Photo not uploading to the exam form — what to check

Spec pending verification against the official source — confirm on the official portal before you submit.

When a form refuses your photo, it's almost always one of: wrong file format, wrong pixel dimensions, file size outside the allowed range, a HEIC file from an iPhone, or a filename the portal won't accept.

This applies across documents and exams — pick yours and we will set the exact size automatically.

Choose your document or exam

Check these in order

1. File format

JPG is what almost every Indian portal wants. Two traps:

A renamed file is not converted. Changing photo.png to photo.jpg does not make it a JPG. The portal reads the file itself and rejects it.
iPhone HEIC files. Photos from an iPhone are often HEIC, which most portals don't accept. Convert to JPG.

2. File size — both ends

Ranges like 20–50 KB have a minimum too. Over-compressing to 8 KB fails just as reliably as being over the limit.

3. Pixel dimensions

Some portals check exact dimensions, not just file size. A correctly sized 50 KB file at the wrong pixel dimensions is still rejected.

4. Filename

Some portals reject spaces, special characters or very long names. Use a simple name like photo.jpg — and check whether the notification specifies a required filename, as UPSC and others sometimes do.

5. Browser

Government portals are often built for older browsers and can silently fail on mobile. If the upload does nothing at all when you tap it, try a desktop browser, or a different browser on the same phone.

6. Portal load

During peak application windows these portals get overwhelmed and uploads fail with no useful error. If everything about your file is correct, try again at a quieter hour — early morning is usually best.

7. The upload succeeded but shows blank

Sometimes the file uploads and the preview doesn't render. Log out, log back in, and check the profile page before assuming it failed and re-uploading repeatedly.

Fix the file itself

Upload above, choose your exam's preset, and download a file with the correct format, dimensions and size. That eliminates causes 1 through 4 in one step.