Poor connection at the event
At parties the network is often overloaded: lots of guests, one Wi-Fi, one cell tower. Uploads then get slow or stop. That’s annoying but manageable – as long as you know what the app handles for you and what it doesn’t.
What the app does automatically
Section titled “What the app does automatically”- It retries failed transfers – a limited number of times. Each file gets up to four attempts, with a growing pause in between. If it doesn’t work by then, the file counts as failed. Photos you upload straight from the camera or for a photo task are retried by the app up to three times (“We will try again in 5 seconds (attempt 2 of 3).”); after that you decide on the error card with Retry, Choose another photo or Discard this upload.
- It throttles when the server is busy instead of giving up. You then see “Server is busy — upload speed reduced temporarily, continuing automatically”. Those waiting times do not count against the four attempts.
- It uploads several files in parallel and adapts the pace. On a phone it says Mobile optimized.
What the app does not do
Section titled “What the app does not do”So: what you see is the actual state. Don’t rely on something “still running in the background”.
While the transfer is running
Section titled “While the transfer is running”- Keep the tab open. The upload lives in the open tab. If you switch to another app, leave Photogala running in the background.
- Don’t lock the device. When a phone locks itself, many browsers throttle or pause the transfer. That’s why Photogala keeps the screen on by itself while the upload dialog is open or uploads are running – don’t lock it by hand.
- Minimising is fine. You can minimise the upload window and keep browsing the gallery – a small indicator shows the progress and reports “Upload failed” if something gets stuck. The close button, too, only minimises while something is still uploading.
- Navigate away only after the start. Once you have tapped Start Upload, the window survives a page change inside the app. If you change page while you are still selecting or reviewing, the dialog closes and your selection is gone.
- Pause if you need to. Pause Upload stops it, Continue Uploading carries on – handy when you walk over to a spot with better reception.
When only part of the batch went through
Section titled “When only part of the batch went through”That’s the normal case on a weak connection, and it’s not a problem:
- Everything that finished is safely in the gallery. Those photos are not at risk.
- The failed files stay in the list marked red. Individually, Try Again helps; at the end Try Failed Files Again picks up all of them at once.
- If the selection is already lost (tab closed, page reloaded), simply pick the files again – ideally all of them. The server recognizes the ones already uploaded by their content and skips them as Duplicate. So nothing lands in the gallery twice.
Add large videos later
Section titled “Add large videos later”Videos are many times larger than photos and the first candidates for a failed transfer. At the party it pays to send the photos first and add the clips later on a calm Wi-Fi connection. As long as the event is running you can add more media at any time. What else applies to videos is covered in Can I upload videos?
