Sometimes Uploaded Images Become Corrupted

We have had numerous situations when user images have become corrupted after uploading them onto our system.

For your information, our system is a 64-bit (Little-Endian) system. Our uploading system is non-chunked. By non-chunked we mean that when you upload a large file, it is uploaded as a whole file.

In my research I discovered that some users who are experiencing the image corruption problem are using an EXIF JPEG plugin to export their images (often scans) in Adobe products such as Photoshop CS3 or Photoshop CS2. I will now direct you to the Wikipedia EXIF page which explains a few of the known issues with the EXIF format. I quote some of the more notable ones here for those who scan images using the EXIF JPEG plugin.

1. The EXIF format is not a maintained image format.
2. Data [in the image] can be spread anywhere within a file, which means that software is likely to corrupt any pointers or corresponding data that it doesn't decode or encode.
3. The standard makes no provisions for any scanner specific information even though many software vendors use it in their scanning software (the format is for cameras)
4. Photo manipulation software sometimes fails to update the embedded thumbnail after an editing operation, possibly causing the user to inadvertently publish compromising information

If you are experiencing problems like corrupted images after they've been uploaded, then please check your scanning and export settings to ensure that you are not using the EXIF plugin.