Commons:Upload Wizard feedback

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This page is a place for you to tell the Wikimedia developers what issues you encounter when using the Upload Wizard interface. We welcome your feedback and ideas! To resolve issues, it helps us to have exact steps to reproduce.

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Other important resources:

Phabricator is our issue tracker, see the list of known issues. Ideally, any bugs in Upload Wizard should be reported there (see mw:How to report a bug). Information on how to use your regular Commons/Wikipedia account on Phabricator is available at mw:Phabricator/Help#Creating your account.
If you'd rather not get involved on Phabricator, you can always go to the technical section of Commons' Village pump. You won't find any developers there, but there's a chance that someone can help with your problem or file a bug report for you.

Apart from that, Commons:Upload Wizard carries summary information and Commons:Upload Wizard FAQ tries to answer some of the most frequently asked questions about Upload Wizard.

Archives (except for the earliest, these are generated by MiszaBot):

Specify the same descriptions for all files and publish immediately[edit]

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T360115

Hi, could a setting be added in the description section where a description only needs to be entered for one file, this description is then copied to all uploaded files and the files are published immediately? This would speed up the uploading of multiple files if you don't need to create individual descriptions for each file. With 500 uploaded files at once, you always have to scroll down the entire list of files with input masks to reach the "Publish" button, which takes several minutes until all the input fields for each file are displayed and rendered.

Similar to this is the function "Specify the same information for all files" in the "Select license" step.

Perhaps a button could be added directly under the section "Copy information for all following files to be uploaded..." in the "Describe" step to add a button for publication.

Thank you and best regards --PantheraLeo1359531 😺 (talk) 13:43, 14 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Release rights resetted for every upload[edit]

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T360515

Since I can recall and up until not long ago, as long as I didn't close the browser window, the Upload Wizard would remember my release rights choices between every file batch (set the release rights while uploading the first files -> "upload more files" -> the UW would keep as default the choice I made during the first upload, unless I specifically chose to change it). Now it doesn't anymore. Is it just my browser or was this actually changed? Can we change it back? Because that's a bit annoying when you are uploading lots of files in different batches... Syrio posso aiutare? 17:42, 16 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hey @Syrio, thanks for noticing. I opened a Phabricator ticket about this problem, will try to let you know as soon as possible. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 10:48, 20 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Great, thanks! -- Syrio posso aiutare? 11:01, 20 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I am experiencing the same issue - not only release rights, but also both "Where did you find these works" and "Enter the name..." windows are emptied. Since there is more than a month gone after the issue was reported - when can a fix be expected? Like this the upload wizard is unusable for me. Sincerely, Arjoopy (talk) 08:35, 26 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There are 4 questions that I need to answer every time I use the upload wizard. One of them is the license and there are three valid options for that. But having to click to say that the files are my own work and were not created using AI is a really tedious burden. That might be useful for new users but I urge that this is removed or at not least reset for every upload for established users. Frupa (talk) 17:13, 13 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Canadian English doesn't recognize the same as English[edit]

Hi,

My language set for Commons is Canadian English. When I open the Upload Wizard, it says "Sorry, we could not find a tutorial in your language. The English one is shown instead."

This is a bug that should be fixed. Canadian English is English. Thanks! Myrealnamm (💬talk · ✏️contribs) at 13:36, 8 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Myrealnamm Hi, thanks for your comment. It seems it is a problem of translations and fallback languages. Have you tried fixing this in your preferences, explicating EN-CA, and then EN as languages? Sannita (WMF) (talk) 14:16, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Sannita (WMF): even without particular user settings, shouldn't 'en-whatever' fall back to 'en'? - Jmabel ! talk 18:39, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Sannita (WMF), thanks for your reply. I am not sure which setting to change. Is it "Translation options, assistant language"? That is currently set to default.

However, in the Internationalization section of User Profile, the language is set to en-CA - Canadian English. I would rather not change that because I do prefer Canadian English. Myrealnamm (💬talk · ✏️contribs) at 21:23, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Myrealnamm Yes, try put EN-CA, and then EN as values. Maybe it will work. If it doesn't, I'll open a Phabricator ticket and let the developers investigate the problem.

