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This page is used for technical questions relating to the tools, gadgets, or other technical issues about Commons; it is distinguished from the main Village pump, which handles community-wide discussion of all kinds. The page may also be used to advertise significant discussions taking place elsewhere, such as on the talk page of a Commons policy. Recent sections with no replies for 30 days and sections tagged with {{Section resolved|1=--~~~~}} may be archived; for old discussions, see the archives; recent archives: /Archive/2026/04 /Archive/2026/05.

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Placeholder images

MOVED from COM:Help desk - Jmabel ! talk 05:37, 25 March 2026 (UTC)
On some image pages this placeholder image : https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/resources/assets/file-type-icons/fileicon-ogg.png is being incorrectly inserted into the html under the "use this file" link. example here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ravenscar_-_geograph.org.uk_-_401270.jpg Ndurgom (talk) 09:46, 24 March 2026 (UTC)
END MOVED - Jmabel ! talk 05:37, 25 March 2026 (UTC)

@Ndurgom: I've moved your question to this page where it is more likely to be addressed. - Jmabel ! talk 05:37, 25 March 2026 (UTC)

I don't see a "Use this file" link. Is it the one included by Help:Gadget-Stockphoto? I don't have that enabled. MKFI (talk) 18:35, 25 March 2026 (UTC)

@MKFI: It is.

ANOTHERWlKlPEDlAN _{wɑit thɑt’s ɑ typo} 23:24, 25 March 2026 (UTC)

Its probably because the resolution is so low there are no "view in other resolution" links. User:Krinkle recently made a bunch of fixes to the gadget and i think one of them was to use those other resolution links to pick the download size. [Im guessing here, have not really looked into it]. Bawolff (talk) 09:08, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T421557

@Ndurgom @Bawolff I filed T421557 and am implementing a workaround in the gadget. Krinkle (talk) 23:01, 27 March 2026 (UTC)

Hi, this looked to be fixed but I just found a couple more examples of the fileicon-ogg.png appearing in the embed code of the "Use this file" option:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dale_House,_Chapel-le-Dale_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2499193.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ingleborough_summit_area_-_geograph.org.uk_-_3593674.jpg Ndurgom (talk) 17:43, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

Persistent 0x0 image size error for PDF files

Dear all technical users, Commons (as well as all other projects using files from Commons) has experienced a persistent 0x0 image size error for PDF files. In short, the system fails to generate thumbnails of pages for certain PDF files (typically larger ones). This has seriously affected works on Wikisource, where "Failed to initialize OpenSeadragon, no image found." is displayed on affected pages. OCR is also disabled.

While Yann reported that purging and uploading dummy files (then reverting to the old file) sometimes work, it is not effective for other cases. He also mentions that the problem worsens in the few days. While a Phabricator report is created, it has stalled for many weeks.

Comments from experienced users are appreciated, and follow-up measures on Phabricator are even more appreciated, thank you.廣九直通車 (talk) 11:45, 8 April 2026 (UTC)

There is no point in uploading pdf-files if they ar not usable. That raises the question if Commons should host pdf-files or stop allowing upload of new pdf-files. --MGA73 (talk) 08:50, 12 April 2026 (UTC)

@MGA73: (1) Most PDF files still work fine. (2) Even if not viewable on Commons, they can still be downloaded. (3) The problem here will presumably eventually be fixed.

So this is clearly not a reason to stop hosting PDFs. - Jmabel ! talk 18:43, 12 April 2026 (UTC)

Image size issue

I just noticed that, apparently, on images, the links for "880 x 522 pixels" and "640 x 441 pixels" versions of images actually both link to the same size image ("960px-[imagename stuff]"). This can't be intentional, can it? The Bushranger (talk) 16:04, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

@The Bushranger: since not all files are going to have the same aspect ratios, can you link to a file that is an example of what you are talking about? - Jmabel ! talk 20:16, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

I do see something like this at File:En route from Mila 23 to Letea - 27 - water lilies.jpg: 640 × 427 pixels leads to "960...", 1,024 × 683 pixels and 1,280 × 853 pixels both lead to "1280...", "2,560 × 1,707" leads to "3840...". - Jmabel ! talk 20:21, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

@Jmabel: , heres two: File:Vickers Valiant B.2 4Sep53.png ("680 x 360" and "800 x 450" both lead to "960...") and File:Vulcan at Manston - Flickr - Elsie esq..jpg ("640 x 441" and "800 x 552" both link to "960..."). - The Bushranger (talk) 20:26, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

