Possible web upload bug: Canon R5 JPEG nominations instantly rejected with blank thumbnails

[rvenes]

Hi,

I think I may have encountered a photo-processing/upload issue with Wayspot nominations submitted through the Wayfarer website.

Today I submitted several nominations using JPEG photos taken with a Canon EOS R5. The images are sharp, correctly exposed, and were uploaded directly through the Wayfarer web nomination interface.

The strange part is that the nominations were rejected almost instantly — approximately one second after submission. There was clearly no time for normal community review.

I submitted six nominations using Canon EOS R5 photos, and all six were immediately rejected. They now also show blank/missing thumbnails in my Contributions list.

All received the same rejection reason:

“The submitted photo is of poor quality. For example, a photo that is blurry, too dark, or taken from too far away.”

I then submitted another nomination using a photo taken with my phone. That nomination was accepted into the queue normally, and its thumbnail displays correctly.

This makes me suspect that something may be failing when the Wayfarer web uploader processes these particular JPEG files, rather than the rejection actually being about photographic quality.

As one example, I am attaching the nomination for this Stikk UT! trail marker.

Title:
Stikk UT! – Draumeplassen ved moloen

Description:
Offisiell Stikk UT!-turmarkør ved moloen på Ylvisåker, langs ruta «Draumeplassen på Ylvisåkerneset». Skiltet viser vegen vidare langs den opparbeidde gangvegen ved fjorden mot gapahuken og badeplassen.

Supplemental information:
Dette er ein permanent Stikk UT!-turmarkør frå Sogn Friluftsråd langs den registrerte ruta «Draumeplassen på Ylvisåkerneset». Frå skiltet følgjer ruta den opparbeidde gangvegen langs fjorden vidare til neste Stikk UT!-markør og fram mot gapahuken ved badeplassen. Ruta er registrert i det offisielle Stikk UT!-kartet og legg til rette for turgåing, friluftsliv og utforsking av området.

The trail is an official Stikk UT! route and can be verified here:

StikkUT! Norge Admin

I have attached:

• a screenshot showing the rejected nominations and their missing thumbnails
• the main photo from the R5
• the supporting photo from the R5

The important point is that all six R5-photo nominations failed immediately in the same way, while a subsequent phone-photo nomination entered the queue normally.

Has anyone else experienced this when uploading high-resolution JPEGs from a DSLR/mirrorless camera through the Wayfarer website?

If useful, I can also provide the original image dimensions, file sizes, EXIF information, and additional examples from the other rejected nominations.

[elijustrying]

Hello and welcome

I shall move this to Bug Reports & Technical Support

[hankwolfman]

In the past I know there’s been reports of image uploads failing if the file size is too large. I’m wondering if this is what has happened here?

[rvenes]

yes, thats. a better place for it i guess.

[V1sionGrid]

Check the Author/Copyright settings in the camera menu. I had the same issue with my camera.

Upload Issue with DSLR and Mirrorless Cameras

I found the solution! The issue was caused by the author/copyright section in the EXIF file, which can be configured in the camera menu. I had done a software update just before this problem started occurring, and I completely forgot that this might be the cause. Before the update, the copyright section was not activated, but now it is. I just tried uploading a picture with this fix, and it worked!

[ScopelyExpAaron]

Hey @rvenes ,

I see that the images failed to upload successfully to our servers, probably due to their large size. This is why they were declined.

Best,

[rvenes]

Thanks, but “probably due to their large size” is not a satisfactory answer.

These files were only around 4–5 MB. More importantly, there is already a previous report of almost the exact same failure mode with DSLR/mirrorless JPEGs, where file size was initially blamed, but the actual trigger turned out to be Author/Copyright information in the EXIF metadata.

So I need the Wayfarer team to check what actually happened here, not guess.

Six Canon R5 submissions failed immediately and appeared with blank thumbnails in Contributions. A phone photo submitted immediately afterwards uploaded successfully and entered the queue. That is a very clear and reproducible difference.

