Commons:Upload Wizard feedback

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This page is a place for you to tell the Wikimedia developers what issues you encounter when using the Upload Wizard interface. We welcome your feedback and ideas! To resolve issues, it helps us to have exact steps to reproduce.

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Other important resources:

Phabricator is our issue tracker, see the list of known issues. Ideally, any bugs in Upload Wizard should be reported there (see mw:How to report a bug). Information on how to use your regular Commons/Wikipedia account on Phabricator is available at mw:Phabricator/Help#Creating your account.
If you'd rather not get involved on Phabricator, you can always go to the technical section of Commons' Village pump. You won't find any developers there, but there's a chance that someone can help with your problem or file a bug report for you.

Apart from that, Commons:Upload Wizard carries summary information and Commons:Upload Wizard FAQ tries to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about Upload Wizard.

Archives (except for the earliest, these are generated by MiszaBot):

Error message at last step without indication where

Latest comment: 23 days ago10 comments4 people in discussion

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T376455

I just uploaded over 20 images, writing all the entries per hand. At the end before publishing I got an error message, but without any indication where. An emotional rollercoaster took place before I found two images with identical names. Do I recall wrong, that errors were once marked in red? It is really hard to find an error in a list that is several monitor heights long. MenkinAlRire (talk) 22:00, 5 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

+1 --PantheraLeo1359531 😺 (talk) 11:41, 19 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

@MenkinAlRire Hi, thanks for your message, and I'm sorry for never replying to you before now, but for some reason I never got this notification. Anyway, this is a bug we're working on, but we didn't find a solution yet. Hopefully I will let you know more in the next couple of weeks, I'll try to push a bit harder for its solution. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 08:44, 7 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Sannita (WMF): Nice. Thank you for your answer. (I didn't expect an imidiate answer; I had written on several issues) MenkinAlRire (talk) 11:50, 7 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

Can you provide a link to the "bug" that you mentioned "we're working on" please. Also provide a link to any related Phab ticket(s). Thank you @Sannita (WMF). Also pinging @MenkinAlRire & @PantheraLeo1359531. Ooligan (talk) 23:40, 25 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Ooligan: Done, thanks for reminding me! I thought I included it in my last response. Still no progress about it, but I'll try again to push for it. --Sannita (WMF) (talk) 09:47, 26 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Sannita (WMF)- Thank you for sharing that the status of this bug is "no progress." However, you didn't answer my question above to provide a Phab ticket link (or any other link) documenting what you had already wrote that, "this is a bug we're working on." -- Ooligan (talk) 15:47, 26 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Ooligan The ticket is that one, and is currently on the board of the Structured Content team, that is still evaluating what to do. When there will be changes, it will be reflected on the ticket. No changes so far means that we're still evaluating what to do. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 16:13, 26 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Sannita (WMF), Ok, and thank you. I had seen in Phabricator, the problem description and your placement of this Phab ticket within the "Structured-Data-Backlog" back on October 4th. I did not see any newer comments or "updates," since October 4th. The original feedback about Upload Wizard bug was added on August 5th. So, this is almost a 4 month old problem.

A suggestion: Can you or one of the Structured Content team members add, at least monthly, updates to each UW-related Phabricator task, even if that means "still evaluating" the problem or bug?

A suggestion: Could you please add a "dashboard" to the top of this Commons:Upload Wizard feedback page? Place at the top all currently open Phab tickets related to Upload Wizard. This would help visitors here to quickly see the current "bugs" or problems that are being worked on by the Structured Content team. It will make it easier for visitors to this feedback page to determine the status and existence of tickets of all open UW-related Phab tickets. -- Ooligan (talk) 18:17, 26 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Ooligan There is already a link to UploadWizard's Phabricator tickets, so I don't think I can add another Phab board. SC's board is also relative to things other than UploadWizard, and it can create confusion for readers.

As for the updates, IMHO is preferable to have updates when possible, and accept the fact that no comments or updates means that the prep work is still ongoing.