@Jmabel@The Bushranger The software only renders a fixed set of common sizes to reduce server loads - see mw:Common thumbnail sizes. Any usage of images loads one of these sizes and scales it in-page to the desired size. That's a change from a few months ago IIRC. It is somewhat frustrating that most of the default sizes listed on file pages don't match those sizes, so (as you experienced) the links are rather misleading. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 21:34, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

In short, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

Do we have any control over what sizes are offered on file pages, or do we have to wait for one set of WMF engineers to finally notice what another set of WMF engineers are doing? (If the latter, a phabricator report might speed this up.) - Jmabel ! talk 22:06, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

This is a known issue, but it's one of those where we were mostly waiting for the dust to settle on the other changes wrt to file sizing before dealing with it. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 07:39, 10 April 2026 (UTC)

@Pi.1415926535 so someone changed how thumbs are created a few months ago and now we see a lot of problems because of that? I wonder if #Persistent 0x0 image size error for PDF files is one of the results. This problem pretty much closes down the use of pdf on Wikisource. --MGA73 (talk) 09:01, 12 April 2026 (UTC)

No it is not. it is totally unrelated. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 16:24, 12 April 2026 (UTC)

Tech News: 2026-16

MediaWiki message delivery 15:16, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

Commons:Picture of the Year/2025/Gallery/Other objects

In the description of some pictures, you can see a wiki code. How can I fix this? Futbollo (talk) 09:22, 14 April 2026 (UTC)

I've put in 10 minutes and cannot tell where this text ultimately comes from (maybe somewhere in Data space?). The means by which this page is implemented is pretty abstruse. If someone can find it, but doesn't have the rights to edit, let me know and I can probably fix it.- Jmabel ! talk 18:43, 14 April 2026 (UTC)

@Ingenuity, @ZI Jony. Nemoralis (talk) 04:41, 15 April 2026 (UTC)

@Футболло, @Jmabel, @Nemoralis: fixed for now. We will look into the gadget at our earliest convenience and update accordingly if necessary. Regards, ZI Jony ^(Talk) 06:02, 15 April 2026 (UTC)

@ZI Jony, ah, so the problem is in the file descriptions! Here's a list of files from here where this error occurs:
File:005c Greater flamingos courtship display in the Camargue during mating season Photo by Giles Laurent.jpg
File:Antigua (Fuerteventura, Spain), Museo de las Salinas del Carmen, Kristallisierungsbecken -- 2025 -- 7216.jpg
File:松赞林寺 - 全景 - 2025-05-07 09 (cropped).jpg
File:Our Lady of Sameiro sanctuary in Braga (1).jpg
File:2025-09-20 D500-0782 Achim-Lammerts Rechtenbach-Protestantische-Pfarrkirche.jpg
File:2025-09-17 D850-0006 Achim-Lammerts Esslingen-(Neckar)-Marktplatz-St-Dionys.jpg
File:2025-09-20 D500-0784 Achim-Lammerts Rechtenbach-Protestantische-Pfarrkirche-Rheinebene.jpg
File:双龙桥 - 2025-05-04 14.jpg
File:2025-06-29 D300-7544 Achim-Lammerts Gemarkung-Kandel-Pfalz-Wegekreuz.jpg
File:Flying-Dragon-Nebula Sh 2-113.png
File:Eagle Nebula M16 and Comet C2025 R2 SWAN.png
File:WR-134.png
File:2025-11-18 D300-7869 Achim-Lammerts Neupotz-Altrhein.jpg
File:Gütenbach, Teichschlucht -- 2025 -- 7668.jpg
File:Harold Urey, 1934.jpg
File:Absalom Baird, probably by the Webster Brothers.jpg
File:Berlijn. Nachtopname van de Hardenbergstrasse met een toegang tot de U-bahnhalte, Bestanddeelnr 191-0463.jpg
File:Mahtab Yaghma, Buchmesse 2025, Frankfurt (20251018-P1063373).jpg
File:Bharathanatyam by Dr. Janaki Rangarajan (51).jpg
File:Kalkkoora Bhagavathi Theyyam At Kunjimangalam (34).jpg
File:Gewuerze 004 2024 08 10.jpg
File:Tapisserie de Bayeux, p1.jpg
File:Le Cirque Miniature - Cândido de Faria - 1908.jpg
File:Blueten 002 2021 08 23.jpg
File:Rembrandt - The Abduction of Europa - Google Art Project.jpg
File:Instrument Case with Shuttered Mirror by Muhammad Baqir, Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, laq-0011-front.jpg Futbollo (talk) 06:17, 15 April 2026 (UTC)

