Add an uploading progress bar/indicator

Feature Requests
1

I would like an upload progress bar, especially when adding media to existing observations, otherwise I have no idea how fast things are moving, if at all (especially with bigger files like animated gifs).

There are three places to upload pics/sounds (on the web - don’t know how things work on the apps):

  1. The Uploader
  2. Clicking the Add picture icon under the existing media on an observation.
  3. Editing an observation and adding a pic/sound there.

I would like a progress indicator on the Uploader (rather than “reading metadata”), but my request is mostly aimed at options 2&3.

When uploading with Option 2, I get zero indication of how the upload is going.
When uploading with Option 3, my browser (Brave) gives me an indication (Firefox does not), but iNat gives me no indication.

This is particularly problematic with gifs.

Option 1 - I have never successfully uploaded a gif with the uploader. Even if it is the only pic. I have to create a blank ob, and then add the gif using Option 2 or 3.

Option 2, the gif disappears after a time (though it plays perfectly while uploading it), and I have to wait 10 minutes before refreshing the ob and finding that the gif is in fact there.

Option 3 always gives me a 503 Gateway timeout (or is it 504?). I then wait 10 minutes and check the ob again, and the gif has usually uploaded.

2

Only if it is actually real though please. A hidden secret of software is that those progress bars are almost always just eye candy to stop users whacking the escape button or similar, and that they really dont accurately show anything.

3 Likes
3

Yes, I find Brave’s progress indicator to be excellent. It says “25% uploaded” etc. and then when the upload is done is says “waiting for iNaturalist”. Then we wait for iNat for a few minutes, then get the gateway timeout. At least I know from the info my browser is giving me that the upload was successful even though iNat doesn’t register it for the next 10 mins.

1 Like