Welcome to the Bug Reporting page! Please refer to these tips when submitting new bug reports:
1. Browse the known issues section or check if another user previously posted about a similar issue.
2. Upvoting posts help us understand how many players are experiencing the bug.
3. Refer to the Best Practices to learn how to write a bug report.
4. File each issue separately if you’ve encountered multiple issues.

Photo submissions seem permanently stuck in certain areas

HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

I went through a round of photo uploads a couple of days ago, and the majority of them have already reached a decision and have been added to the Wayspot (via Pogo, don't really know about Ingress if that bug is still a thing). However, there are a select few in certain areas where they have never been seen in photo reviews or ever gone live. I'm guessing they're stuck behind strange and never seeing the light of day.

Some of the suburbs (to my knowledge) that are affected and have pending photo submissions are affected:

Photos that others have uploaded also do not ever go into voting, so they do not get seen by reviewers. Instead we're advised "Good exploring!" and seem to have ended the queue, when photos in any of these suburbs don't ever appear for our review. The majority of photos/media submissions either get approved within two weeks, or get lost in the system. Because I use all 40 photos every 20 days, it becomes obvious after a fortnight when 40 photo submissions are done in the system, but only 34 of them come back.

Could you please investigate?

Tagged:
10
10 votes

New · Last Updated

Comments

  • Hikaru588-INGHikaru588-ING Posts: 538 ✭✭✭✭

    Adding to @HaramDingo-ING experience above, the following suburbs in NSW Australia are where I have a number of additional photo submissions that have been awaiting determination for greater than 3 months.

    I can't see a logical reason for why the photos are stuck in limbo when wayspot nominations I have made in the same areas have been resolved in a far shorter time frame.

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Regarding Canley Vale, I did get a couple of recent Canley Vale photos approved in the last couple of days. Where abouts in Canley Vale in particular are your stuck ones? I'm guessing it might be some of the parks elsewhere? All of mine are on Canley Vale Road but only close to the train station.

  • Hikaru588-INGHikaru588-ING Posts: 538 ✭✭✭✭

    The photo in the Canley Vale that is stuck is located in Parkes Reserve next to the Orphan School Creek border with Carramar.

    Those that have been resolved in Canley Vale for me were close the the train station as well, on either side of the tracks.

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Since it looks like you need more evidence (from the fact that no one has acknowledged this issue), here is the definitive proof from the three previous batches as of July 11, and also a map of places where photo reviews/approvals are being blocked from ever coming into queue.

    Batch 1:

    • Out of 40 photo submissions on June 26, only 30 came back after 6 days between June 28 to July 2.
    • The ones that failed come back were in Fairfield, Campbelltown, Camden, Peakhurst, Sylvania Heights, Bankstown and Yagoona.
    • Ignore the green line.

    Batch 2:

    • Out of 38 photo submissions on June 4, 24 came back, but 14 of them never returned.
    • The majority of them are from Fairfield (again). One from Homebush.

    Batch 3:

    • From this batch submitted on May 15, only three of them are unaccounted for. One in Strathfield, two in Circular Quay.
    • There is a very strange granularity for the two in Circular Quay, the ones approved are all fine until they reach a certain point at the top.

    Map of Lost Photos

    Here is a map of the Sydney Region which illustrates the photo approvals against the areas where photos are lost. It also includes an inset map of the northern area of the Sydney CBD near Circular Quay. The ones burned in were mentioned in my original post, with other similar burned in approvals which happened about the same time as the lost photos.

    • Most of the lost photos happen around the Inner West, Sutherland Area, South Sydney and a whole swatch of South West Sydney.
    • Equally, there are many photo approvals in areas close to the lost photos (i.e. Fairfield vs Canley Vale, Peakhurst vs Hurstville).
    • In a very strange case in Circular Quay, even a whole park is cut in half between photos that are being approved vs. two lost photos above a certain line.

    There is no doubt that there is something generally blocking entire areas, but it is very inconsistent (except for SW Sydney) considering there are areas of approvals as well. Why does so much of Sydney have no issues with uploads whatsoever, but plenty of the bottom half in large pockets have issues?

    The Process

    To complete this bug report so you actually can look into this, I use a Google Pixel 6 and all of my uploads are done from Ingress Prime, always updated to the latest version at the time. As an additional reference, locals from Campbelltown (down south) have also uploaded photos from both Ingress and Pokemon GO and no photos are reaching a decision whatsoever.

    Simply put, this is simply just a cross-reference between Google Photos and looking at the map (whether it's Intel or, sifting through my keys) and it's just a sit down upload session with music in the background. Batch 3 occurred on May 13 between 4:51pm to 5:27pm, Batch 2 occurred on June 4 between 6:57pm to 7:21pm, and Batch 1 occurred on June 26 between 5:27pm to 7:24pm (I probably had dinner at this stage). All uploads are done at home using Wi-Fi so I will rule out corrupted files or a connection issue.


    I now would highly appreciate your attention to this issue Niantic. There is no way that the current Wayfarer queues and processing is actually working since people would review until they reach the fake "end of queue" message and not seeing any of these photos. If it is this pronounced here, then there is no doubt that photos all around the world in different cities (bar some exasperated year-long queues) might have these issues.

