I can't upload GIFs because of "Loading metadata" that doesn't finish

Bug Reports
,
1

Platform: Website

Browser: Chrome

Description of problem: I am uploading camera trapping observations to iNaturalist by converting them from MP4 to GIF with an online converter (https://www.online-convert.com/). In some cases iNaturalist allows me to upload them, although in other cases, it’s impossible due to an infinitely long metadata load

I attach a screenshot of the problem.

WhatsApp Image 2025-01-27 at 20.31.44
WhatsApp Image 2025-01-27 at 20.31.44342×561 36.1 KB

If I analyze in Rstudio with the “exiftoolr” package the metadata of a video that does not allow me to upload, it appears:

       SourceFile             ExifToolVersion

felsil_2024_02_10_02_i01_7.gif 12.76

        FileName              Directory   FileSize   ZoneIdentifier

felsil_2024_02_10_02_i01_7.gif . 19524501 Exists

  FileModifyDate              FileAccessDate

2025:01:27 19:45:26+01:00 2025:01:27 20:36:11+01:00

  FileCreateDate         FilePermissions   FileType   FileTypeExtension

2025:01:27 20:35:48+01:00 100666 GIF GIF

MIMEType GIFVersion ImageWidth ImageHeight HasColorMap

image/gif 89a 692 388 1

ColorResolutionDepth BitsPerPixel BackgroundColor AnimationIterations

      8                  8               126                  0

TransparentColor FrameCount Duration ImageSize Megapixels

   255             210          21       692 388      0.2685

If instead I analyze a GIF that does allow me to upload to iNaturalist:

       SourceFile              ExifToolVersion

felsil_2024_02_10_02_i01_10.gif 12.76

        FileName               Directory   FileSize   ZoneIdentifier

felsil_2024_02_10_02_i01_10.gif . 2766137 Exists

  FileModifyDate              FileAccessDate

2025:01:27 20:09:38+01:00 2025:01:27 20:36:11+01:00

  FileCreateDate         FilePermissions   FileType   FileTypeExtension

2025:01:27 20:35:48+01:00 100666 GIF GIF

MIMEType GIFVersion ImageWidth ImageHeight HasColorMap

image/gif 89a 260 146 1

ColorResolutionDepth BitsPerPixel BackgroundColor PixelAspectRatio

      8                  8               255                1

AnimationIterations TransparentColor FrameCount Duration ImageSize

      0                  255             200          20       260 146

Megapixels

0.03796

I see that the difference between both metadata is that in the GIF that does allow uploading to iNaturalist, the variable “PixelAspectRatio” appears, which does not appear in the other GIF.

2

I’ve no idea about what the issue is, but animated gifs aren’t officially supported by iNat. Staff have also indicated that the current unintentional ability to upload animated gifs may cease at some point in the future. It looks to me like the gif you are uploading might be an animation (based on frame count, duration), but I might be off. So, TLDR, if it’s specifically an issue with an animated gif, staff might not be interested in taking the time to address the issue.

3

Thanks for your reply. It’s a shame that iNaturalist doesn’t support GIF as an observation file. Personally, I think it helps to correctly identify some species. In camera trapping, having a sequence of images (i.e. video) is very useful for identification in this case.

2 Likes
4

iNat currently supports GIFs, and thus animated GIFs are tacitly supported, but they’ve never been officially supported and we make no promises that they work well on iNat.

3 Likes
5

As a possible solution, I have found that by creating the GIF with Rstudio and the “magick” and “av” packages you can adjust the GIF parameters (fps, resolution, duration in frames used) and reduce the file size until it is accepted by the iNaturalist website when uploading the observation. Example in Rstudio:

mp4_file ← “C:/Users/name.mp4” video path
gif ← image_read_video(mp4_file, fps = 7) #adjust fps
optimized_gif ← image_scale(gif, “60%”) #adjust resolution
optimized_gif ← optimized_gif[1:38] #adjust duration
output_gif ← “C:/Users/inat.gif” #gif destination path
image_write(optimized_gif, path = output_gif, format = “gif”)

I hope it can help if anyone had the same concern!