@Jmabel Yep, it should do that, but I guess another solution would be to translate the tutorial into Canadian English to solve the problem. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 08:46, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Sannita (WMF) There doesn't seem to be a "translate" button. I will try to change the language. Myrealnamm (💬talk · ✏️contribs) at 21:01, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I changed my language in Special:Preferences from en-CA to en. After saving, the "sorry, we could not find a tutorial in your language........" doesn't show anymore. When I changed it back to en-CA, the message "sorry, we could not find...." comes back. Myrealnamm (💬talk · ✏️contribs) at 21:54, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Myrealnamm My guess is that a tutorial in Canadian English is missing, and that's why this message occurs to you. Either the English tutorial is adapted to your version, or you just click on the preference to not show the tutorial when you upload medias. But I'll open a ticket about this fallback not working, and let you know. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 09:01, 17 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Myrealnamm (💬talk · ✏️contribs) at 11:12, 17 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Issues on the new version[edit]

I noticed that a new version has been put in use today, but it consumes more spaces of memory than the previous version, and it can't copy the descriptions even if the "same as caption" is not selected. From this version, captions became compulsory, but I don't know why this change was made. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 14:01, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@N509FZ Hi, thanks for your comment. Can you please elaborate a bit better on the two points? Especially the "can't copy the descriptions": were you trying to upload more than one media and then copy the description of the first media to the others? If so, it is a bug and it should be fixed, but before filing a Phabricator ticket for this I want to be sure about what to write. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 14:13, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I belive that what N509FZ was trying to say is that the Wizard no longer grabs the metadata description if such is available.

Or maybe it still grabs the metadata description, but this autofilled description then gets deleted by the "same as caption" gimmick and doesn't get restored if and when the user turns off the gimmick. - Dvaderv2 (talk) 15:19, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Plus, when trying to add more files after filling descriptions of an uploading file, the just-filled description would vanish after returning from "Upload" to "Describe". Thus, I'm still skeptical about this glitchy new version. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 01:58, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@N509FZ Can I ask you to describe step-by-step what you're doing and the problem you're encountering in a Phabricator ticket and then link it back to me here? I'm not sure I understood what is happening, and I fear I might describe the wrong process. Thanks in advance! Sannita (WMF) (talk) 08:51, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Try to upload something by yourself, then you'll figure it out. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 09:33, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T365119

@N509FZ Sorry to insist, but I want to understand if I got it right.

You are uploading different medias through UploadWizard that share the same description. The description of the first media does not get copied to other medias when you select the option. Am I right? If so, as I said, this is a bug, and we'll investigate on that immediately. I filed T365119, and put you in copy to the ticket, so you can see what is happening.

About the description vanishing after returning from Upload to Describe, I'm not sure what is going on. I must insist on you describing better what is happening. I know you are frustrated, but I'm here to help you fixing this annoying bug. I can assure you I will make my best to make it fixed as soon as possible. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 10:14, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately the previous glitches still exist. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 00:12, 17 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Upload (Files 1, 2) → Release rights → Describe (descriptions of Files 1, 2 filled) → Release rights → Describe (previously-filled descriptions of Files 1, 2 MISSING). That's what happened even if another file isn't added. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 00:19, 17 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@N509FZ We found the problem to the first problem and put a fix to it. It should be fixed in a matter of days. I apologise on behalf of the team for the disruption. For this other problem, it's gonna take a bit more time. I'll open a ticket as soon as possible about it. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 08:56, 17 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm, let me examine... the metadata still can't be read (such as the "title" of the uploading file which has been previously set in the "properties" before uploading), and still the filled description in the UploadWizard goes missing after "Describe → Release rights → Describe" process. Wait a minute, I didn't see "take a bit more time", so I still reserve the rights of commentation until the glitch is finally solved. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 11:52, 17 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@N509FZ It really depends how complicated it is, and then we have to wait for the deployment train to go. I'll keep you posted about it. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 17:57, 18 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Roger that, but by the time it got done, comments and objections would have flooded this page already. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 18:04, 18 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T365344

