Batch uploading

I’m fairly new to iNaturalist, so please be tolerant if this question is naive or addressed elsewhere (I have tried!).

Uploading observations from desktop to web, with quite large images, is laborious when made one by one. I think I get the picture for batch uploading multiple images of the same observation, but what if I want to upload multiple observations? Could I select, say, 20 different images from my catalogue and upload them all together, then fill in the details for each?

Of course it might not be any quicker than the one by one method, but I get the feeling it would be a streamlined process. I have noticed that some observers seem to upload many different obs. at one sitting - do they do that one by one? I remember a story about one person who decided late in his career to upload thousands of his previously unrecorded observations - would he have done that one by one? Sounds like a heroic task!

So, is there a method for that?

1 Like

Batch uploading via the desktop is quite easy, you can select multiple images at once, and your selected images will appear. Each image will be associated with a ID suggestion, date and time, location, and notes. You can then edit each observation one by one, or even select multiple images to edit location, etc. And when you are satisfied with your edits, you can click “Submit (# of photos selected) observations”, to upload.

4 Likes

Check out the short video at https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/video+tutorials#add_web. That will answer most of your questions. ( I just watched it again and learned a new trick I hadn’t noticed before in 18,000 observations!)

6 Likes

I’ve actually wondered this myself, thank you to everyone who has answered so far! If I may interject, is there a way to do this through the mobile app as well?

1 Like

Unfortunately, I don’t think it is possible to batch upload on mobile. However, if you have cloud service (Google Photos, iCloud, etc.) then you may download all your photos onto a PC, and then batch upload that way. If your photo have date, time and location too, then these data will be imported automatically. Hope this helps :)

1 Like

Thank you! :)

1 Like

And thanks to everyone from me. Posts tell me just what I wanted to know - the video linked above by janetwright is good, if a bit hasty in delivery. “Keep up everyone!”

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.