File Upload Troubleshooting

Select file → Upload initiated?
│
├─ NO → [File Selection Issues](#cant-select-file)
│
└─ YES → Progress bar appears?
    │
    ├─ NO → [Upload Not Starting](#upload-not-starting)
    │
    └─ YES → Upload completes?
        │
        ├─ NO → [Upload Fails or Stalls](#upload-fails-or-stalls)
        │
        └─ YES → File appears in system?
            │
            ├─ NO → [Upload Completed but File Missing](#upload-completed-but-file-missing)
            │
            └─ YES → Quality/preview issues?
                │
                ├─ Poor quality → [Preview Quality Issues](#preview-quality-issues)
                └─ Wrong preview → [Incorrect Thumbnail](#incorrect-thumbnail)

Chrome:
1. Click padlock icon (left of address bar)
2. Verify "Files" permission is "Allow"
3. If blocked, change to "Allow" and refresh page

Firefox:
1. Click shield icon (left of address bar)
2. Verify "Access files" is allowed
3. Allow if blocked, refresh page

Safari:
1. Safari → Preferences → Websites → Files
2. Find app.batbern.ch
3. Set to "Allow"

If "Choose File" button doesn't work:
1. Try drag-and-drop instead
   - Open file explorer/finder
   - Drag file directly onto upload area
   - Drop when blue border appears

2. Try right-click approach
   - Right-click upload area
   - Select "Choose File" from context menu

1. Clear browser cache and cookies
2. Try incognito/private mode (disables extensions)
3. If works in incognito → disable extensions one-by-one to find conflict
4. Try different browser (Chrome recommended)

If you have:
- GIF → Convert to PNG (online: cloudconvert.com)
- BMP → Convert to JPG (online: convertio.co)
- WEBP → Convert to PNG (online: ezgif.com/webp-to-png)
- TIFF → Convert to JPG (Photoshop, Preview, or online tool)

If you have:
- Google Slides → File → Download → PDF or PPTX
- Keynote → File → Export To → PDF or PowerPoint
- ODP (LibreOffice) → File → Export as PDF

If you have:
- Word DOCX → File → Save As → PDF (DOCX support planned)
- Google Docs → File → Download → PDF
- Pages → File → Export To → PDF

1. Press F12 to open Developer Tools
2. Click "Console" tab
3. Look for errors (red text) when clicking upload
4. Common errors:
   - "NetworkError" → Network issue, see Step 2
   - "Validation failed" → File size/format issue, see Step 3
   - "Permission denied" → Role permission issue, contact admin

1. Test connection: open google.com in new tab
2. Check status page: https://status.batbern.ch
3. Disable VPN temporarily (may block AWS S3 requests)
4. Try different network (mobile hotspot vs WiFi)
5. Contact IT if on corporate network (may need to whitelist S3 domains)

1. Check file size:
   - Right-click file → Properties (Windows) / Get Info (Mac)
   - If over limit, compress before uploading

2. Check file format:
   - Verify extension matches actual type
   - Rename if needed (e.g., image.PNG → image.png)

3. Try smaller test file:
   - Upload 100KB file to verify system works
   - If succeeds, original file may be corrupted

1. Hard refresh: Ctrl+Shift+R (Cmd+Shift+R on Mac)
2. Clear cache and cookies
3. Log out and log back in
4. Try different browser if still failing

Cause: Presigned URL issue
Solution:
1. Wait 10 seconds (may be slow network)
2. Cancel and retry upload (generates new presigned URL)
3. Check AWS status: https://status.aws.amazon.com (eu-central-1 region)

Cause: Connection dropped during upload
Solution:
1. Check network stability (WiFi signal, VPN connection)
2. Use wired Ethernet connection (more reliable)
3. Upload during off-peak hours (less network congestion)
4. Compress file to reduce size (faster upload)

Common error messages:

"Upload expired" → Took >15 minutes
- Retry upload (new presigned URL)
- Compress file for faster upload
- Use wired connection

"Network error" → Connection lost
- Verify internet connection
- Retry upload

"Access denied" → Permission issue
- Verify you're logged in
- Check role permissions (ORGANIZER or ADMIN)
- Contact admin if permissions correct

"Storage quota exceeded" [PLANNED]
- Contact admin to increase org quota
- Delete old unused files

1. Wait 30 seconds (backend may still be processing)
2. Refresh page (F5 or Ctrl+R)
3. Check if file now appears

1. Go to Settings → File Manager → Recent Uploads
2. Look for your file in list (shows last 50 uploads)
3. If listed but not associated with entity:
   - Click "Associate" button
   - Select correct entity (company, speaker, event)
   - File will now appear in entity record

1. Clear any active filters (Search box, Date range, Status)
2. Click "Show All" or "Reset Filters" button
3. Verify "Include Archived" is unchecked (unless expecting archived)

1. Check browser console (F12 → Console)
2. Look for errors after upload completed
3. Common issue: browser blocked S3 response due to CORS
   - Disable browser extensions temporarily
   - Try incognito mode
   - Clear cache and retry

Contact support with:
- File name and size
- Upload timestamp (approximate time)
- Entity you were trying to associate (company name, speaker name, event #)
- Screenshot of "success" message
- Browser console log (F12 → Console → screenshot)

Support can locate file in S3 and manually associate it.

