# Can't upload to certain sites **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 5, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-upload-to-certain-sites/531447 "2010-03-05T18:03:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-upload-to-certain-sites/531447/1 "2010-03-05T18:03:42Z")
A friend of mine inherited a pretty nice computer running Windows XP. For some reason, she has problems uploading pictures to some sites. She can upload to sites such as mySpace and FaceBook, but when she tries to upload to sites such as Photobucket or Shutterfly, she is unable to do it. The site keeps coming back with an error message that just says something along the lines of “unable to upload photos.” What should I be looking at to fix this? ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-upload-to-certain-sites/531447/2 "2010-03-05T18:05:12Z")
Oops … wrong forum. If a passing mod could move this to General Questions … ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-upload-to-certain-sites/531447/3 "2010-03-05T18:42:14Z")
Look at the site requirements, aka, RTFM. Then look at what she is attempting to upload. For example, there should be a site requirement for uploading images that specifies the image size (X x Y, probably in pixels) and image “weight” (e.g., 100 kb). It’s been my experience working with others most under stand they can post a 640x480 image, but don’t realize the weight is too much. My wife had this specific problem recently. Until we optimized the image and reduced it’s weight from 2 MB to 200 kb, the site wouldn’t take it. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-upload-to-certain-sites/531447/4 "2010-03-05T19:09:09Z")
Did you try with a different browser? Sometimes I get issues uploading with IE but it works fine with Google Chrome or K-Meleon (mozilla) or Firefox ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-upload-to-certain-sites/531447/5 "2010-03-05T19:16:55Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Look at the site requirements, aka, RTFM. Then look at what she is attempting to upload. > > For example, there should be a site requirement for uploading images that specifies the image size (X x Y, probably in pixels) and image “weight” (e.g., 100 kb). It’s been my experience working with others most under stand they can post a 640x480 image, but don’t realize the weight is too much. My wife had this specific problem recently. Until we optimized the image and reduced it’s weight from 2 MB to 200 kb, the site wouldn’t take it. That was one of the first things we looked at and yes, all the files meet the site requirements. > [@Markxxx](#): > > Did you try with a different browser? Sometimes I get issues uploading with IE but it works fine with Google Chrome or K-Meleon (mozilla) or Firefox We tried that and here’s something weird (and I don’t know if it’s related to the problem). She does her web surfing with Firefox. IE, for some reason, will not connect to the net at all, even when I restore all the setting to the defaults. Curiouser and curiouser. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cant-upload-to-certain-sites/531447/6 "2010-03-05T20:07:35Z")
Update: problem 2 solved. Apparently the person who had the computer before she did got a virus at one time which switched the IE connection to look for a proxy server. That’s why it didn’t connect. Might be related to the first problem. I’ve read on other boards of others that have problems uploading with Firefox. She’s going to try it with IE as soon as she gets the chance and see what happens.