@Футболло, thanks for finding, instead of fixing individual file, we will fix it in the script. @Ingenuity, "remove any html elements (including nested) from the description" dose not work well currently, could you please have a look, and arrange to fix it at earliest convenience? Regards, ZI Jony ^(Talk) 06:45, 15 April 2026 (UTC)

That's an error I noticed before, but it's not significant enough to warrant changing in the middle of the contest, potentially breaking other things; I'll fix that after. Ingenuity (talk) 15:02, 18 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks! Regards, ZI Jony ^(Talk) 16:21, 19 April 2026 (UTC)

Fixing Commons Commander

Could someone try to fix the Commons Commander tool to work? It would be an incredibly useful tool to visually categorise images (for example selecting black and white portraits from a large batch of images), and it seems more user-friendly than Cat-a-lot. However currently it is not able to load larger categories and seems to be broken in general when it comes to adding the categories. Tagging a few people who worked on the code: @Jon (WMF), @Ladsgroup, @Krinkle. Adam Harangozó (LSE WiR) (talk) 12:56, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

+ @Magnus Manske Adam Harangozó (LSE WiR) (talk) 14:33, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Also the "Just try it without installing" button at Help:Commons Commander leads to a broken page. - Jmabel ! talk 22:42, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Tech News: 2026-17

MediaWiki message delivery 14:57, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

Phone stripping coords / geotags since April 2026!

my workflow has been this for a few years:

i found discussions. yes it's a new android problem. not sure if other OS also behave like this.

https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2026/04/android-now-stops-you-sharing-your-location-in-photos/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47750669

fuck this shit.

afaicu, the only ways to upload with coords are either make an app that asks for that permission, or copy the files to computers thru usb cables.--RoyZuo (talk) 22:36, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

Did you try uninstall updates to android files app in settings? ${\displaystyle 999}$REAL 💬 ⬆ 22:55, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

i dont want to keep my apps outdated either. also i dont think it's caused by an update (because i dont think i got an update last week), and i dont think it's easy to roll back certain versions of these system apps. RoyZuo (talk) 05:55, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Special:Diff/1200919882 files app 1.10898.894832547.0-release came out few days ago

How about making new commons upload app with same options and layout like upload wizard ${\displaystyle 999}$REAL 💬 ⬆ 12:00, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

more info i found

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2026/03/location-privacy.html Redefining Location Privacy: New Tools and Improvements for Android 17 (26 March 2026)

Commons:Mobile app devs seem to be aware of this problem so the app still uploads photos with coords.

as of now, i tried chrome, firefox, opera, brave. uploading thru them all strips coords. i dont know if any android mobile browser will ask for this location permission so files can be uploaded with coords. RoyZuo (talk) 06:33, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

One way to get around this is to use a different file manager. I use Ghost Commander (which is on F-Droid). Go to select a photo, open up the files picker, tap the ☰, select the alternate file manager, then select the file. In my testing, it uploads as a raw file - that is no geolocation stripping.

I agree this is a hacky workaround. Edent (talk) 13:01, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Error with Template:Wikidata Infobox

For some reason today the button to toggle the collapsed state in the 'Has part(s)' section of {{Wikidata Infobox}} is not displaying correctly. It shows [{{int:show}}] when collapsed and [{{int:hide}}] when expanded, instead of just [Show] and [Hide] as it should (and as showed here in the preview before I added the nowiki tags to the two examples there, so it appears to not be something in int:show and int:hide themselves?). - The Bushranger (talk) 22:22, 20 April 2026 (UTC)

This is still going on. Any ideas why? - The Bushranger (talk) 18:40, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

Best auto-transcription web-app? (subtitles)

Auto-transcription tools are a great help with transcribing videos that may be of interest to speakers of another language that likely don't understand the video's audio language.

So far I found the free open source SoniTranslate tool the best. But it has two major downsides:

1. it's not actively developed anymore and I don't know why people don't like to have an open source transcription tool that benefits everybody (it can also be used for dubbing videos and has some issues that need fixing)
2. one first needs to painstakingly download and install that tool and then start it first every time one would like to transcribe something on localhost which is a substantial obstacle.

