Why am I getting a 'media upload failed' error when adding new products?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Frequent “media upload failed” errors when adding product images/media, affecting some JPG/PNG and animated GIFs, and also 3D model files (GLB) via the API. Users note the error even for files below the size limit; some report mild success when uploading from a URL.

Observed causes/workarounds:

  • Renaming files to remove dots and special characters fixed uploads for multiple users.
  • Converting images to JPG resolved the issue for some.
  • Uploading images to a new “test” product first (to get them into the media library) then using them elsewhere worked as a workaround.
  • Hosting images on a different server and uploading via a different URL resolved failures; one user suspects certain source URLs are denied or their servers block downloads.

API details: One user shared Python/GraphQL code using stagedUploadsCreate to upload GLB (a binary glTF 3D model) and is unsure if failures are code- or platform-related. The code snippet is central for API-related troubleshooting.

Status: No confirmed root cause or official fix. The thread remains open with requests for debugging guidance.

Actionable steps now:

  • Remove dots/special characters from filenames.
  • Try converting images to JPG.
  • Use a temporary product to import media into the library.
  • Serve media from a different, accessible URL/server.
Summarized with AI on December 25. AI used: gpt-5.
10

The solution is Just convert the pics to JPG