be shared by others in your area hogging the bandwidth. It might take a few weeks, but you can do it. Afterwards, call back in to Comcast & go back to your previous internet plan (if you didnt wanna keep the speed increase).

Thats really about all you can do & the best advice I can give you.

Thanks for all the help guys, I think it really did help to lower the export size and when using lightrooms export to smug mug it helped A HUGE deal!

I made them export at 80% and it was much faster and easier all in all.

thanks again.

sunxsweet · April 23, 2008

i think everyone is missing the point. let's forget the quality of the OPs computer, bandwith, and reducing his file sizes. i believe the OP was trying to find an easy to way get all his original files archived in a quick manner. even with a good quality high speed connection, the upload time can still can be a bear for somebody to consider smugmug as an alternative form of backup with that much data.

i recently tried to convince a friend to join smugmug. but he's got a little under a terabyte. the thought of having to upload that was a total deterent. maybe smugmug should offer some service for users to send discs for bulk loads.

jhelms · April 24, 2008

sunxsweet wrote:

i recently tried to convince a friend to join smugmug. but he's got a little under a terabyte. the thought of having to upload that was a total deterent. maybe smugmug should offer some service for users to send discs for bulk loads.

I thought I read somewhere that was an option now?

Also - another idea is to run simultaneous uploads from different computers (not at the same house, but one at work, one at home, one at a friend's house, etc.). Wouldn't be too hard to cut a DVD of a few folders, leave that one uploading over a weekend at the office, then have a friend or family member doing the same thing. That would cut it down immensely.

I'd rather keep the original file sizes and quality/compression and just take longer to upload them. I signed up 3 weeks ago and have 13,000 uploaded so far (58gb and counting) and have been doing sets overnight. I've even gone several days without uploading anything.

I'm on a cable modem and seem to see about the same speeds that were mentioned above, roughly 1.5-2 minutes per picture (avg file size 3-6mb / 10 mpix).

40k pics would definitely be a project, but I bet it could be done rather headache free within a month - which, IMHO would be worth it from a backup perspective.

I have 40,000 photos that I want to upload and store on SmugMug - please help!

Comments