It's much easier to just use a web-app. There, one can just enter the URL of a video or upload it and get it transcribed in usually seconds. Which tool in your experience is best for this purpose?

So far I found https://turboscribe.ai/dashboard best since one can use it for free with not signup required, it works fast, and one can export to the format needed for TimedText: SRT with timestamps. One can also specify the max words per segment and one other webapp I've tried had way too long texts when exporting as SRT.

However, it's not perfect either for this purpose: you can see in this diff which changes I had to make. Specifically, it sometimes displayed text too shortly or didn't keep displaying longer subtitles for the available time until the next segment starts.

For example, it displayed a longer subtitle for just 4 seconds and then displayed just 2 words for 4 seconds instead of either combining both or showing the long one for long and the short one for a short time. It also added a segment where no subtitle should be displayed but the TimedText can't handle it and displays the timestamp instead.

Additionally, is there some way to avoid the numbers above the timestamps? Requiring these seems unnecessary and for example if one merges two text segments early in the video then one has to manually adjust all the later numbers manually.

Do you know of a web app that works better?

If you'd prefer some open source integrated tool/gadget, one can support the wish W50: A tool for auto-transcription to speed up creation of TimedTexts subtitles for videos on Commons (voting open). But even if that gets implemented any time soon, until it's there and working at least as well I'm looking for web apps that work nicely with Commons TimedTexts and can be used without much of a hassle occasionally. Prototyperspective (talk) 17:40, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Haven't use it before, but I see on Commons:Timed Text#Create subtitles page for existing Commons files, there is this tool called Subtitler. Thanks. Tvpuppy (talk) 20:52, 21 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, I actually had that webapp open somewhere in my tabs but it drowned in them before I got to giving that tool a try again since the first time I tried it the button didn't work. The button works now but the tool does not transcribe the video but it seems like the tool where transcription could be implemented. Prototyperspective (talk) 21:44, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

Hi @Prototyperspectiveand @Tvpuppy, I'm half the human behind Subtitler. It originally started as an experiment as we identified as a need for our own language documentation and archive work in 2024-2025. Since we have been focusing on low-resourced languages, which mostly lack ASR, we started building it ourselves. The alpha release it out as @Tvpuppy has linked and @Ranjithsiji, who is the other half human and the lead developer, is working on a stable release. We've taken into account something @Prototyperspective had suggested earlier and a few bugs we identified ourselves as we prepare for the release. But we dearly want to incorporate an ASR API that works for large number of languages. Psubhashish (talk) 06:13, 23 April 2026 (UTC)

@Psubhashish I'm assuming the blocker for this would be the cost of most of such models ? I'd like to thank both of you btw. I had been looking for an open source solution for a long while, and it simply didn't seem to be out there. It's good we now have an interface for this that will facilitate this. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 09:44, 23 April 2026 (UTC)

@TheDJ You're welcome! :) Indeed - cost is a major factor. I personally haven't researched about ASR for larger languages but going though @Prototyperspectiveand's notes gives a fair sense that Whisper-based models will work well. I tested a video and the output seems good. For low-resourced languages, we will go slower based on community requests, and will need to figure out available fine-tuned models for a language closer to the target language. Psubhashish (talk) 03:59, 24 April 2026 (UTC)

Link to abstract Wikipedia

Can anyone explain to me where the link to the Abstract Wikipedia comes from in Category:Diablo, Washington, and why it is there? I think it is placed there by {{Wikidata Infobox}}, since it seems to go away if I remove that from the page, but I don't see anything in the documentation of that template suggesting that it should do such a thing. Why wouldn't a link to Abstract Wikipedia belong in the left or right nav, just like any other interwiki link drawn from Wikidata? - Jmabel ! talk 06:30, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

@Jmabel: Indeed, comes from {{Wikidata Infobox}}. Same thing on Category:Earth. If the Wikidata item has an Abstract Wikipedia interwiki link attached to it, the infobox outputs it.

