What to do if picture is too big?

Hi Steffen

Please read this article https://later.com/blog/instagram-image-size/

An exceprt regarding width and height : “In general, Instagram supports photos and videos that have a width between 320px and 1080px.

What this means is that if your photo or video is smaller than 320px, Instagram will enlarge it to a width of 320px. And if it’s wider than 1080px, Instagram will size it down to a width of 1080px.”

So to answer your question “Is there a possibility to downsize the image automatically?”
Yes it is technically possible, but with compression and a loss of quality on the image.

Version 1.4.6 and future 1.4.7 do not upscale small image or reduce size of big image automatically.

I will see with Roland ALLA the main maintener of the plugin if he wants a new feature to bring the choice to reduce automatically a big image or not.

Why not , but this will introduce a bad quality for the image you upload.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by dufour_l.

Hello,

then something is still wrong, either Instagram refuses too large images and does not size them down or the plugin presents them in a wrong way to Instagram so Instragarm refuses the post. Or Instagram sizes down too large images only if postet via smartphone app and not by an interface or API like the WordPress plugin probably does?
My problem is, that version 1.4.6 still doesn’t post images to Instagram although you say that the image should be compressed automatically and be shown on Instagram, but this doesn’t happen. Can you imagine, why the auto compression for too large pictures doesn’t work, is it a problem with Instagram or the WordPress plugin?
Remember, that I was able to post very large images via the plugin still in July 2018. Something must have changed since then…

In general, my problem is: Do I want to have small pictures in my WordPress blog or on Instagram? As I would not like to scale down the images in WordPress and on other platforms like Facebook (also automatic post with a WordPress plugin) it has to be scaled down for Instagram. And there the problem begins…at the moment I cannot say if the plugin or Instagram prevents the image to appear on instagram.

No Steffen you have not understood, version 1.4.6 does not compress or resize your pictures. It just warn you that you’re image is too big (and will not post it). You need to resize it yourself. The plugin just warn users that if an image is over 1080px it is too big for instagram, and it will be refused.

The question I was asking to myself, and which is also for Roland ALLA the maintener

Does the plugin in future version need to have an option to resize automatically a big image to 1080px as you are requiring Steffen ?

Or does it need to have a kind of bypass control option before sending pictures to Instagram ?

It is possible to develop it, but it is not done yet.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by dufour_l.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by dufour_l.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by dufour_l.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by dufour_l.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by dufour_l.

I understood that the actual plugin version does no resizing of images. But why refuses Instagram the whole post? Because you quoted: ‘What this means is that if your photo or video is smaller than 320px, Instagram will enlarge it to a width of 320px. And if it’s wider than 1080px, Instagram will size it down to a width of 1080px.’
But that seems not to be true, Instagram didn’t size down my picture, the whole post was refused. Why? I would be happy with a downsized picture, better than no picture. This only occurs if the large image was transmitted via plugin, no problem when using the app. So why not with the plugin? And why did it work a few moth ago?

Steffen,

The quote is en explnation found from an article “‘What this means is that if your photo or video is smaller than 320px, Instagram will enlarge it to a width of 320px. And if it’s wider than 1080px, Instagram will size it down to a width of 1080px.”

I did not says that version 1.4.6 resize the image !!!

In the plugin the error message is either

“Width too big for Instagram – must be less than 1080px”
“Height too big for Instagram – must be less than 1080px”
“Width too small for Instagram – must be higher than 320px”
“Height too small for Instagram – must be higher than 320px”

If you face one of this condition, your image is not sent to Instragram, this is what I explained ealier.

I understand your frustation and needs for a new version with modification to fit your requirements.

To answer to your question , yes it happens only via the plugin, and in fact as there was many people complaining, that their pictures were not uploaded to instagram or were refused by instagram, there was a necessity to have a better error management in the plugin.

This is why we now have a debug mode, some messages when pictures are too big or too small, and so on.