I know this is a 4-months problem looking for an answer, but just a few hours ago there was an analysis in production of the problem, so things are finally moving. I promise I'll keep you posted about this and that I will do my best to have a solution ASAP. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 12:28, 27 November 2024 (UTC)Reply

Similar filenames

Latest comment: 2 months ago2 comments2 people in discussion

i dont get it. how was it possible to upload to such similar filenames? RoyZuo (talk) 16:37, 20 August 2024 (UTC)Reply

Hi @RoyZuo, thanks for your message, and I'm sorry for never replying to you before now, but for some reason I never got this notification. I don't know why UW failed so badly at recognizing the same title. Would you be so kind to open a Phab ticket about it, and link it back to me? I'll pass it on to the devs as soon as I get my eyes on it. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 08:45, 7 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

Fixed size of description field

Latest comment: 2 months ago2 comments2 people in discussion

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T376595

When I upload several files, fill in the "description" field and copy it with the copy button to the rest of the files, the "description" fields get a fixed size (for about 2 lines of text) and a scrollbar. It is very annoying, as I usually add some extra info to every file, and now I have to scroll all the "two-line" fields to check and add the text. It looks like it has changed recently, can you remove the fixed size setting? Nova (talk) 11:14, 6 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

Hi @Nova, thanks for your message. I'll open a Phabricator ticket about it and will let you know. Probably it's going to take some time, though. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 08:47, 7 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

Uploads down? Very slow

Latest comment: 1 month ago6 comments3 people in discussion

I'm trying to upload one of my photos, and every time, it jams at "Processing files". Is there something wrong with the upload system at the moment, or might my photo be corrupted in some way? I've never had this happen before. Thanks! - MPF (talk) 12:01, 26 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

Ah, it has uploaded at last! - MPF (talk) 12:17, 26 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

For the past few days, Upload Wizard has been very slow. It takes minutes to upload a file that earlier would take a few seconds. Tagooty (talk) 13:26, 26 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

Thanks! Good to know it's the system and not my pictures 😂 - MPF (talk) 14:51, 26 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

The behaviour I see is when I start uploads, it runs at 1-2 MB/sec for a few seconds. Then it slows down to < 1KB/sec for long periods. Intermittently, there is a burst of 1-2 MB/sec for a few seconds. Seems like a problem with the Commons server. --Tagooty (talk) 15:08, 26 October 2024 (UTC)Reply
- @MPF and Tagooty: Feedback from 28 October: the problem persists, and now the system has problem with uploading with files as small as 10MB. Similar to your case, they always stuck at the end of the progress bar with endless "processing". Maybe you may want to report the problem on COM:VPT? Thanks.廣九直通車 (talk) 14:25, 28 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

Unable to upload photo with Upload Wizard

Latest comment: 1 month ago4 comments3 people in discussion

Hi, I've been trying to upload a few pictures for an hour now without success. I waited several minutes "in a queue"; after that, the upload failed with the message "server did not respond within the expected time.". The old form works for me, but it is very inconvenient. I use Chrome browser with "Old Vector (2010) skin." I have also tried Vector (2022) - but it does not work either. -- Jakubhal 17:16, 29 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

~~Is File:Hala_Turbacz_w_Gorcach,_20241019_1119_6238.jpg the file in question~~ (Edit: nevermind, i see some attempts from earlier so it is probably one of those. Still would be useful to know exact time and filenames)? For these types of issues, it would help to know the exact date and time (preferably in UTC timezone) of when the attempted upload was and what the file's name would have been (or what the file's name on your computer was, even if the final name would have been something different) even if the upload never succeeded. Bawolff (talk) 03:48, 31 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

Pinging @Jakubhal. - Jmabel ! talk 15:27, 31 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

I don't remember the exact time (minutes). I tried multiple times on Tuesday, 29th of October, between 17:30 and 19:30 CET. It was File:Czoło Turbacza w Gorcach, 20241019 1115 6233.jpg - finally, it uploaded but with an error (I have to add a caption and structured data later separately). Before that, I have also tried a couple of times with File:Budynek Gorczańskiego Ośrodka Historii Turystyki Górskiej na Turbaczu, 20241019 1142 6248.jpg but gave up and upload it using the old form. The next morning, the problem did not reoccur, and I uploaded multiple files without any problems. I noticed that during my Tuesday attempt, there was some massive upload ongoing by one of the bots, so maybe it was a temporary overload, but it was still very inconvenient for me to share my work ---- Jakubhal 20:41, 31 October 2024 (UTC)Reply