    Our queues are fast enough to chug through almost everything within a fortnight. Do investigate or at least acknowledge this post.

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Batch 4 is now freshly submitted.

    Many of these are in regional parts of New South Wales, so I'm expecting most of them to go through without a hitch. But some of them (Merrylands West and Quakers Hill) I don't think will.

    I will keep on providing information until you tell me to stop hoping for this to be fixed or you fire the ambassadors because clearly they don't matter to you either.

  • Ben36O-PGOBen36O-PGO Posts: 2 ✭✭

    I've noticed the same thing in my local area (Rosebery 2018) - pokestop submissions are processed within a week, yet photo submissions have been stuck for at least 2 months now. Before that, they would process just as fast as Pokestop nominations.

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It's been 3 days since the last photo approval and so it must be appropriate to update on Batch 4.

    All but one of the 38 submitted photos are accounted for (minus two due to photo submissions not incrementing one day). I was right about the one from Merrylands West going into the photo submission graveyard and not being approved.

    Where did the Barber Alley Art photo submission go? Why don't you tell me, Niantic?

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Let me be you for a sec, Niantic.

    Thanks for sharing this, HaramDingo! Since we are not interested in fixing this issue, I will be closing this thread for future comments. Thanks for your understanding!

    I reported this a month ago, and this post still have not been acknowledged in any way, shape or form. And if you are avoiding this because it's seemingly not Wayfarer-related, it actually is? This is a Wayfarer issue because it is related to the system not routing photos in certain areas, and has nothing to do with not appearing in any of the games because it isn't even approved in the first place. Maybe the photos are stuck in Niantic review or something?

    Tagging you @NianticGiffard. You're happy to close random posts at the drop of a pin but not acknowledge this bug.

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    This is a month old.

    It is not new. In fact, this is a bug that has occurred since February of last year. Many places do not get their photos ever reviewed, and it's not because of a "lack of reviewers". So there is a stuck wrench somewhere in the system stopping these from being reviewed.

    If I am screaming into a gaping ańus that is Niantic's lack of communication, then so shall it be until these photos are released.

  • MargariteDVille-INGMargariteDVille-ING Posts: 2,846 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Photos are considered edits, so only reviewed locally. That's kinda silly - some local areas are backlogged, and photo rejection criteria is global.

    You don't have to know what the wayspot is, or if you agree that it exists. Just: are any of these photos invalid? Click the blurry, pranky, face as NO. It's not like someone somewhere is saying: in my country, pictures are always sideways! Sideways is always a NO, with no arguing.

    I like reviewing pictures because they're fast and easy - and often interesting. I think it'd be fine to distribute photo reviews globally. A fun way to explore!

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Sorry Margarite, but how is your comment relevant to this issue? There is no backlog to begin with. They don't even get into the voting stage at all so they can't even be rejected (noting that I would never submit a photo of something that for some reason needs to be rejected.

    Please read carefully.

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    None of the photos that were reported here have since been approved since last year or early 2021.

    Would an ambassador kindly bring this up with the team as to why all of these photos do not even go into voting or even reach approval?

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Is this not enough information? Is this evidence not sound?

    If your silence means that my request is invalid then I would appreciate at least any response so I can close off my expectations that this would ever be acknowledged.

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Some of my photos that have been stuck for over two years have actually come through recently over the course of the last 6 hours. This is actually pretty promising.

    @Hikaru588-ING your Canley Vale photos, as well as other stuck ones might get pushed through soon.

    Thanks for actioning some of these, hoping for all of these to reach a conclusion.

  • Hikaru588-INGHikaru588-ING Posts: 538 ✭✭✭✭

    @HaramDingo-ING I actually got one photo from the Guildford West area that I submitted back in October 2021 come back approved today, looking forward to seeing the rest possibly follow suit pretty soon.

    Though I hope the photo processing time doesn't stay at the roughly 2 years mark, as the local area is undergoing a lot of change at the moment. It would be disappointing to have to wait that long to update the wayspots in the area.

  • RandomExploit-INGRandomExploit-ING Posts: 948 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I know of people in the UK that suddenly had loads of photo submissions come back today after being stuck for a year or two, so something got kickstarted by Niantic

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Here's a whole bundle of photos that were actioned by Niantic (I state actioned, because they all weren't approved), between 5:51pm and 10:54pm AEDT (if anyone wants to figure out who's working hours are they_/

    These were in the:

    • Burwood & Croydon areas (which are quite close to Ashfield)
    • Flemington area (which is quite close to Homebush and Lidcombe)
    • Bankstown area
    • Kogarah, and
    • Leumeah & Campbelltown

    All of these were explicitly mentioned in the previous posts above.

    There was a lot of angst in this thread, but aside from it all there is hope at the end of the tunnel, and these photos can finally come to life. I'm particularly interested in the fact that in this time, there is some sort of sequence that slowly moved towards the southwest, but I guess this is some good news, some redemption.

Sign In or Register to comment.