Upload photos and videos
Add photos and videos from your phone or computer straight from the browser.
You can upload from any browser, on a phone or a computer. There are two ways in:
- Upload photos at the top of your Timeline opens a file picker. It’s the quickest way to add a few photos.
- The Imports page (in the sidebar) has an Upload from this device panel. It also takes whole folders and drag-and-drop, and shows how each file is doing.
Files go straight from your device to your library. Your originals are kept exactly as they were.
Upload photos from your phone
- Open Magpie in your phone’s browser and go to Imports.
- Tap Choose photos and videos.
- Pick the photos you want from your camera roll, then confirm.
- Keep the page open until each file says Added.
You can also tap Upload photos on your Timeline. It does the same thing, but only shows a count of what’s been added.
Upload photos from your computer
- Go to Imports.
- Do one of these:
- Click Choose photos and videos and pick files.
- Click Choose a folder to upload everything in a folder, including folders inside it.
- Drag files or folders onto the panel. When it says Drop to upload, let go.
- Keep the tab open until the list shows every file as Added or Already in your library.
Click Clear finished to tidy the list once you’re done.
What you can upload
Photos in JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, AVIF, TIFF and HEIC (the format iPhones use by default) are fully supported: they get previews and appear on your timeline.
Each file can be up to 20 GB. Anything that isn’t a photo or video, like documents or the hidden files your computer leaves in folders, is skipped. You’ll see a note such as “Skipped 3 files that aren’t photos or videos.”
RAW camera files
These RAW formats are supported: CR2 and CR3 (Canon), NEF (Nikon), ARW (Sony), DNG (Adobe and many phones), RAF (Fujifilm), ORF (Olympus) and RW2 (Panasonic).
We don’t develop the RAW data itself. We show the full-size JPEG preview that your camera saved inside the RAW file. Your RAW file is kept exactly as it was, and you can download it any time.
When a RAW file has a preview, its tile looks like any other photo, with its date, place and camera.
A RAW file with no preview yet shows a placeholder: an icon labelled RAW file, the file name and the date. That happens when the file has no preview inside it, or only a small one. Nothing is wrong, and the file is safe. Open it and choose Download original to save it.
If you shot RAW+JPEG, upload both files. When they have the same file name apart from the ending, come from the same camera and were taken within a second of each other, we show them as one photo with a RAW+JPEG badge. See Look at a photo up close.
Videos, and RAW files with no preview yet, show a placeholder instead of a picture: an icon labelled Video or RAW file, the file name and the date. You can still open them and choose Download original.
We can’t make previews of videos yet.
What the statuses mean
| Status | What’s happening |
|---|---|
| Waiting | In line. Up to three files upload at a time. |
| Checking | We’re checking whether this photo is already in your library. |
| Uploading | Sending the file. The percentage shows progress. |
| Finishing | Saving the file to your library. |
| Added — preparing preview | It’s in. We’re making its preview. |
| Added | Done. Videos, and RAW files with no preview yet, show Added straight away. Their tiles stay placeholders. |
| Already in your library | You already have this exact photo, so we didn’t add a second copy. It doesn’t use any more storage. |
| Didn’t upload | Something stopped it. The reason appears next to the file. |
While your photos are being prepared
After a photo uploads, we read its date and place and make the previews you see on the timeline. Most photos take a few seconds. HEIC photos can take a little longer.
Until then, a photo’s tile shows Preparing preview…. The timeline checks for finished previews by itself for a couple of minutes after an upload. If a tile is still waiting after that, reload the page.
If something goes wrong
- A file says “Didn’t upload” or “Connection lost.” We already retry a few times on our own. On the Imports page, click the round arrow next to the file (Try again). If you used Upload photos on the timeline, upload the same files again from Imports.
- “The upload stopped.” No data moved for 30 seconds, so we gave up on that file. This usually means the photo is in a cloud-synced folder (Google Drive, iCloud Drive, Dropbox) and isn’t on your computer yet. Make the folder available offline (in Google Drive for desktop: right-click → Available offline), wait for it to download, then try again.
- You closed the tab or lost connection partway through. Choose the same photos again. Anything that already made it shows Already in your library and is skipped, so only the rest uploads.
- “Added, but we couldn’t make a preview.” Your original is saved. We just couldn’t draw a preview of it.
- “This file’s contents don’t match its type, so it wasn’t kept.” The file’s name says it’s a photo or video, but what’s inside isn’t. It may be damaged.
- “This would go over your … storage limit.” Uploads pause when your library is full. Nothing is deleted. See How storage is counted.
Still stuck? Write to webmaster@artisanagility.com.