I think I found the culprit code: See this diff on the Module:Wikidata_Infobox sandbox. Commenting out that code removes that Abstract Wikipedia link. I guess for some reason we output multilingual interwiki links here? Not sure what the use case is. ~Kevin Payravi (talk) 14:11, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

Perhaps we can added abstract-wiki to the excludedProjects function at line 1217? That should remove the interwiki link for abstract-wiki. Thanks. Tvpuppy (talk) 14:41, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

Ah yes. Done in the sandbox module. That seems to do the trick. Thanks, ~Kevin Payravi (talk) 15:01, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

Conversely, though: shouldn't this show in the UI like other sister projects? - Jmabel ! talk 19:02, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

Added with this diff, to make a link to Abstract Wikipedia appear below the other interwiki links in the infobox. ~Kevin Payravi (talk) 20:41, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

Though still trying to figure out the use case of that interwikis() function that outputs that plain Abstract Wikipedia link in the body. Anyone know when that's used? The comment in the code mentions Category:Moore_(surname) as an example but I don't see any links being output. CC @Mike Peel ~Kevin Payravi (talk) 20:48, 22 April 2026 (UTC)

The interwiki links are located in the left sidebar (or the Main Menu sidebar) under the "In Wikipedia" section. Thanks. Tvpuppy (talk) 23:24, 23 April 2026 (UTC)

@Tvpuppy: I'm not sure who that was addressed to, but if it is addressed to me, that is certainly where I would expect it, but not where it is. - Jmabel ! talk 00:53, 24 April 2026 (UTC)

Answers my question! Kind of forgot that section existed since I've started using Vector 2022 (it's there, but in the sidebar that I never toggle on). I assume Abstract Wikipedia links aren't considered "Wikipedia" on the backend, so it doesn't get slotted there and instead just shows up as a link in the body. ~Kevin Payravi (talk) 05:16, 24 April 2026 (UTC)

@Kevin Payravi: If it's not considered a "wikipedia", shouldn't it show up under "In other projects" (as I just noticed it does on this project page right here). - Jmabel ! talk 06:09, 24 April 2026 (UTC)

Former featured pictures show when filtering by "Featured pictures" on Mediasearch

Small bug: I was searching for featured pictures of tigers to make sure they were all included in the category. I searched "Tiger -incategory:"Featured_pictures_of_Panthera_tigris"", and set it to filter for featured pictures. I noticed 2 images as the first results, and added them to the category. I then noticed they were actually former featured pictures, and removed them.

Obviously if a picture has had it's featured picture status removed, it should no longer show up. LetmeEditit (talk) 17:54, 23 April 2026 (UTC)

Should now be fixed, I have removed the "Commons quality assessment" = "Wikimedia Commons featured picture" statement from the SDC of the two images. Thanks. Tvpuppy (talk) 22:01, 23 April 2026 (UTC)

Oh, that makes sense! I feel like the SDC for that ought to be automated. Maybe a new bot task? LetmeEditit (talk) 08:52, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

There are very many things that are still in the SDC when already corrected in the categories or file description. One example is the copyright license. I made a thread about this here: Commons:Village pump/Copyright/Archive/2026/02#Wrong copyright license in structured data. A bot that keeps it in sync if either has been corrected by a user with say 100+ edits and puts remaining files with other metadata mismatching SD onto some backlog could be useful but on the other hand SD currently is barely used at all. Maybe somebody could put all the info about such a project in a new bot work request thread and maybe somebody could code it given that AI tools have made such software projects far more feasible. I just don't think just correcting the FP status would be good, also correct other things ...eg for another example aren't there also files with wrong featured media, quality image, etc status? Prototyperspective (talk) 13:15, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

Special search - sort order: by upload date (request)

Would it be possible to make sort order by upload date a persistent personal preference? In my experience sort order by relevance is totally useless and counter productive. (Which are the criteria of relevance used anyway?) I would like to always see series by upload date immediately instead of a list of randomly scattered files where files belonging in the same categories are miles apart. Would it be at least possible to make this choice a one click option instead of a four click sroll and pick and click ? This would greatly be appreciated and very usefull to overview groups of files. Peli (talk) 20:56, 23 April 2026 (UTC)

@Pelikana I just vibe coded a very primitive helper User:RoyZuo/SearchJoy.js. :)

I have thought about making a robust "search option" selector helper (a graphical interface to make many functionalities explained in mw:Help:CirrusSearch easily accessible without any technical knowhow). When I find time I will improve on this. RoyZuo (talk) 17:55, 24 April 2026 (UTC)

Very nice, it works well so far, thank you. I may come up with a review after some days of testing, like about the location where it now sometime overlays Cat-a-lot floater in right bottom corner. I like that the sort order picker can be used easily on categories too. Peli (talk) 20:59, 24 April 2026 (UTC)

You're right. I moved it to the left, which is usually empty beneath the left sidebar.

