Uploader not working again

[Doc]

Since yesterday and today almost impossible to upload - using either Chrome or safari - anyone else with the same problem?

 

Thanks

 

Kumar

[phomme]

I've just uploaded an image without any trouble.

[Ania]

Trying to upload 24 photos....unsuccessful...only got 2 of them uploaded in an hour...:( 

[Bryan]

Working but very slow. Windows Chrome.

[Keith Douglas]

Not tried uploading today, but I have had ongoing problems with the site being inaccessible. This is when I am clicking on links in the dashboard. After a few minutes it starts working again.

 

Keith

[Finnbloke]

A very frustrating experience once again. I have processed my photos precisely the same as all my previous successfully uploaded photos, but now the upload repeatedly fails, as Alamy Upload just refuses to handle it. Therefore, 24 photos for Live News will lose their newsworthiness. 

I wish someone with technical expertise would please take a look at one of my photos, analyze it for why it fails and tell me, what is technically wrong with it as long as the problem depends on my workflow. 

I have a Canon EOS 5D and process my photos in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC, exporting them as  jpeg files with the longest side set at 42 cm with 300 ppi resolution. I am using Google Chrome as my browser in my iMac with OS Sierra Version 10.12.6. 
 

I wish I knew what I need to do differently to make Alamy software accept my photos for uploading in the future. 

[Starsphinx]

I would have a couple of suggestions - firstly a very angry agitated lot of contributors who are emailing and all over the forum may be causing bandwidth issues.  Secondly, try smaller files - I have a preset on Lightroom I use for news files which is set long side 3250 (dont enlarge)  at 300 dpi - this puts the file just above Alamys minimum.  Other contributors on other threads have in the past demonstrated that this is more than adequate for live news pictures as the image will still make a half page print comfortably.

[Finnbloke]

Thank you, Starsphinx! I followed your advice. Lo and behold, something is finally happening now! A very, very slow upload is indeed making progress, a far cry from how quickly my larger files used to upload always in the past. And yes – my first file with 3250 dot long side has now finally uploaded, maybe in even less than an hour!

 

There must be some radical IT problem (of narrowed bandwidth?) somewhere causing this failure, as there is every reason to believe my jpegs are similar as before. Hopefully Alamy will do something about it, to enable the recommended size files being uploaded again -- hopefully in a zoom like they used to do. 

 

But thank you very much for restoring my faith in the upload really taking place even at this speed. 

[Betty LaRue]

I had my provider out last week. I complained about the speed, how long it took to upload. He checked everything, and (sorry, I’m not technical,) but my upload speed was 298 out of 300 being the fastest possible. He suggested it was on Alamy’s end.

 

I believe this is correct. I remember when it was a matter of course to have an image, no matter the size,  (And I used to upload huge D800 files) zip through in 15-30 seconds.  Even when the system was overloaded, it took about a minute per image.

Now, and for months if not a year, uploading is a joke. Last evening it took three hours to upload 15 images. That’s pathetic.

 

This may be one area that Alamy wants to use our 20% to fix, however unfair.

Betty

[John Mitchell]

FTP is the answer. It's much faster. I won't be going back to the uploader, it was taking ages for me to submit even small batches.

[Finnbloke]

Unfortunately, it turns out that my delight about even slower upload taking place at all was far premature. After my first smaller file had uploaded, the next one never did. Attempts at restarting just resulted in nothing happening. So, Alamy obviously no more wishes me to upload – is this a form of ban, applied by technical means?

A speed test in the net indicated my download speed as 68.3 Mbps and upload as 19.0 Mbps. 

 

John Mitchell, what kind of hurdles does it take to get FTP, and will it cause extra expenses? How much upload Mbps does it give you?

 

Strange. Why cannot Alamy operate any more like it did in the past? 

[Starsphinx]

1 hour ago, Finnbloke said:

Unfortunately, it turns out that my delight about even slower upload taking place at all was far premature. After my first smaller file had uploaded, the next one never did. Attempts at restarting just resulted in nothing happening. So, Alamy obviously no more wishes me to upload – is this a form of ban, applied by technical means?

A speed test in the net indicated my download speed as 68.3 Mbps and upload as 19.0 Mbps. 

 

John Mitchell, what kind of hurdles does it take to get FTP, and will it cause extra expenses? How much upload Mbps does it give you?

 

Strange. Why cannot Alamy operate any more like it did in the past? 

I would suggest having a read of the threads on the Ask the forum board - the ones about James and a certain video relating to a commission cut.  Maybe Alamy actually needs the extra money to fix their uploaders

[Allan Bell]

1 hour ago, Starsphinx said:

I would suggest having a read of the threads on the Ask the forum board - the ones about James and a certain video relating to a commission cut.  Maybe Alamy actually needs the extra money to fix their uploaders

 

Then they should go to their bank for a lone.

 

Allan

 

 

[Mark Hunter]

3 hours ago, Finnbloke said:

Unfortunately, it turns out that my delight about even slower upload taking place at all was far premature. After my first smaller file had uploaded, the next one never did. Attempts at restarting just resulted in nothing happening. So, Alamy obviously no more wishes me to upload – is this a form of ban, applied by technical means?

A speed test in the net indicated my download speed as 68.3 Mbps and upload as 19.0 Mbps. 

 

John Mitchell, what kind of hurdles does it take to get FTP, and will it cause extra expenses? How much upload Mbps does it give you?