@N509FZ I opened phab:T365344 about the second problem you posted. Please double check that the ticket is indeed the bug that you found, and that I reported it right. I hope this will get soon on dev's radar. --Sannita (WMF) (talk) 08:54, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That's it. Be careful next time. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 09:01, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@N509FZ phab:T365119 should be fixed today (the patch should be going live in these minutes), while for phab:T365344 we're still working on this. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 10:11, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@N509FZ Also phab:T365344 should be fixed now, please confirm me it works. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 13:47, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Can we please get rid of the "compulsory" captions? Causes more problems than it solves, the idea of captions is to be a summarized description but I shouldn't be forced to add one. Where has the community made this "compulsory"? Bidgee (talk) 10:25, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, and I also am experiencing the wizard failing to copy the descriptions. It shouldn't be forced upon me. I'm writing very short captions, but my descriptions are already pretty succinct as they are. SWinxy (talk) 11:38, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Bidgee @SWinxy The change about caption has been presented in a previous community discussion, you can find a rationale for the change in the image on the right. As for the copy description, I opened a ticket for that, and we'll look into it ASAP. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 13:58, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Please make it optional, I see zero community consensus in making it compulsory.

The rationale totally ignores the fact that detailed descriptions will be made in the captions (when it should be a short summary of the description) and it is no different (between descriptions and captions) when it comes to multilingual. Bidgee (talk) 18:51, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Sannita: I completely disagree with the assertion that there was consensus that captions should be mandatory. Nobody remarked on that part. Nobody. I checked the discussion.

Also, that image does not sufficiently justify this change. At all.

Make Captions a required field. - Most users (especially new users) find entering captions significantly easier than providing detailed descriptions. - Additionally, captions offer a more structure multilingual field that we should encourage users to fill out.
— Text from image regarding captions.

Nothing about that is a rational for this change.

It's a maybe a good rational for maybe accepting the caption as an alternative to the description field, but sure doesn't justify mandating it if you've used the description field.-- The Navigators (talk) 07:27, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Also Sdkb raised about "Captions offer a more structured multilingual field," but never got an answer for it. I again will state it does nothing to add structured multilingual description in the caption or even the description, since I would be only adding what language I know. So this forced change does nothing to support the increase in multilingual captions/descriptions.

The fact is caption is also licensed under CC0 (this isn't made clear in the UW BTW), whereas the description is licensed under CC-SA 4.0, is misleading contributors.

The fact the developers claim the change had community support is a joke (there was no site-wide notice or even proposal on Village Pump) and the fact they refuse to engauge to the opposition for the change is a problem and have not learned from the past. Bidgee (talk) 08:44, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That's it. Bureaucracy is destroying this (previously) convenient platform. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 09:50, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't necessarily agree with Bidgee's last remark (on user recalcitrance), but I completely agree that captions are not mandatory and do not have any localization advantage over descriptions. In my opinion they were a somewhat questionable addition to the structured data (there is nothing particularly structured about them). The only advantage I see to them over descriptions is the fact that it is probably easier for a machine to find a data element in SDC than to parse a template, but machines are not our primary audience. - Jmabel ! talk 14:02, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(copying my last comment in another thread) I'm relaying your opinions to the team, and we're discussing what to do. One of the possibilities that we could suggest is that you can uncheck the "same as caption" option, and then description is kept mandatory and captions will not be mandatory. This is to force users to at least describe in wikitext the image, and prevent upload of medias without description. Would it work? Sannita (WMF) (talk) 08:30, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Like the previous version, the description is kept mandatory, and will read the file title (like that in "Properties" when it comes to Windows, instead of file name) in the metadata of files (if applicable). N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 09:08, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Sannita (WMF) - That seems fine.

How I understand your description of the fix: Description remains mandatory; caption is optional. However the caption can be filled out instead of description, with the caption being used to automatically-populate the description on upload. (I will agree with the suggestion of others, to add a user setting allowing you to set manually entered descriptions are your default, so you don't have to uncheck the 'Use caption as description' checkbox.)

I think that arrangement accomplishes the objective of the change in the best way: Providing the alternative caption option to those who need/want it; while not becoming an extra frustration to uploaders who do not wish to create a caption and description.

