Photo not uploading on an exam portal — work through it in this order
When the portal refuses the file and says nothing useful, check the rules in the order they actually fail. Most people check them in the opposite order.
When a portal gives you nothing to work with, the temptation is to try things at random — compress it, screenshot it, try another browser. That can take an hour. Checking the rules in the order they actually fail takes about two minutes.
1. Format
Is it genuinely a JPEG? Not named .jpg — actually a JPEG. Screenshots are PNG, iPhones default to HEIC, and pictures out of WhatsApp can be WEBP. This is the first thing to rule out because renaming does not fix it and nothing else matters until it is right.
2. Pixel dimensions
This is the rule that fails most uploads and the one the error message almost never names. The portal checks width and height separately against exact numbers. Right KB with wrong dimensions fails identically to wrong KB.
3. The maximum KB
The one everybody checks first. Resize before compressing, or the photo will be valid and ugly.
4. The minimum KB
The one nobody checks. SSC, IBPS and several state boards set a floor, and a clean photo on a plain background regularly falls under it.
5. DPI
Some notifications ask for 200 or 300 DPI. That is a number recorded inside the JPEG, separate from the pixel size, and a perfectly sized file can carry no DPI at all. If everything else passes, this is worth checking — and it can be set without touching the pixels.
Do all five at once
Put the numbers from your notification into the rejection checker and drop the file in. It tests all of them separately and names the ones that fail, so you stop guessing. It reads the file inside your browser and changes nothing.
If every rule passes and it still will not upload
Then it is probably not the file. Try a different browser, turn off any ad blocker or extension on that page, and avoid uploading over a weak mobile connection — a half-finished upload often surfaces as a file error. Portals are also slowest and least reliable on the final day, which is its own argument for not applying on it.
Questions
Does the file name matter?
Occasionally. Some portals reject names with spaces, brackets or non-English characters. A short plain name like photo.jpg costs nothing to try.
Should I use a phone or a computer to apply?
A computer if you have one. Phone browsers handle file pickers inconsistently on older portals, and some upload widgets were never tested on them.
The upload bar fills and then nothing happens.
That usually points at the connection or the portal rather than the file, especially near a deadline. Retry on a stable network before you start editing the photo.
Can a photo be rejected after it uploads successfully?
Yes. Upload checks are automatic; a human reviews the photograph later for things like a cap, spectacles, poor lighting or an old picture. No tool can pass that check for you.