This has come up several times (e.g. https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/metadata-takes-forever-to-upload/2615 ) so thought I should make a feature request. When uploading images on the web, observations are stuck for a long time on the message “Uploading metadata…”. This seems to be misleading, AFAICT …

It’s a phrase that’s used to cover both cases - the photo does need to be uploaded, then the metadata parsed on the server and displayed in the browser. To me it’s a bit of six of one, half dozen of the other.

Perhaps, but i found myself waiting and waiting, thinking the problem was the metadata, whereas if it had said “loading file” with the size, or something like that, i might have twigged to the need to make the pic smaller. By no means a major deal, but once i found out, i’ve started downsizing all m…

I agree. I even did a test where I stripped all metadata from the image and then tried uploading it. It still tells me “Loading metadata” even when there isn’t any. So it’s just uploading the image.

Just “Uploading…” would be fine too.

a little off topic, but after loading a bunch of observations over the CNC, i was surprised to find that iNaturalist seems to have at least 2 different kinds of processes(?) that pick up stuff to be uploaded. a lot of my observations were in Memorial Park in Houston, and i upload via the web on a co…

technically, i don’t think you can strip all metadata from a photo. you’ll always have at least things like file date and image size. but i agree that “loading metadata” isn’t the best way to describe what’s happening.

Request still “Loading” a year later …

Bump! This relates to another request I added / is now somewhat the same. Be good to have this under review …. it´s been up a while.

Rename "Loading Metadata"

Feature Requests

sbushes August 31, 2025, 11:40pm 13

as suggested by @pisum in the other thread, if possible I think it would be great to delineate the processes clearly for the user :

Topic		Replies	Views
Addressing "loading metadata" hangs for low bandwidth users Feature Requests	15	350	September 1, 2025
Metadata loading suddenly very slow Bug Reports uploader	21	1378	May 23, 2024
“Loading metadata” taking 4-6 minutes for one picture (size 3.8 MB) Bug Reports	4	356	May 14, 2024
Metadata takes FOREVER to upload General	6	1526	April 30, 2019
Stuck at "Loading metadata" Bug Reports	3	523	August 19, 2020

Rename "Loading Metadata"

Related topics