1. Complete the Turnstile challenge widget on the form (it may be invisible
   and pass automatically, or show a checkbox/challenge)
2. Allow Cloudflare challenge scripts:
   - Do not block challenges.cloudflare.com
   - Disable aggressive privacy/anti-tracking extensions for the page
   - Allow cookies for the page
3. If the challenge never appears or never resolves:
   - Hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R / Cmd+Shift+R) to reload the widget
   - Try a different browser or disable extensions
   - Try a non-VPN / non-Tor network (challenges are stricter on those)
4. If you are an organizer testing internally, sign in first — authenticated
   flows are not Turnstile-gated

Method 1: Reduce Dimensions
1. Open in image editor (Preview on Mac, Paint on Windows, or online: pixlr.com)
2. Resize to target dimensions:
   - Logos: 800x800px (sufficient for all uses)
   - Photos: 1920x1080px (HD quality)
3. Save as PNG (lossless) or JPG (smaller file)

Method 2: Compress Image
1. Use online compression tool:
   - TinyPNG.com (PNG files, often 60-80% reduction)
   - Compressor.io (JPG files, maintain quality)
   - Squoosh.app (advanced options, works offline)
2. Upload compressed version

Method 3: Convert Format
- PNG → JPG (usually 50-70% smaller, but no transparency)
- JPG → Progressive JPG (loads faster, slightly smaller)

Method 1: Export as PDF
1. Open in PowerPoint/Keynote
2. File → Export as PDF (not "Save As")
3. PDF typically 40-60% smaller than PPTX

Method 2: Compress Images Within Slides
PowerPoint:
1. Click any image → Picture Format → Compress Pictures
2. Select "Web (150 PPI)" quality
3. Check "Apply to all pictures"
4. Save file

Keynote:
1. File → Reduce File Size
2. Select quality level (Medium recommended)
3. Save reduced version

Method 3: Remove Unused Content
- Delete unused slides
- Remove embedded videos (link to YouTube instead)
- Remove embedded fonts (use web-safe fonts)

Method 1: Online PDF Compressor
1. Visit Smallpdf.com or ilovepdf.com
2. Upload PDF
3. Select compression level (High compression for heavily illustrated PDFs)
4. Download compressed version

Method 2: Print to PDF (macOS)
1. Open PDF in Preview
2. File → Print
3. PDF dropdown → Save as PDF
4. Select "Reduce File Size" from Quartz Filter
5. Save (usually 50-70% smaller)

Method 3: Optimize in Acrobat (if available)
1. File → Save As Other → Reduced Size PDF
2. Select compatibility (Acrobat 10.0 or later)
3. Save optimized version

1. Visit fast.com or speedtest.net
2. Note "Upload Speed" (not download)
3. Minimum recommended: 5 Mbps upload
4. If < 5 Mbps, contact ISP or use better connection

1. Use Wired Connection
   - Ethernet cable (not WiFi)
   - Typically 2-3x faster and more reliable

2. Close Bandwidth-Heavy Apps
   - Streaming services (Netflix, YouTube)
   - Video calls (Zoom, Teams)
   - Cloud sync (Dropbox, OneDrive)
   - Downloads in progress

3. Upload During Off-Peak Hours
   - Early morning (6-8 AM)
   - Late evening (after 8 PM)
   - Avoid Monday mornings and Friday afternoons

4. Compress File Before Uploading
   - Smaller file = faster upload
   - See [File Too Large](#file-too-large) for compression tips

If on company network and uploads very slow:
1. Contact IT - may be traffic shaping/throttling
2. Ask IT to whitelist these domains:
   - *.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com
   - *.amazonaws.com
3. Try mobile hotspot as temporary workaround

1. View original file on your computer
2. Zoom to 100% (actual size)
3. If blurry at 100%, image is low resolution:
   - Find higher-res version
   - For logos: request vector (SVG) from designer
   - For photos: use original camera file (not social media version)

Recommended minimums:
- Company logos: 800x800px (200 DPI ideal)
- Event photos: 1920x1080px (HD)
- Speaker headshots: 600x600px

Optimal formats:
- Logos: PNG (transparency) or SVG (vector, scales perfectly)
- Photos: JPG (smaller file size)

If image looks fine on standard display but blurry on Retina/4K:
1. Upload 2x resolution version (e.g., 1600x1600px instead of 800x800px)
2. Platform will downsample for standard displays
3. High-DPI displays will use full resolution

Images are delivered via cdn.batbern.ch, which generates resized variants
on demand (e.g. a `?w=` width parameter) so each surface gets an appropriately
sized image:
- Thumbnails and small/medium variants resize reliably
- A VERY large source image can fail to produce a large variant
  (e.g. a full-screen lightbox width) and the resized request may error
- Workaround: a surface needing a large image should use the original
  full-size (display) URL rather than a large resized variant
- For predictable results, upload reasonably sized sources (see recommended
  dimensions above) rather than extreme-megapixel originals

1. Thumbnail generation can take 10-30 seconds
2. Refresh page after 1 minute
3. If still incorrect, proceed to next step

1. Hard refresh: Ctrl+Shift+R (Cmd+Shift+R on Mac)
2. If still wrong, clear cache:
   - Chrome: Settings → Privacy → Clear browsing data
   - Select "Cached images and files"
   - Choose "Last 24 hours"
3. Refresh page after clearing

1. Delete current file (if allowed)
2. Verify original file opens correctly on your computer
3. Convert to most compatible format:
   - Images: PNG or JPG (not TIFF, BMP, WEBP)
   - Presentations: PDF (not PPTX or KEY)
4. Upload converted version

SVG thumbnails sometimes fail if file contains:
- External references
- Embedded scripts
- Complex filters/effects

Solution:
1. Open SVG in Inkscape or vector editor
2. File → Save As → "Plain SVG" or "Optimized SVG"
3. Upload simplified version

Or:
1. Export SVG as PNG (800x800px, 200 DPI)
2. Upload PNG instead (works reliably)