There is also a checking for error returned byt Instagram, and if possible there is a way to handle them ( Like “Login Required” or “checkpoint_required” )

So far there is a pending version 1.4.7 which will be published soon by Roland.

But the requirements that you ask is not developped yet.

I will start to work on it for a future version 1.4.8 and I understand that you want a downsized image rather than not image at all, and that you do not want to resize it yourself)

So I Will add a mode where you will be able to bypass control (Which can lead to a photo sent to Instagram, but that can be refused by Instagram), and also an option to still use control but resize if possible.

In the readme you have

= 1.4.6 =

Bug corrected :

* None

New features:

* Better handling of width and height limit of Instagram, either if your picture is too big ( above 1080px ) or too small ( below 320px )
* Resize a photo in panorama mode if ratio above 16:9, in this case is reduce the size of the picture, and add a white band above and below the picture
* New fields ( date of post to instagram, upload info, link to your instagram page, in the instagram info box on post page
* if debug mode activated, in the info box, you will have the full response of instagram, with the message why it was not accepted by instagram.

* Tested in WordPress 5.0.1

= 1.4.7 =

Bug corrected :

* Minor correction to the login process to Instagram

New features:

* None

* Tested in WordPress 5.0.2

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by dufour_l.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by dufour_l.

Oh, sorry, I think I skipped reading your text in brackets (‘It just warn you that you’re image is too big (and will not post it)’). I thought the warning text is given by Instagram as a result, but now I know that it’s the result of a check of the plugin.

Okay, so the plugin checks the image size and refuses to post it to Instagram. Is this a new feature? Am I right, that a few months ago the plugin posted it to Instagram anyway and then Instagram downsized the oversized picture by itself? Because I was very happy with that solution, I couldn’t see any resizing problems or lack of image quality…

So, if you could restore the old behavior and allow a bypass of the image check of the plugin so that the plugin always tries to post it to Instagram, that would be great! For me (and possibly also for other user with large images) it’s better to have an automated post to instagram with a downsized image (by Instagram) than having no picture on Instagram or having to post it manually. ??

Hi Steffen

>> Okay, so the plugin checks the image size and refuses to post it to Instagram. Is this a new feature? Am I right, that a few months ago the plugin posted it to Instagram anyway and then Instagram downsized the oversized picture by itself?

Yes you are right a few month ago there was no control at all on the size, and when and Image was really too big , it could have caused issue.

>> So, if you could restore the old behavior and allow a bypass of the image check of the plugin so that the plugin always tries to post it to Instagram, that would be great!

Yes that is understood, this is what I will do for version 1.4.8, you will have the choice to “bypass controls” and let instagram resize itself the picture if possible or reject it.

And you will also have a second option, where the plugin can resize if necessary a picture that is too big before sending it to instagram.

I have almost finished the code, and I’ll send it tonight to Roland ALLA the maintener of the plugin for integration.

Great, that sounds really great. Thank you very much! So I hope to be able to use your plugin again in summer when there is my next bicycle journey in the Netherlands. ??

I just sent you an email ??

Roland will try to publish it tomorrow, but he is on vacations and will not be back before Jan 6, so he will do what he can from where he is and if possible.

Hey guys!

Thanks to @dufour_l for supporting with the plugin maintenance ?? .

The plugin is now updated with the version 1.4.8.

Hey, that was quite fast work! To say it with short words: I am happy, this works for me. Thanks a lot.

In detail: Only bypassing and posting a big image to Instagram seems not to work anymore like a few months ago. Beside a huge request and response string in debug mode I got the message ‘REQUEST: direct_v2/inbox/? RESPONSE: Something went wrong while logging to instagram: ‘ at the end. That really doesn’t work anymore as supposed.

But also activating the second checkbox shrinking the image works very fine: I wasn’t fast enough to reload the Instagram profile page as the first likes for the posted picture came in. ??
So I examined the photo and couldn’t detect any difference to what Instagram has done to the pictures a few months ago – both methods to downsize an image look equal and proper. Good job!