These designs are just temporary though. I am thinking what the best approach is in the long run. Floating, not floating, collapsed...

mw.loader.load('/w/index.php?title=User:RoyZuo/SearchJoy.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript');

You could consider pasting to your common.js this code instead of the actual code of the script, then you don't need to manually update when the script is updated. RoyZuo (talk) 07:17, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

@Huntster i made a script (a late response to Commons:Village_pump/Technical/Archive/2024/10#c-Huntster-20241028174600-RoyZuo-20241028144800). :) RoyZuo (talk) 11:44, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

@RoyZuo: Thanks for the heads up, it works great!! If I may suggest, making it deployable like Cat-A-Lot, perhaps even positioned beside where C-A-L is when minimized, would be really nice. Floating on the left all the time can get in the way of some things. — Huntster (t @ c) 17:58, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

@Huntster this is just a primitive prototype; I'm limited in coding skills; I'm quite busy this year; so I wont make a collapsible design soon.

https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/575417-searchjoy I ported it to be a script that can be installed in the browser, so if you install it that way, you can switch it off when you dont use it often. This saves the trouble of editing common.js to switch on or off the script. RoyZuo (talk) 20:20, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for getting that script done and +1 to what Huntster said: would be nice if it was collapsed to a small button by default. Additionally, I wonder why it's using SpecialSearch instead of MediaSearch (or both or a setting). Would be nice if you could get these 2 things fixed and also fix the bug in the related Help:Gadget-DeepcatSearch as noted on the talk page there. If not, I'll probably do it some day soon despite that I don't use/need sorting by upload date often. Peli could you clarify why you were asking about SpecialSearch in specific? Prototyperspective (talk) 21:07, 25 April 2026 (UTC)

It seemed smart to keep this request simple and specific, not fancy. It is about the ergonomy of a tool that I use a lot. (I like to be presented with lists of works with all of their edges and with their filenames next to them. I don't have any use for walls of nameless truncated images and neither for extra clicks to see info frames with buttons to "read more".) A real topic here could be "Do we have to worry about the load on the servers if people start playing with too many sort orders in short time? Not being able to set this in advance, as a fixed preference, seems to result in at least 2 hits on the servers for the same question. But the request is also inspired by a wish to help newbees who might not notice at first that the relevance of a single word is not measurable, is a farce and in fact equals "random". Peli (talk) 10:16, 26 April 2026 (UTC)

Hi, I tweaked it w AI to a bar under search options with a few quick settings which will be saved. User:Pelikana/SearchImagesByDate.js. Pls. let me know what you think about it. Peli (talk) 22:41, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

Overwriting existing files is vague on AI removal overwrites

I've been having trouble seeing if Commons:Overwriting existing files has any clear rules on if reuploading a file (the file I'm looking to reupload is File:Atlas The ICBM (1957).webm and probably a couple other videos uploaded by the original uploader since they all use very unstable voice and video cleanup algorithms).

Thanks! :3 Whtwtr (talk) 17:11, 24 April 2026 (UTC)

@Whtwtr Kudos for the ":3". As the title refers to the movie itself, not a user-created work, I would overwrite this file if you have the source file in better quality. If you have manual corrections, I would suggest it as upload as a new file. Regards! --PantheraLeo1359531 😺 (talk) 18:44, 24 April 2026 (UTC)

Sorry, I forgot to read the title D:. If you have the source file, you can overwrite the file, I would say. As stated in the template, AI reprocessing may encounter speculative content, so the pure file is preferred anyway. --PantheraLeo1359531 😺 (talk) 18:52, 24 April 2026 (UTC)

Tech News: 2026-18

MediaWiki message delivery 18:03, 27 April 2026 (UTC)

File importer error

When importing this file, an error occurred, causing it to appear corrupted. For whatever reason though, this only appears to the importer, and everyone else sees it normally (as evidenced here & here). Note that this isn’t a cache issue as purging both client & server cache doesn’t fix it. As evidenced by here, deleting it and then re‐importing it does fix the issue. ANOTHERWlKlPEDlAN _{wɑit thɑt’s ɑ typo} 09:51, 29 April 2026 (UTC)

Can't move files because they don't exist?

