What if a guest has no signal?
The send waits and tries again by itself. A film picks up from the last piece the server confirmed instead of starting over, and a photo is retried automatically. If it still cannot get through, the page says so rather than pretending it sent.
Nothing about this needs the guest to understand it. It matters because the alternative — a memory that looked sent and was not — is the failure nobody finds out about until it is too late to fix.
The detail
- Films go up in 8 MB pieces on a resumable session. When the connection drops, the browser asks the server how far it got and carries on from there, so a drop costs one piece rather than the whole film.
- A photo is retried up to three times, waiting a little longer each time. Photos are small enough that a single retry usually clears a wobble.
- A refusal that retrying cannot heal is never retried. A file that is too big, or an event that has closed, is reported to the guest instead of being queued forever behind a reassuring message.
- Sends are paced. Four photos at a time and at most two films, because three films sharing one venue uplink make all three slower rather than finishing sooner.
- Coming back later works. The same phone returning to the same link is recognised as the same guest, so a guest who steps outside for signal — or finishes in the taxi home — sends into the same album, for as long as the event is open.
What to tell a guest whose photo will not send
In order, and it rarely gets past the second one.
Step 1
Leave the page open for a moment
The send is already retrying on its own, waiting a little longer between attempts. Closing the tab is the one thing that stops it.
Step 2
Step towards signal
A few metres towards a window or a door is usually the whole fix at a venue. The upload picks up where it left off.
Step 3
Come back to the same link later
The same phone on the same link is the same guest, so a photo sent on the way home lands in the same album as the ones sent at the table.
Step 4
Read what the page says
If the send genuinely failed, the page says why — the file was too big, or the event has closed. That message is the truth about what happened, not a placeholder.
Questions people ask next
What if a guest has no signal?
The send waits and tries again by itself. A film picks up from the last piece the server confirmed instead of starting over, and a photo is retried automatically. If it still cannot get through, the page says so rather than pretending it sent.
Does a big film start over when the Wi-Fi drops?
No. Films go up in 8 MB pieces on a resumable session, and after a drop the browser asks the server how far it got and continues from there.
Can a guest send later, after they have left?
Yes, while the event is still open. The same phone returning to the same link is recognised as the same guest and sends into the same album.
Could a photo look sent when it was not?
No. A refusal that retrying cannot heal is surfaced to the guest rather than queued behind a reassuring message.