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I have recently found that I get this error when attempting to upload a gif image to a question (well, I actually didn't upload, but instead provided a link to a gif image which has worked with the same image when posting in chat):

enter image description here

Why is this? I remember it being possible in the past to upload an animated gif image to a question (even though I have never done before, but just seen others questions with animated images which I assume to be gifs), so is there no long any way to do it?

Information Update:

It seems to the only way to do this is to manually put this:

[![enter image description here][2]][2]

  [2]: https://tedideas.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/ted_gif_800px_-07s.gif

Which becomes:

enter image description here

But why do I have the manually do this? Why can't the system do it?

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  • 1
    Can you add the link of the gif to the question?
    – Dan
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 11:52
  • Also, have you tried downloading the image then re-uploading it again?
    – Dan
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 11:53
  • @Dan: The gif is larger than the accepted amount and I therefore am unable to upload it.
    – user364819
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 11:57
  • @Dan: I have updated my question with more information.
    – user364819
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 12:01
  • so you uploaded the gif to a page? or you created the url from a local file that contained the gif?? i'm stuck at the same point and would appreciate some help, thanks in advance
    – Oriol Gonzalo
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 10:07
  • @OriolGonzalo: I think I probably tried both. The solution as I said though was just to directly link to the image's actual URL in the question rather than using imgur. On the other hand you could try to upload the image to chat and that will give you an imgur address currently as it doesn't seem to care about the size. Although I don't know if that has changed as I haven't done it in a while.
    – user364819
    Commented Jun 12, 2017 at 17:14

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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The problem is that the image is too large. When you are adding an image to your post, even if you choose a link, images are always uploaded to stack.imgur.com.

SE and Imgur have some form of friendly agreement where images are hosted till the end of time, and never expire.

The only way it can work, is the way you actually did it. Insert the image manually without uploading it to imgur (i.e. without using the Editor's button to insert an image).

Keeping that in mind, please do not insert large images to your posts, it slows down the time it takes to load the page, and people who have a small quota would be really mad when large files are being downloaded.

I suggest just posting a link to the image, so people who want to see it, would need to click the actual link.

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The file is almost 3MB. Maximum upload is 2MB.

$ curl -I https://tedideas.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/ted_gif_800px_-07s.gif | grep Length
Content-Length: 2912045
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  • Right, so why does it say that I am unable to link to the image on another site? When it allows me to do so manually?
    – user364819
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 12:19
  • Because that's still "uploading it". When you provide a URL to the uploader it attempts to copy it and that passes through the same rules as standard uploads. The problem isn't that you can't upload it, it's that its error message should be a little clearer.
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 12:22
  • I think that it is rather confusing though not to allow the user, and just to have some sneaky undocumented way of achieving it (by manually putting the link to the image), I think that if the image is too large and cannot be uploaded, but is a link, that there should be some way that the user can select to do a custom link, but perhaps there should be a limit to how many they can do in a certain time period or something, as I think that it is a little messy to just have this manual workaround that is just there, and nothing is done or really known (by many) about.
    – user364819
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 12:27
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    I disagree. Just "knowing Markdown" isn't sneaky or undocumented. And you are hitting a limit that is there for a reason. Nobody wants a page that's bogged down with massive images. If you feel you need to post a many-megabyte GIF to ask something here, you're probably doing something wrong already.
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 12:33
  • So why does it allow you to manually have the image added anyway?
    – user364819
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 12:35
  • What is "it" in your mind? The "it" that stops you uploading is Imgur. When you just post some Markdown, you're only interacting with Ask Ubuntu which doesn't do any checks on images.
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 12:42
  • Well, in my opinion, it just feels a little messy. You may not feel the same way about it, but that is how I feel.
    – user364819
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 12:44
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    @ParanoidPanda Personally I like it this way, because it makes it harder for people to post extremely large images. (BTW I'm one of those with small quotas, specially when I'm on mobile networks)
    – Dan
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 12:55
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    @ParanoidPanda don't post large images, then.
    – muru
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 12:59
  • @muru: I don't normally, it's just I currently have the need to (in a while) post an image which exceeds the limit.
    – user364819
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 13:18
  • @ParanoidPanda use better compression. Tone down the quality or resolution.
    – muru
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 13:19
  • Actually, it's probably good like this because it means that if you know markup, and you really want and need to, then you can manually with a bit of effort, do it, however most users won't be able to so normally.
    – user364819
    Commented Aug 27, 2015 at 13:19

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