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Topic: Help uploading avatar

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Subject: Help uploading avatar
Date Posted: 3/19/2009 6:45 AM ET
Member Since: 3/14/2009
Posts: 8
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I cannot get my avatar to upload, no matter how small it is. It will show the bar at the bottom like it is up loading, but then it never does. Any suggestions?

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Date Posted: 3/19/2009 11:12 AM ET
Member Since: 8/9/2007
Posts: 4,058
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It's more than likely it doesn't meet the site specifications; is too large, the wrong type of file, something like that.  You'll have to look at the image properties and see if that's the problem.  Images for your avatar need to be "valid file types": gif, jpg, png, so if it's bmp, for example, it won't work.
The maximum file size is 30kb and maximum dimensions are 75px by 75px.  If it's too large, there are apllications like photoshop & paintshop pro (if you have one of them) that you can open the image in, shrink it to those dimensions, and then save it to use as an avatar.  I have an old photoshop program called photoimpression that is a bit clumsy & involves a lot of guesswork, but it does work.

Sianeka avatar
Sianeka - ,
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Date Posted: 3/19/2009 12:45 PM ET
Member Since: 2/8/2007
Posts: 6,630
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I had to shrink my avatar picture down in order to get it to work, and I did my avatar editing in MS Paint, so that will work as well...  Just make sure it is valid file type and 75 x 75 pixels.  (I had to specifically change to pixels...)

This is an additional tip for people who might have a picture you want to use for your public profile, but are still having problems with getting the picture sized correctly.  You can go to www.shrinkpictures.com to easily get your picture re-sized and centered correctly.  After arriving at this site, click on "Shrink Avatars".  It only takes a few seconds.  Just type in 75 x 75 in the pixel size box.  (Thanks to mannythepoolshark and maydazee for this tip!)



Last Edited on: 3/19/09 3:38 PM ET - Total times edited: 1
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Date Posted: 3/19/2009 6:30 PM ET
Member Since: 2/19/2008
Posts: 2,007
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I know I posted this in a different thread, but it bears repeating here.

Depending on the type of operating system the PBS servers are running on, there could be a number of reasons why an avatar won't upload properly, even if it meets the dimension and filesize requirements.

PBS will only accept files with the extension of .gif .jpg and .png  If your filename is myfile.JPG the system may refuse it.  Why?  The capital letters.  On a UNIX server (which I think PBS is running on) letter case is important.  If you have three files, myfile.JPG, MYFILE.JPG and myfile.jpg Windows sees them all as the same file, but a UNIX system sees them all as different files with different filenames.  Since PBS specifies the extension in lowercase, if you use uppercase your upload may not be accepted because it doesn't match what the system has been told to accept.

Another thing that causes upload failures here is the JPG extension.  Under Windows .JPG and .JPEG are the same file type (though different file names), and many editing programs will save things using the .JPEG extension.  But, PBS specifies .jpg, not .jpeg, so that file extension would not be allowed, even though the file itself is valid.  Simply renaming the file and removing the extra "e" solves that problem.