Thank you for revisiting this matter when the issue was raised.-- The Navigators (talk) 00:36, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Jmabel @Bidgee @SWinxy @Jeff G. pinging you directly to see if the proposal above ("you can uncheck the "same as caption" option, and then description is kept mandatory and captions will not be mandatory") works for you. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 10:11, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Sannita (WMF): Yes, that would work for me. — 🇺🇦Jeff G. ツ please ping or talk to me🇺🇦 10:44, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No objection. - Jmabel ! talk 17:41, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sure! SWinxy (talk) 03:57, 27 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Sannita (WMF): I use descriptions, but I stubbornly refuse to release my contributions under CC0 because I want attribution. This needs to be fixed NOW. — 🇺🇦Jeff G. ツ please ping or talk to me🇺🇦 12:50, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks everyone for your patience about this whole change. We wanted, though, to explain a bit our case to why we pushed more for captions, and highlight the differences between captions and descriptions.

It is true that, on the filepage, just like one can see the captions, you can just as easily read the description in all the languages it has been provided. However, the file page is not the only place where a textual description is relevant, and this is where captions have the benefit of being an isolated piece of information.

Descriptions are part of the wikitext, which could be anything: it could be in any language (often many at once), it can have lots of extra information (coordinates, authors, data, source, categories, ...) and its structure could be anything (although luckily, templates try to somewhat standardize that). Extracting individual pieces of information (like a description) from the wikitext requires parsing, which is quite an undertaking (time & CPU) and full of edge cases that need to be covered, which means re-use of this information is somewhere on a scale ranging from very impractical to nigh impossible.

Now, there isn’t currently a whole lot of re-use of descriptions/captions. MultimediaViewer is a notable one; VisualEditors's upload dialog another. They use the ImageInfo API to extract the description from the wikitext, but doing that for a larger batch of images isn’t feasible, because parsing all pages is too intensive and takes too long. This essentially excludes the ability of adding such information to large image lists (e.g. search results).

Speaking of search, this is another area where machines having targeted access to such information could improve things. While working on MediaSearch, we found that the correlation between matches in wikitext, and the accuracy of those results is very low, despite it containing a massive trove of information in the form of descriptions. But it’s all just a blob of “unknown language” content, and we can’t tell that information apart from the rest of the (usually not relevant to search) wikitext, which leads to so much noise that the valuable information is drowned out.

Re-use of information in any form pretty much requires that the data is easily accessible to “machines”, which is not currently the case for descriptions. We can and have worked around some limitations (e.g. MultimediaViewer), but only to a certain extent. Descriptions are superior to captions in some ways (length and formatting being two significant ones), but captions are superior to access and thus in enabling re-use. Whether or not that is sufficient reason to make them required is obviously debateable, but we must acknowledge both their strengths.

I hope this can clarify why we were pushing on making captions more prominent with our last change. However, since there is sufficient consensus on this page, we decided to make captions not mandatory if users uncheck the "same as description" option. This means that users will be required to insert captions if they will keep the option checked, but will not required to do so if they intend to insert only descriptions in wikitext by unchecking the option.

This will likely take some more time to do, as we need to prepare the code, test it twice - because we don't want another explosion of bugs like last time! - and then let the deployment happen. If everything goes well, this will mean that by beginning of June the solution will be made available. I will post the relevant Phabricator ticket here as soon as it will be ready, and I will keep you posted about it. I only have to ask you for some more patience while we do the job you're asking us to do. Thanks in advance! Sannita (WMF) (talk) 14:15, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, all above are very nice features, but the key point here is that the community and a single user should have a choice how and in what extend contributes to the movement. There is always a possibility for anyone to improve files' descriptions, captions, categories, etc. Please don't demand, but support. Maybe machines - like search engines - could use SDC more, otherwise what is all the wikidata effort for? Nova (talk) 15:56, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Sannita (WMF): Maybe next time you want to make a major drastic change, such as mandatory captions, put in a proposal on Commons:Village pump/Proposals‎. The fact it is not disclosed to the uploader that captions are licensed as CC0 is wrong and misleading (since an uploader who has no idea about Wikidata, wouldn't know that it is licensed as CC0).