I tried to move the files File:SStanko Klinar z oskrbnikoma Siegfriedom in Rose Fellner na Villacher Hütte pod Hochalmspitze, april 1997.jpg and File:Warunadwipa Timeline – Documentation at Zaitun GPdi Congregation, Tepian Indah (2).jpg and I got the following error (that the files don't exist, same for the second file):

Error while moving the page. A detailed description of the error is shown below: API request failed (backend-fail-notexists): The file mwstore://local-swift-codfw/local-public/7/7c/SStanko_Klinar_z_oskrbnikoma_Siegfriedom_in_Rose_Fellner_na_Villacher_Hütte_pod_Hochalmspitze,_april_1997.jpg does not exist. <i>at Wed, 29 Apr 2026 17:35:06 GMT</i> <u>served by mw-api-ext.eqiad.main-75894796f7-9f4tt</u>

After waiting for a few hours, I still get the same error. Purging cache didn't help. Why do I get this error if the files actually do exist? Deltaspace42 (talk) 17:40, 29 April 2026 (UTC)

Doesn't work for me either --PantheraLeo1359531 😺 (talk) 12:45, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

New "organize watchlist" dialogue

I notice that the "watch/unwatch" tab at the top of pages has now changed behavior, now spawning a dialogue box for "Organize Watchlist" with a dropdown to select watchlist time period and an "Unwatch" button at the bottom. This is extremely annoying; what used to be one click and done now not only spawns an annoying quasi-popup but it requires an additional click to make it go away, and when unwatching a page what used to be one click is now three (click tab, click 'unwatch', click to make box go away) (and thus, clicking 'unwatch' does not, in fact, actually unwatch the page anymore which has caught me out more than once). Is there any way to disable this and go back to the old way? - The Bushranger (talk) 22:08, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

Concur. Much preferred how this worked before. No objection to it being a settable option, if that would solve it. FWIW, I never put anything temporarily on my watchlist; if at some point I no longer care, I remove it at the next notification. - Jmabel ! talk 22:28, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

 Comment, please see the relevant phab task for this feature: phab:T417847. Thanks. Tvpuppy (talk) 00:37, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

So this came entirely from a techie at WMF, with no indication of users wanting this? - Jmabel ! talk 05:47, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

I agree, personally I don't use the watchlist labels, and even if I do, I don't think I will need to change the labels frequently, so this change is not helpful to me. As mentioned by Bushranger above, it would be great if they can add a setting to turn this feature off. Thanks. Tvpuppy (talk) 09:31, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

@Jmabel Can you please be not so disparaging towards fellow wikimedians? Employed by the foundation or not ? Not all information is in each ticket. And sometimes there are changes you might not like. If people stopped being so sour, maybe more people would be motivated to do something for Commons. But comments like these are not helping anyone. There’s a tech event going right now, if you were there you might make a difference, like 200 techie-people are doing right now. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 22:00, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

@TheDJ: in terms of the remark, you're right. Just frustration on my part. - Jmabel ! talk 23:36, 1 May 2026 (UTC)

This change has been temporarily reverted; see phab:T425185. Omphalographer (talk) 17:57, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

Query string on Original file link

I notice that when viewing a file description page, clicking either the "Original file" link, or the image itself (which does the same thing) results in the expected URL but with the following query string unexpectedly appended: ?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=index&utm_content=original - this didn't happen until recently, why is it now being done? --Redrose64 (talk; at English Wikipedia) 19:51, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

@Redrose64, read task description of phab:T414338. Nemoralis (talk) 23:15, 2 May 2026 (UTC)

Thumbnail for orginal image and the revised image are the same?

Hi
Today I tried to upload a better image for HondaCivicSi1990.Ignition.png but the two thumbnails in the history appeared identical. So I tried to revert the fresh upload. Now the duplicate of the original is displayed as current. Can the version timestamped "14:15, 3 May 2026" be deleted? How?

For future reference, is there a delay in updating the thumbnail? Thx, ... PeterEasthope (talk) 14:53, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

@PeterEasthope, probably it's just cache. After uploading new version, reloading while holding shift (in Chrome) works. Deltaspace42 (talk) 15:03, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Hi again,

Chromium here and did the cache reload.

In File:HondaCivicSi1990.Ignition.png, under "File history" I see three thumbnails. The two with timestamps 14:15, 3 May 2026 and 23:15, 8 March 2026 are identical. The image timestamped 14:08, 3 May 2026 is the better image where I've marked the ignition points.

Can an administrator remove the 14:15, 3 May 2026 duplicate so that the 14:08, 3 May 2026 image appears in the "Ignition system" article? If there's a formal process for the request please give a link.