 

 

I use Filezilla  which is free to download. Easy to set up (get the settings from the relevant Alamy page) and has worked quickly and without errors even on the (frequent) occasions when the uploader isn't playing. I haven't measured the speed but a batch of 10 high quality JPEG files between 10 and 14Mb takes 3 or 4 minutes on my broadband connection.

[Finnbloke]

1 hour ago, Starsphinx said:

I would suggest having a read of the threads on the Ask the forum board - the ones about James and a certain video relating to a commission cut.  Maybe Alamy actually needs the extra money to fix their uploaders

 

This might be the explanation, unfortunately. But the measures taken seem counterproductive: by neglecting to maintain the needed technical infrastructure for decent uploading, there will inevitably be a drastic reduction of uploads (i.e., the source of all revenue for Alamy), and before long, nothing interesting to sell besides the existing stock.

 

If that won't generate flat or negative growth, nothing will. 

 

Mark Hunter, thank you for the tip! I will have a try with Filezilla in due course. 

Edited December 6, 2018 by Finnbloke

[John Mitchell]

6 hours ago, Mark Hunter said:

 

I use Filezilla  which is free to download. Easy to set up (get the settings from the relevant Alamy page) and has worked quickly and without errors even on the (frequent) occasions when the uploader isn't playing. I haven't measured the speed but a batch of 10 high quality JPEG files between 10 and 14Mb takes 3 or 4 minutes on my broadband connection.

 

I use Filezilla as well. I found the interface a bit confusing at first and had a couple of issues. However everything ticks along nicely now. If you add Alamy's FTP info to Filezilla's "site manager" it helps speed up the connection process. My web uploads were getting slower and slower all the time.

[spacecadet]

17 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

I had my provider out last week. I complained about the speed, how long it took to upload. He checked everything, and (sorry, I’m not technical,) but my upload speed was 298 out of 300 being the fastest possible. He suggested it was on Alamy’s end.

 

I believe this is correct. I remember when it was a matter of course to have an image, no matter the size,  (And I used to upload huge D800 files) zip through in 15-30 seconds.  Even when the system was overloaded, it took about a minute per image.

Now, and for months if not a year, uploading is a joke. Last evening it took three hours to upload 15 images. That’s pathetic.

 

This may be one area that Alamy wants to use our 20% to fix, however unfair.

Betty

I have fast fibre broadband and upload is always lightning fast on FTP.

It's nothing to do with Alamy.

Edited December 6, 2018 by spacecadet

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, spacecadet said:

I have fast fibre broadband and upload is always lightning fast on FTP.

It's nothing to do with Alamy.

It’s easy for you to say.  I downloaded FileZilla several years ago and could never get it to work. I’m not smart enough with technical things. 

Please come to my house and I’ll give you free reign to set up FTP for me. I’ll even bake you a pie. 

Betty

[John Richmond]

Windows 10 user here.  I don't use FTP for Alamy uploads - normal route is fast enough on my high speed broadband - but I have recently needed to for other uses.  Windows Explorer offers FTP facilities and it works well.  Rather than go through an explanation of how to set it up here's a link to the web page I used for guidance.  https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windows-file-explorer-ftp-client/  There are bound to be other explanations on line.

[Foreign Export]

Yes same here - my demeanour and mood ( 40%) is preventing my fingers from uploading

[Bill Brooks]

Everyone should be using FTP on a fast modem. It makes good business sense. Yesterday I uploaded 8 large files by FTP. They zipped through as always.

 

Just another Alamy expense to maintain an very old out of date Alamy piece of uploading software for those not using FTP, and one of the reasons why Alamy has to reduce all photographer's commission from 50 to 40%.

[Betty LaRue]

It’s pretty bad for me in the US to try to upload in the early evening like I always have done, so they’d be approved the next day. Instead, I forget about how slow it is, and after three hours trying, Miss the QC window.  Guess I need to start at noon. 

 

I haven’t figured out yet what I’m going to do about the 40%. That sort of takes the eagerness to build a portfolio away.

 

Yes, Bill, money needs spent fixing that. But I don’t agree it should be the suppliers bearing that burden while management is giving funds away. That’s not good business sense.

Most successful businesses plow profits back in to the business. It takes money to make money. First things first...then when everything is running well, think about charity.

Alamy has it backwards. When Alamy fails, and it will if they keep on doing what they’re doing, there won’t ever be anything left for charity.

 

There is that old adage...Charity begins at home.

Betty

[Allan Bell]

6 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

It’s pretty bad for me in the US to try to upload in the early evening like I always have done, so they’d be approved the next day. Instead, I forget about how slow it is, and after three hours trying, Miss the QC window.  Guess I need to start at noon. 

 

I haven’t figured out yet what I’m going to do about the 40%. That sort of takes the eagerness to build a portfolio away.

 

Yes, Bill, money needs spent fixing that. But I don’t agree it should be the suppliers bearing that burden while management is giving funds away. That’s not good business sense.

Most successful businesses plow profits back in to the business. It takes money to make money. First things first...then when everything is running well, think about charity.

Alamy has it backwards. When Alamy fails, and it will if they keep on doing what they’re doing, there won’t ever be anything left for charity.

 

There is that old adage...Charity begins at home.

Betty

 

Couldn't have put it better myself Betty. I'm with you all the way on your eloquent reasoning.

 

Allan