Support #17621
openincrease Maximum file size
Added by Marilyn Weber about 1 year ago. Updated about 1 year ago.
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Description
From Seonae Byeon:
As mentioned in the past emails, I am a collaborator for the land use oral history project. I am building a website to archive many audios and transcripts. I am unable to upload any audio files. Because the maximum upload file size is set to 128 MB. Could you please increase this to 1500 MB?
Updated by Laurie Hurson about 1 year ago
Hi All,
I met with this group initially when they were starting out building this project. Because its an oral history project, I knew there would be audio files but I was not aware they would be this large. 1500 MB seem too big to be necessary? Or, are we able to facilitate this?
Is it possible to allow this max upload size, and/or do we want to suggest another method? If there is somewhere else they can host and still embed the audio on a Commons site this might be a work around.
Updated by Boone Gorges about 1 year ago
- Status changed from New to Reporter Feedback
Hi all - As Laurie guessed, it's not possible for us to increase our file upload limit. Individual file uploads larger than the current limit would require server configuration changes that we are unable to make. Furthermore, allowing large individual files will mean that sites with large numbers of files will use a huge amount of space, and we have limited storage space available on the Commons servers.
As such, we'll need to identify a different strategy for Seonae's project. Two possibilities:
1. Use an external provider to store audio files, and then embed them on the Commons. For example, SoundCloud's free tier appears to allow up to 4GB per file https://help.soundcloud.com/hc/en-us/articles/360039149474-FAQ-SoundCloud-s-free-upload-limit. And WordPress has built-in support for embedding files from SoundCloud; much like YouTube videos, you simply paste a SoundCloud URL on its own line (or use the Audio block) and you'll get a player interface.
2. Compress the files and upload to the Commons. As Laurie suggests, it should be possible to dramatically decrease the size of the files by using a compression tool. (There are many such tools. ffmpeg is a well-known free tool https://ffmpeg.org/)
I should note that the Commons is intended to be a tool for distribution, not for proper archiving. As such, it's a great place to build the kind of transcript+audio hub that Seonae describes. But it should not be the primary way of archiving the original source content. When considering compression and/or off-site storage for the original source material, I recommend researching best practices for oral history projects. See eg https://oralhistory.org/remote-interviewing-resources/#compressed-v-uncompressed, https://oralhistory.org/remote-interviewing-resources/#cloudvlocal. As long as you've got a proper archival home for the source interviews, it should be harmless to pursue compression and/or third-party storage for the copies of the interviews that will be hosted on the Commons.
Updated by Laurie Hurson about 1 year ago
Thanks so much for this feedback Boone.
I hear you re: the commons is not really the proper space to actually archive all these files. I have relayed this info to the user and will advocate for storage on sound cloud (as opposed to compression, since they could just compress and not actually back up the files anywhere else...)
I may have a few more questions about this when I hear from them, so more soon.
Thanks again for these suggestions and guidance.
Updated by Laurie Hurson about 1 year ago
From the user: "Are there any size limits in terms of how big the CUNY commons allow embedding video/audio?"
To clarify, I believe the user is asking if there are space limitations for how big of a file can be embedded. For example on this site (linked), audio is hosted on Anchor.fm but embedded on the Commons: https://vp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/teaching-and-our-dystopian-reality/ (only some are embedded, not because of size issues)
I believe that the answer is: since the audio is hosted on the other site (Anchor) it does not matter how large the files it, it can be linked to and embedded and played via an audio player on the Commons. Is this correct? Are there any limitations or caveat I need to be aware of? I just want to be sure.
Updated by Boone Gorges about 1 year ago
I believe that the answer is: since the audio is hosted on the other site (Anchor) it does not matter how large the files it, it can be linked to and embedded and played via an audio player on the Commons. Is this correct? Are there any limitations or caveat I need to be aware of? I just want to be sure.
Correct!