If the images genuinely failed to upload to your servers, then please explain how the system was able to reject the nominations for “poor quality”. An image that was never successfully received cannot logically be evaluated as blurry, too dark or taken from too far away. In that case, the rejection reason is simply wrong and the web submission system is mishandling an upload failure.

Please check the actual server/upload logs and provide concrete answers:

1. What is the exact maximum supported JPEG file size for Web Submission?

2. Did any of my approximately 4–5 MB files actually exceed that limit?

3. What specific error did the image processor return for these six uploads?

4. Does Author/Copyright EXIF metadata cause the current Web Submission image processor to fail?

5. Why are failed image uploads being recorded as rejected Wayspot nominations instead of presenting the user with an upload error?

“Probably” is not enough here. This is a technical bug report with a reproducible pattern, and I am asking for the actual cause shown by your system.

[rvenes]

Thank you, @V1sionGrid — this is exactly the kind of concrete information I was looking for.

I checked my Canon R5 files, and I do have Author/Copyright information stored in the EXIF metadata. I will remove that information from a couple of the affected images and re-upload them later today to see if that solves the problem.

Your previous experience is particularly useful because the symptoms sound almost identical to mine: camera JPEGs fail, the thumbnails appear blank, and the nominations are immediately rejected.

That also makes the official response blaming the file size rather frustrating. “Probably due to their large size” sounds like speculation rather than an actual diagnosis, especially when the files are only around 4–5 MB and there is already evidence of the same problem being caused by EXIF metadata.

So thank you for pointing me towards something concrete and reproducible. I’ll test it this evening and report back with the result.

[rvenes]

Quick follow-up with a reproducible test, because I have now confirmed that file size was not the cause.

I re-exported the same Canon R5 images after removing the Author/Copyright metadata from the JPEG files and submitted the nomination again.

This time it worked immediately: the thumbnail displays correctly and the nomination is now in queue.

One of the files used in this successful test was exported from the R5 at full resolution and full JPEG quality and was around 29 MB — significantly larger than the approximately 4–5 MB files that previously failed.

So the earlier explanation that the images failed “probably due to their large size” was simply not correct.

The reproducible behaviour is now:

• Canon R5 JPEGs with Author/Copyright metadata → upload appears to complete, thumbnails are blank, nominations are immediately rejected

• Canon R5 JPEGs without Author/Copyright metadata → images upload correctly, thumbnails display normally and the nomination enters the queue

• A full-resolution, full-quality ~29 MB JPEG works once that metadata is removed

This strongly points to an Author/Copyright metadata-processing issue in Web Submission, not a file-size problem.

And to be clear: if Niantic does not allow images containing Author/Copyright metadata because Niantic needs the appropriate rights to use submitted Wayspot photos, I can completely understand and accept that requirement.

But if that is a requirement, it needs to be clearly documented.

The Web Submission page should either state that images containing Author/Copyright metadata are not supported, or the uploader should detect it and return a meaningful error such as:

“This image contains Author/Copyright metadata and cannot be uploaded. Please remove that metadata and try again.”

What should not happen is what happened here: the site tells the user that the submission was successfully completed, the image later appears as a blank thumbnail, the nomination is immediately declined, and the user receives an unrelated “poor quality photo” rejection.

There is no reasonable way for a user to diagnose an EXIF metadata problem from that behaviour.

I also want to thank @V1sionGrid for providing the useful lead. Their previous experience with exactly this Author/Copyright issue pointed me towards a concrete test, and that test immediately reproduced the solution.

I would strongly encourage the Wayfarer team to investigate the actual metadata handling here and document the limitation properly.

And when responding to technical bug reports, please verify the cause before giving answers such as “probably due to their large size.” If the cause is not known, it is better to say that it is still being investigated than to present an unverified guess as the likely explanation.

[rvenes]

No its not! i uploaded a 29 mb file, without the copyright that my Canon R5 puts in the metadata, and it worked fine. I removed the copyright metadata in Adobe Lightroom.