Thanks, ... PeterEasthope (talk) 15:40, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

@PeterEasthope: FWIW: any time you click through to an image in the file history and suspect that it may actually be showing an older image, add "?action=purge" to the URL. That should always bypass the caches. - Jmabel ! talk 22:51, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Also: presumably you could have reverted to your preferred version yourself, but I've done it for you. - Jmabel ! talk 22:54, 3 May 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the tips. I'm learning more of the intricacies of Commons.

Thx, ... PeterEasthope (talk) 17:14, 5 May 2026 (UTC)

Tech News: 2026-19

MediaWiki message delivery 20:40, 4 May 2026 (UTC)

DXF

Hi,

CAD & CADD are fairly significant now and support for DXF would be appropriate and it's mentioned in File_types#Unsupported_file_types . Is there a means to up-vote the priority?

Thanks, ... PeterEasthope (talk) 16:31, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

I'm not sure this file format is a good fit for wiki content. w:AutoCAD DXF is a "project" file format used to represent designs in AutoCAD. These files can contain both 2D and 3D content, and don't have a single well-defined display form. If your goal is to upload 3D models, this is probably not the right format to use for that. Omphalographer (talk) 19:19, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply. Primarily I think of 2D. Is DXF feasible for that?

Thx, ... PeterEasthope (talk) 20:42, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

@PeterEasthope: is there much free-licensed content in DXF format, or for which a conversion to DXF would make sense? - Jmabel ! talk 21:31, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

SVG or PDF would probably be a better fit for 2D diagrammatic content. I expect that AutoCAD can export to one or both of those formats. Omphalographer (talk) 21:41, 7 May 2026 (UTC)

The only advantage of DXF over those would be if someone wanted to suck it into a CAD system and do further processing. A lot of information loss in converting to SVG or PDF - Jmabel ! talk 06:04, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

Agreed with Jmabel and Omphalographer: I just can't see many applications in the Open-Source environment. Professionally, I've worked a lot with DXF and DWG as exchange formats between various planning agencies, mostly to iron out conversion errors between these agencies when they use incompatible CAD programs/settings. I have seen a lot of 'broken' CAD files.

• Correct me if I'm wrong: although there is an increasing number of OS software tools that are usable, I don't know about universal browser extensions for CAD. Or would you imagine a serverside conversion tool? How difficult would that be to roll out so that (say) >80% of DXF files would be rendered as intended?
• If one wants to mesh a DXF file with other data - and I think that would be a main goal here? - one must know which SCS is used and be able to convert accordingly, which limits interoperability. And granted, that is an issue with all geographical data.

So, is there a significant OS-CAD community? And would they rely on Commons to hold files for their sake? I don't think we should spend resources on a specialist niche at a time in which Commons doesn't even support structured data. --Enyavar (talk) 21:03, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

Some background.

• DXF is a simple, well known, text-based, CAD format but it is very old. It was defined by AutoCAD. The format is still used. For example, we export 2D DXF to our water jet cutter. Most CAD programs can import and export subsets of DXF. Think of it as a lowest common denominator.
• DWG is the successor to DXF. IIRC, it was initially proprietary, but its format was decoded and openly published. It is an old format, but it still has some support as an import/export format.
• IGES was developed as a CAD exchange format. IIRC, it was required for military contracts. The basic format is 80-char IBM cards (an indication of age). The specification was open, but I am dubious about its support in low-end CAD systems of the era. For simple drawings, DXF interchange was probably enough. If a low end CAD program supported IGES, it probably only supported a subset that corresponded to DXF.
• ISO 10303 (STEP) is the modern format for interchange. Many part vendors supply STEP files on their websites.

The above file formats can convey design information and have features such as associative dimensioning. They can separate model space (a model of the actual object) and paper space (a 2D scaled rendering of the model). There are other formats that are used, but they are not CAD files.

• STL is used for 3D printing.
• SVG is a 2D vector graphics format that can show a paper space rendering.
• VRML and friends: 3D modeling representation.

Supporting DXF might be a nice idea. My reservations are the age of the format and the effort to support such a legacy format on MW.

Glrx (talk) 22:49, 8 May 2026 (UTC)

Here's a few questions to consider:

• What exactly would it mean to "support DXF" on Wikimedia wikis, beyond simply allowing them to be uploaded?
• What happens if an editor adds [[File:Duck.dxf|thumb]] to a page - what appears on the page, and how can readers interact with it?
• Does any of the software to implement those interactions exist, or would it have to be written?

Omphalographer (talk) 02:34, 9 May 2026 (UTC)