Why not rollback to the version prior to the mandatory caption change? Seems to be quick making that change but dragging your feet when removing it. Bidgee (talk) 20:13, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

+1, but making the Proposals known to more users outside Village Pump is another thing. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 15:02, 25 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Making the captions compulsory is definitely harmful change. The more time it takes to upload, the fewer files will be uploaded. I always write detailed descriptions in two languages for my uploads, and I have no desire and necessity to waste my time additionally on these "captions". If somebody wants the "captions", he should add them himself. I hope that Upload Wizard will be reverted to the previous version. Sneeuwschaap (talk) 23:03, 27 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Caption same as Description: boring and confusing[edit]

The upload system that started today is boring and confusing. It would make it easier for users who insert the same information in the "caption" and in the "description", but it makes it more difficult for those who add other notes in the description. It forces you to open the text box for each file, by removing the check mark from the checkbox, and also does not work copying the description of the first file in the following ones. Fabrizio Garrisi (talk) 18:43, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Moreover, disturbing. Such an abrupt update could possibly withdraw some uploaders from Commons from my perspective. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 07:16, 17 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I’m ceasing uploading photographs until it is rolled back or is made optional. Forcing uploaders to add captions will not end up with better captions and file descriptions. Just creating further work for the volunteer community. Bidgee (talk) 07:53, 17 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi all, we're fixing the bug that doesn't allow to copy descriptions to other medias. In a matter of days, the fix should we working.

As for users who differentiate between captions and descriptions, I already asked the developers if it's possible to have another preference that would allow users to check/uncheck by default that option, so that they don't have to do it every time. This is likely to take some more time to discuss, and I will keep you posted on that. --Sannita (WMF) (talk) 09:10, 17 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Just make captions optional, like how they were before this change that had no community support was made. Bidgee (talk) 11:00, 17 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There are more bugs in this change, and I would expect developers perform heavy tests before pushing it to production for so important form. It is really disturbing. In addition to above - the caption field is required in some scenarios even if I uncheck the same as option and provide the description. The licenses for captions and descriptions are different, so I expect to be able to decide what I want to do. With this change it seems we are pushed to fill the captions (CC0). Also, there is another bug with the copying feature - the automatic numbering of the file names doesn't work properly - the numbers become all the same and thus the validation fails, so I need to correct them manually. Nova (talk) 08:42, 18 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The preference that would allow users to check/uncheck by default the option in question is a very good idea, but then the captions should be optional. Nova (talk) 08:49, 18 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

IMHO only filling one of these two (caption or description) should be mandatory, at the user's discretion. If the user chose the caption (CC0), the description should be automatically filled with the caption then. Strakhov (talk) 16:40, 18 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I would not even do this. The description should be mandatory and the box that allows copying the caption to the description should be empty by default. Only if it is checked intentionally by the user, the caption should be automatically copied to the description. --Robert Flogaus-Faust (talk) 17:17, 18 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

BTW, there are other differences than the license between captions and descriptions. Captions cannot contain markup, so no links, no bold or italic characters etc. See also Commons:File captions. --Robert Flogaus-Faust (talk) 17:21, 18 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The only issue I have with this is that, with captions not allowing markup, meaning it's not possible to set scientific names in cursive as they should be, if someone is uploading photos of life forms they'll have to fix it manually in the description. Very small problem for me, could be bigger for others. -- Syrio posso aiutare? 20:31, 18 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

+1. No markup means no formatting required by scientific standards, but also no links and length limitations. It is OK, but as long as it is also clear that captions are not the same as descriptions in the matter of purpose, license, content and thus available functions. IMHO simplifying one scenario shouldn't disturb others. Nova (talk) 12:48, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There isn't even changes in the "preference". N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 02:07, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Complicating the procedures for users is a grave taboo for developers, unfortunately some of them didn't realize it, which would eventually lead to the destruction of users' trust. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 02:14, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Updated version of Wizard Upload are increasing difficult, its dismayed by any users if uploading a files. It's so pretty criticising, i recently uploading a new files and copied from titles. Caption-required are worst solution. Firzafp supports #SaveHTTP (talk) 07:23, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Going to join in on this being mandatory when you provide a description, and the 'Same as caption' check box being checked by default are both garbage. It's aggravating because I provide detailed descriptions, and the caption function adds nothing. Joining Bidgee in refusing to do further uploads until this is reversed. I'm not doing the extra work of devising inferior captions, and I'm not half-assing my uploads by giving them a 250 character description without markup. I already have to do enough extra work fixing my descriptions post upload, because of format issues I can't check for due to the lack of a preview function when typing up file descriptions.
(Love that I noticed this after I went through doing doing descriptions for 14 files, going to upload and getting told "Caption is required" warning and having to go do that.)--The Navigators (talk) 06:14, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

