Not letting me upload images

Hi, I'm having some trouble uploading images from my computer. The problem seems to apply to both profile pictures and cover uploads. All my files are in jpeg format and under 2MB but when I try to upload them I get a dead website. The funny thing is I eventually managed to upload a new profile picture by clicking 'save image as' on the copy of the picture I have on Facebook and then uploading the version I'd effectively just downloaded from Facebook. The original wouldn't work. I've been experiencing this problem for several days, and now I've come to upload some covers the problem is the same. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I've been uploading cover pictures without a problem (Firefox 3.6.6)

I'm using Google Chrome but I've tried with Firefox and it still doesn't work.

I figured it wasn't a problem everyone had or else more people would have posted. Either I'm doing something wrong or I have some problem attached to my profile. I've uploaded hundreds of covers before and only had a problem if they are in the wrong format or too big and I've already checked that so it much be something else.

What exactly are you getting when it doesn't work? Blank page, blank page with headers, some kind of error message, ??? Dead website doesn't convey a lot to me (can't say if it would to Tim et al).

Good questions in #4. Also, can you upload one of the problem covers somewhere we can get to it? A good place is:
http://imageshack.us/

If you do, I'd be willing to download it and try uploading it to LT to see if I get the same problem. That would help tell whether it's the images (it's possible) or your computer or LT account.

OK here is an example of one of the images I tried to upload (hope it works, I'm not familiar with this site)

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/3346/grimmsfairytailes.jpg

Sorry I should have been more descriptive, I mean I get a 'web page not available' message, the same message you get when your internet goes down or you click on a dead link (I'm using Google Chrome). It just goes nowhere.

I was able to add the cover both by using the URL from imageshack, and by downloading it to my computer and then uploading it.

I'm on Windows XP Professional/IE7.

Well I decided to try uploading the image on my boyfriends computer on my LibraryThing account and it worked, so I guess the problem is my computer and not my account. I really have no idea why this would be as I have used my computer and this browser to upload book covers hundreds of times, but anyway I guess I'll have to fiddle about with it and see if I can fix it. Any ideas on what could cause this (I've already tried turning off my internet security) would be appreciated.

Thank for helping everyone!

Witchylady333 - Can you try uploading the cover by URL from imageshack, too? That would be an interesting test since, in theory, it should take your computer out of the loop.

ETA: Looks like we posted simultaneously. I still think the above test would be interesting, though. Also, try the image upload (not from a URL) from a different browser on the problem computer and tell us what happens. That should help track things down a bit. Also, is your boyfriends computer at your home (on your internet connection), or somewhere else? More clues.

Could it be your ISP? I've heard that some of those European ones limit the amount of data you can transfer before slowing your connection way down. That was for downloading, though, I don't know about uploading.

I've never done the image upload from URL before, I suppose you just copy and paste the link into the box on the cover upload screen. Anyway when I do that with both Google Chrome and Firefox I get the blank page with an error message in the address bar you usually get when you try to upload an image in the wrong format.

My boyfriends computer is in the house so it's the same ISP though it does use Windows 7 and I'm on XP. His PC is a media PC without a proper mouse so I hope I can fix mine, it took me 15 mins to upload that image with a media keyboard!

11> Just asking a silly question, but you pasted
http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/3346/grimmsfairytailes.jpg
into the box below "Grab by URL" and then click the Grab button, right?

Sounds like that's what you tried, but I just want to be sure because if so, that is VERY interesting. When you use Grab by URL, the image never even passes through your computer. It just sends LT the URL and LT loads the image using its own internet connection (I traced the activity just to be sure that's correct and it is). And the fact that you're getting the same thing in both Chrome and FF rules out it being something specific to the browser, so that's even more interesting.

At this point, I'm stumped. But I'll keep thinking about it. Maybe Tim or the crew will come along and it will be obvious to them with all this info.

ah that was the problem, I was hitting 'upload' and not 'grab', thought I was doing something wrong. Yes, it does work when I do that.

So i suppose I now at least have the option of uploading all my covers to image shack and then putting them on Librarything that way. Time consuming, but at least possible!

13> Okay, well that's promising at least. Now, backing up a few steps, did you try the regular image upload (not the Grab by URL) from both Chrome and Firefox?

yep, and I've done it loads of times so I actually know how to do it that way!

Both browsers end with the same 'web page not available' type screen.

15> Can you copy and paste the URL you get on the "web page not available" type screen? Another user pointed out that the URL can contain some helpful information. I wonder if that might help us track it down.

http://www.librarything.com/addcover_upload.php

I know they can sometimes give some helpful hints, but this one doesn't seem to give any idea what's wrong! Normally I find when you hit an error where the message is in the URL the screen is blank, but it this case it has the generic browser error message for a missing page

17> No help there, then. So it sounds like it's giving you a 404 error. Not sure what else to to on. You said you already tried disabling your "internet security"; can you give more details on what product that is and how you disabled it? I'm somewhat grasping at straws here. It does sound like its probably a problem on your computer and not LT, though you never really know for sure until it's fixed.

hmm your post got me thinking, I run AVG Free Version and I shut it down by closing the program, but when I saw your post I noticed it was still running when I opened task manager. I decided the only way to be sure it wasn't messing things up was to uninstall the program. I did and now the image uploader worked! I recently downloaded a new updated version of AVG and now I think about it the problems with uploading started around this time. I have no idea why my security should stop me uploading to LibraryThing, it hasn't stopped me uploading to other sites, but there we have it!

If anyone else has this problem, look to see if they've downloaded AVG 2011, there is obviously a conflict between it and LibraryThing

Good work! I have no idea why that would do it, either. Just glad you tracked it down. Closing this now.

thanks for all your help!

I'd advise you to switch to either Avira (free, but you get a popup once a day) or Avast (also free, somewhat awkward UI) - they both rated considerably better than AVG (2010) in dealing with malware in a PCMag comparison. I was also having trouble with AVG, switched to Avira and am quite satisfied except that the popup's annoying; I'm installing Avast on most of my clients' computers because of that. Though come to think of it, I haven't seen a popup in several days...maybe they decided against it?