Missing (description) page after Upload

Latest comment: 15 days ago10 comments4 people in discussion

I uploaded the file File:Gračac (HR), Grab -- 2022 -- 0171.jpg via Upload Wizard on 2024-11-11. Today I was informed, that the file does not have a description page – or any associated page at all. I have checked other files I uploaded using the Upload Wizard, particularly from the same batch upload, and I couldn't find any other instances of this issue. Does anyone have an idea what might have caused this problem? A. Öztas (talk) 21:43, 1 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T374235

RoyZuo (talk) 09:22, 2 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

@A. Öztas The file looks good now, so probably the bug was fixed meanwhile. Anyway I took note of @RoyZuo's ticket, and put that on the devs' radar. I hope this will be picked up soon. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 13:44, 2 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Sannita (WMF): I created the page yesterday, it was not due to a bugfix. A. Öztas (talk) 13:58, 2 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

@A. Öztas I see... I'll add your page to the list of problematic files. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 14:48, 2 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Sannita (WMF) In the phabricator page, it might be useful to add a link to the results of the query by Wurgl which lists 380 files affected. The problem may not be specific to the Upload Wizard. Files uploaded with other tools seem affected also. -- Asclepias (talk) 16:15, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Asclepias Thank you, I'll insert this immediately. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 18:52, 3 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Sannita (WMF) Also, I just found the list at User:Achim55/Files without file pages, which might be more useful because Achim55 updates it a few times each month since April 2023 and the history shows the evolution of the situation. -- Asclepias (talk) 13:39, 4 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Thanks, adding this one too. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 09:17, 5 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Caption: mobile user experience

Latest comment: 4 days ago2 comments2 people in discussion

I often upload batches (10-50) from my phone. I'd like to share a user's point of view and logic behind how i use it.

i dont like apps if browser will do, so i dont use any mobile apps e.g. Commons:Mobile app.
on android, i use opera, instead of chrome, coz opera has a floating icon to scroll to top or bottom when page is long.
i use the mobile version https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:UploadWizard , not the desktop version.
i dont connect my phone to computer, or sync my photos to google drive or other cloud storage, to then make use of computer for upload, coz it's more work. i find mobile upload sufficiently efficient so i avoid that more work.
here comes the problem with caption (same problem for title and description). because i upload in batches, it's simply anti-user if i were to type a different caption according to what each image actually shows.
1. the thumbnail is small, so i cant see clearly what the image shows.
2. i avoid switching between the browser and my files app to check the image, coz sometimes doing so will make the browser refresh the page = all work gone.
3. the input fields are all cumbersome. if i type something longer than the field, then it's hard to move cursor back and forth in case i need to edit.
4. i avoid working on description in the wizard, just in case any glitch or refresh wipes out the work, so i want to get to the submit step asap.
so i end up giving a brief caption (coz it's required), which is usually the city where the batch was taken. and i dont bother unchecking the box (description same as caption) coz i dont want that extra work. (then i copy all info to all files. then i edit and tweak a little bit for special photos, but not for every single one, coz the wizard is really cumbersome to scroll up and down.)
all the extra work is avoided coz even though it might only take seconds or a minute each time, for users who upload hundreds or thousands of batches, that extra time adds up.
from my point of view, i have the photos uploaded with sufficient descriptions, i'm happy and done. some problems with caption / description? not a big deal for me.

I think it's worse to have a generic and not so relevant caption than a description. if i upload a photo of a building, with description "London", technically it's correct coz it's located in london, but the pic doesnt show london but only a building, so the caption "London" is arguably wrong. titles (filenames) are not so important and not meant to function like description anyway so it's not a problem.

Just sharing, in case in future you wonder why sdc is "polluted" with generic captions. I guess I'm not the only user whose habit evolved to this.--RoyZuo (talk) 15:06, 14 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

@RoyZuo Thanks for these insights, very helpful. I'll raise them with our designer, to see if we can include this in our next steps. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 14:06, 16 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

Applause for the Upload Wizard

Latest comment: 1 day ago1 comment1 person in discussion

You've packed so much information into this delightful little "job aid" ... thank you so much. Although I wish there were additional guidance on what we have to do when copyrights are involved, this is great as far as it goes. Hope in time to see most all the other things that editors have to learn spelled out as clearly — and cutely — as this. Speaking as both a still somewhat new editor with much to learn and an instructional designer. 💛 Augnablik (talk) 16:07, 19 December 2024 (UTC)Reply

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