+1. same here. waiting for the wizard to be rolled back to last stable version. RZuo (talk) 07:03, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I completely agree with the criticism about the new system. Undo the changes, please. Now.--LBM1948 (talk) 07:09, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, new problem

Upload more photos of the same subject
Manually write the captions AND the description in the first photo
Automatically copy the details for every photo
If you do not manually uncheck the "description same as caption" checkbox in very other photo, the descriptions will not be copied. -- Syrio posso aiutare? 09:48, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Syrio The description bug is known and there is a fix coming. We apologise for the disruption

@all: I'm relaying your opinions to the team, and we're discussing what to do. One of the possibilities that we could suggest is that you can uncheck the "same as caption" option, and then description is kept mandatory and captions will not be mandatory. This is to force users to at least describe in wikitext the image, and prevent upload of medias without description. Would it work? Sannita (WMF) (talk) 08:28, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hey I see the metadata is back in the "description", but still, "Caption is required". N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 11:39, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

As I said in another thread (they're becoming too many to follow, so sorry if I'm losing pieces here and there), we're about to deploy most of the needed fixes by Wednesday. I'm not sure caption being not mandatory are within them, as I'm flying back home right now, and I don't have everything under my eyes. Please a bit more of patience on your side, I'm doing my best to speed up things. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 19:35, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Bidgee @RZuo @LBM1948 @Firzafp @Nova Pinging you directly to see if the proposal above ("you can uncheck the "same as caption" option, and then description is kept mandatory and captions will not be mandatory") works for you as well. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 10:13, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Sannita, yes it will work for me, thank you, but does it mean there will be also a preference for unchecking this option permanently? Or at least by one click for all the files? I mostly use multi-file uploads, so doing it for every file would be an unnecessary inconvenience. Nova (talk) 19:07, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Sannita (WMF), numbering is fixed, unchecking the "same as" option for the first file is also copied to the rest files (I would appreciate a preference for it, really). But, the captions are still required. When do you plan to fix it? Nova (talk) 13:37, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Nova Thanks for your message, I'm glad the bugs are fixed. As for captions, we're discussing the issue in Commons:Upload Wizard feedback#Issues on the new version, there will be an update on our side soon-ish (couple of hours max). Sannita (WMF) (talk) 14:00, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion for developers - make a mock wizard and test new concepts before releasing it[edit]

can you make a mock / test / beta version and invite users to try it out first, before you roll out major changes?

no need to even mention the controversy about the caption/description change. how could you get the automatic numbering wrong, and not patch it after 3 days now? https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T365107 the fix is sitting idle since 17 may?!

with 200 million dollars a year this kind of horrible user experience is completely unexpected and unacceptable. (m:Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan/2023-2024/Finances#Detailed_budget). RZuo (talk) 09:26, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"Wait for the deployment train to go"? What if the users all left here before it goes? N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 10:15, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What if? What if random backports brought the site down multiple times a week like in the 2000s ? I mean i get the frustration, but let’s be realistic at the same time. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:12, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

But the new version of UW seems to consume more memory. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 11:41, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This isn't the excuse of WORSENING the user experience after nearly 20 years. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 11:56, 19 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It’s not that bad. Just because you experience this thing, doesn’t mean we don’t have similar problems in other areas affecting other people all the time. You are reflecting your experience and posing as if this is everyone’s experience. While all of what you say is true, in the grand scheme of things, we are talking about a minute amount of users, it will not be the end of the world. Argue the point, not some theoretical eternal universality that doesn’t exist. Things break, and then they have to get fixed. As long as they get fixed, it’s ok. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:56, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

