FAQs: Your questions answered
Every newsletter we'll put in an FAQ that seeks to answer some of the common queries we've been receiving in the past few months.
Q: Why am I unable to upload digital objects to AtoM? I have done so in the past.
A: There are generally two common reasons for this:
- You have tried to upload a file greater than the default limit of 64MB; or
- You have used the digital object space available on your AtoM site and you need to purchase more in order to continue to upload digital objects.
If it is because you want to upload a digital object more than 64MB in size, then there are a few things to consider. First of all, are you uploading an access version of your file (or files)? An access version is generally smaller in size due to compression and the file type when compared with the original file. For example, if you have digitized a document into a number of TIFF files, you might make an access copy by combining the pages into a single PDF. AtoM is not a preservation system, so this allows you to keep your digitized masters in a more appropriate location, while still providing meaningful access to end users.
However, we recognise that files in general have gotten bigger and this includes access files. In this case, your upload limit can be reconfigured by Support. But there are caps to how far this limit can be increased, especially in shared infrastructure. And keep in mind that this might cause you to run into issue two: using all of your storage space in AtoM. This will fail any future digital object uploads.
Depending on your AtoM implementation, you will have storage size limits. You can can have a user with Administrator rights confirm this. Navigate to ADMIN>SETTINGS in the Navigation Bar. When the left-hand menu appears, select UPLOADS. The first entry will show your usage and storage limits (see image below).