But if the hearts of users were broken, fixing will be a more complicated work. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 13:11, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

uploaders are quite important for this website.
the wizard in its current broken form is only good for a single upload, or if the user diligently types filenames for every single file.

so i dont think it's "a minute amount of users".RZuo (talk) 13:18, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes it is. Wikimedia serves millions of users. It is thus a minute amount of users (relatively). I know that hurts peoples feelings, as if it diminishes their contributions. But it doesn’t, they are just cold facts. Besides, millions of people use Aliexpress and there is not a piece of that website that ‘works’ as it is supposed to and it breaks more often than you buy things from it, yet it is wildly popular. Perspective is very important here. We can be glad we have 4 people working on UploadWizard at all after 10 years, let’s help them, correct them and guide them instead of making them walk the plank when they made a mistake. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 17:25, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@TheDJ: I've got problems with Aliexpress, too. :) — 🇺🇦Jeff G. ツ please ping or talk to me🇺🇦 16:04, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@RZuo We test all the changes on Commons beta version, before porting it to production. The fix is being double checked today to verify everything is ok and will, highly probably, be ported today and be live in a couple of days. Given what happened, we're taking extra care that the fix actually fixes the problem and doesn't cause other problems. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 08:15, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Roger that. Be MORE careful when performing next changes. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 08:41, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Over 900 MB of memory would be used when uploading 10 or more files. Is that another issue in Phabricator? N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 17:32, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

légende obligatoire[edit]

Bonjour, la légende obligatoire alors qu'il y a une description est une contrainte inutile. Cordialement.

Google traduction : Hello, the obligatory caption when there is a description is an unnecessary constraint. Sincerely. Finoskov (talk) 10:26, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Finoskov Merci pour votre message. Je vais en faire part à l'équipe de développeurs et nous prendrons une décision à ce sujet. Salut. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 12:05, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Новый интерфейс загрузки[edit]

BEGIN copied from Commons:Village pump
Кто-то с недавних пор поменял интерфейс загрузки файлов. При копировании названий файлов автоматическая нумерация не работает. Если загружаешь семь файлов, то все они будут иметь число семь в своём названии после копирования, а не порядковый номер по загрузке. Зачем и почему? Теперь ещё и приходится заполнять подпись к файлу, что стало обязательным пунктом при загрузке. Она копируется в последующие загрузки, но дело в том, что размер подписи ограничен. Зачем нужна обязательная подпись, если есть обязательное описание? Мало того, описание теперь не копируется в последующие загрузки, хотя такая галочка копирования у меня всегда нажата, в результате чего приходится копировать вручную. Зачем нужно было предпринимать такие нововведения, которые затрудняют мне работу в Викискладе? Кто-нибудь советовался в теми, кто активно и помногу загружает изображения на Викисклад? --Engelberthumperdink (talk) 12:41, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]
END copied from Commons:Village pump - Jmabel ! talk 17:08, 20 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I see more uploaders complaning about this issue, well this problem became too grave to be ignored. N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 11:32, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hey I see the metadata is back in the "description", but still, "Caption is required". N509FZ Talk 前置，有座！Front engine with seats! 11:38, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

All of the fixes to this problems are being deployed on Wednesday, probably the caption being mandatory might require some more time to fix. I'll be sure of it soon, right now I'm flying back home and I don't have everything under my eyes. Thanks for your patience. --Sannita (WMF) (talk) 19:33, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

“probably the caption being mandatory might require some more time to fix” it seems to me that you’re going to drag your feet, just revert back to the version prior to the mandatory captions. Bidgee (talk) 19:38, 26 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Some glitches[edit]

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T365720

(Copied from Village Pump.)

1. I tried to type ''...'' (pairs of single quotes) around a word in the "Title" field, wanting italics but forgetting that it was the filename, and got the incorrect message "Please write a more informative title". No matter how "informative" I made the title, the message persisted until I removed the quote characters.

2. Uploading multiple files, "Copy title (with automatic numbering)" did not create automatic numbering. Instead, it put the same numeric suffix on all files, which I then had to change manually.

3. Uploading multiple files, "Copy description" no longer seems to work. I'm guessing that this may be because the "Same as caption" setting is not turned off for the subsequent files, which I suppose it needs to be for the description to be picked up.

ITookSomePhotos (talk) 21:44, 21 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @ITookSomePhotos, bugs #2 and #3 are known and are about to be fixed, today the fix should be deployed. Sorry for the disruption. As for the quote bug, I think this depends on local guidelines, pinging @Jmabel for confirmation. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 10:06, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Sannita (WMF): clearly the wrong message if the problem is an unacceptable character. - Jmabel ! talk 17:42, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, that's good to know for #2 and #3. The "quote" bug is not a huge deal but was momentarily confusing until I worked out what was going on. Don't know what you mean by "local guidelines" though ... no "guideline" could make the message correct. The message just needs to be changed to something more informative, referring to the invalid character(s). ITookSomePhotos (talk) 17:47, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@ITookSomePhotos My bad, I completely misread #1, I'm sorry. Maybe it's yet another bug that we didn't notice... I'll open a ticket about it tomorrow, and we'll investigate it. I hope to let you know soon. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 20:21, 22 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@ITookSomePhotos As promised, I opened phab:T365720 about issue #1, I'll keep you posted on this. The other two bugs should be already fixed by now. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 14:37, 23 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Importing images from Flickr via UploadWizard is partially broken[edit]

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T365412

Some parts of the Flickr importing process in UploadWizard have recently broken. Specifically, it no longer imports the title and description from Flickr, but instead leaves them blank. Nosferattus (talk) 18:33, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Sannita (WMF): Just a suggestion, but in the future, when rolling out major changes to UploadWizard, why not host them on a staging server and ask the Commons community to thoroughly test them so that the bugs can be found before they are deployed to Commons? It seems like this would make for a smoother transition and build good will and collaboration with the community. Wasn't there a mirror of Commons set up a long time ago just for this purpose? Nosferattus (talk) 18:39, 24 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Nosferattus: Please see Sannita's post of 08:15, 20 May 2024 (UTC) above. — 🇺🇦Jeff G. ツ please ping or talk to me🇺🇦 13:00, 25 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Nosferattus Thanks for reporting this bug, I'll pass it on to the devs and try to make it fixed as soon as possible. As for the bugs, we already test all our changes in a beta before passing them on into production, but unfortunately some malfunctions happen anyway and we can only find out after we roll a change. This is how it goes unfortunately, and there's nothing we can do about it, except apologise, asking for your patience and fix the bugs as soon as we can. Hope this clarifies the problem. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 13:30, 25 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Sannita (WMF): When you say, "we can only find out after we roll a change," are you saying these problems are not reproducible in the Beta environment, or that your current set of Beta testers failed to find them? - Jmabel ! talk 15:29, 25 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Jmabel I mean that these bugs did not show on Beta, and for some reason showed only in production. I don't know why, and I'll ask the devs for more information at the next meeting. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 12:41, 26 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Sannita (WMF): if these cannot be replicated in Beta, clearly someone needs to work out how the Beta environment differs from the production environment. I'm sure I'm not saying anything you don't know when I say that it is probably worth eliminating such differences if possible, but even if the differences cannot be fixed, that would presumably mean that there is a class of testing that should happen immediately upon release to production. - Jmabel ! talk 01:55, 27 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

i mean, why not just make a Special:UploadWizard and a "Special:UploadWizardBeta" both on commons? whenever you have new stuff, push it to "Special:UploadWizardBeta". after users have used it for like 10000 or so uploads, found all the bugs and got them fixed, then you push it to the Special:UploadWizard. so any fat fingers wont outright disable the up-and-running good old one. RZuo (talk) 19:20, 25 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@RZuo Sorry, but this is unfeasible, because then we would need to support two different UploadWizards, and it would be untenable. I will push for more stress tests on Beta Commons, though I cannot promise that bugs won't show up. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 12:42, 26 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sure, you can never promise or guarantee that there will never be any bugs but the amount of them should be minimised. The amount of issues/bugs (something that is in a production environment) recently is rather unacceptable and points to a lack of testing and quality control. Bidgee (talk) 19:33, 26 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Bidgee I agree that the last update was rather unfortunate in this regard, and we're already taking measures for this to not happen again, at least to this extent. Sannita (WMF) (talk) 10:49, 27 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]