Commons talk:File requests

Guidelines

I added a set of guidelines adapted from en:Wikipedia:Requested pictures (where I do a lot of work, which i would like to expand to the commons). These are, of course, up for discussion. I tried to use simple english/easy words, since not all editors on Common may be fluent in english. -- Chris 73 00:16, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Explanations: separated pages, Requests: in a unified page

I think that it would be good if we separate the explanation of what "Picture requests" is and the Picture requests itself. In that way we may explain the procedure of picture requests in different languages: each language in a page different, but i would link them all to the same list of Picture requests, so that all requests are unified. The requests could be organized in a kind of table with different columns:

1st column: name of the image requested

2nd "  : description of the image (in original language)

3rd "  : translation of description.

nth "  : translation of description

--Javier Carro 02:44, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I have given it a try, and split Commons:Picture requests into the english page Commons:Picture requests and the requests for all lanuages Commons:Picture requests/Requests, which is included as a template in Commons:Picture requests. I also created a Commons:Bilderwünsche, which includes the same Commons:Picture requests/Requests with a german explanation. To tie it all together I also created Commons:Picture requests/Menu as the top level menu. I think this is best. The actual request can be addedin any language, or even with multiple languages in the same request. Does this look good? -- Chris 73 09:38, 4 Nov 2004 (UTC)

When I make an edit to the Commons:Picture requests/Requests, it doesn't seem to be reflected in the Commons:Picture requests when I reload it. Paranoid 20:49, 15 Nov 2004 (UTC)

• I have noticed that as well. It does update if you remove the template and then put it back in, but it's kind of a pain to have to do that everytime. Actually, I think this may be a documented problem with MediaWiki, but I can't remember where I saw it before. Josh 00:27, 17 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Do you live in this city section

In order to make it easier for people to contribute, it often is a motivator to point out how individuals are uniquely qualified to make a contribution. To this end, we are saying- "hey- you are lucky for living in your place- you know, a lot of people in the world would like to see something that is unique in your city, I wonder if you would be willing to help out." Maybe we could even ask folks willing to take pictures to list themselves under their cities so that requesters could make direct talk page contact with particular folks. I know I would take pictures if I know what people wanted.

Anyway, that was the thought behind my addition of the section. -Mak 20:14, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Users adding their location to their user pages would probably be the best method. Richard001 00:22, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I've created Category:Users by country and added myself to it. Hopefully other people will do the same thing. Saying more precisely where you live on your talk page is always a good idea though. Richard001 09:27, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

Spliting up?

What about splitting the sections into various pages e.g. things, locations, people or something like that? --Flominator 18:55, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Methods for requesting

Would it also be possible simply to list requests on category talk pages, which also add a template to place the talk page inside a requests category? For example on the page for a wasp I could request an image of a wasp in flight, then add the page to a requests category using a template. This seems far tidier than such a long list like this, and easier to maintain. I'm fairly unfamiliar with how requests are dealt with on Commons, I assume this page is currently the only means of making requests. Richard001 00:20, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

Sounds like a good idea. But what about the discussions, that already exist on these talkpages? --Flominator 08:17, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

It would just be a template that goes at the top. If there are any discussions, they won't be affected. Richard001 05:48, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

But don't you think that people won't fullfill requests when they're not able to scroll the list? --Flominator 14:26, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Lakes

At en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Lakes/Galleries/Image missing, there is a list of lake articles lacking an image in the infobox. It's sorted by country. -- User:Docu

Flickr

Is there some way we could advertise things like this on Flickr? There are a lot of people who have access to things and would love to take pictures for us if they just knew that we wanted them. — Omegatron 02:40, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

There is a picture request group at http://flickr.com/groups/79462785@N00/ and another at http://flickr.com/groups/31153946@N00/ I posted the request list there. // Liftarn

Image Transfer Questions

I uploaded a series of world history maps to Wikipedia, starting in August of 2007. Some of the maps have been updated several times, and previous versions can be found on each map's homepage (conveniently allowing readers to see previous revisions of the maps, helpful for showing that the maps evolve as errors are corrected).

Several users have requested that I transfer those maps to Wikimedia so they are available for other language Wikis. I'd be happy to do so, but I want to make sure the previous versions of the files are still available, like they are on Wikipedia now.

Is there any way I can transfer the maps to Wikimedia ALONG WITH their previous file versions? Thomas Lessman 07:02, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Clean Up this page

Is anyone maintaining this page. It seems to contain a bunch of requests that have either been fulfiled or are very old. I guess more people would use this page if some sections where cleaned up. --Inkwina (talk • contribs) 09:44, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

I've recently moved some things to more appropriate headings (people seem to add new sections to the bottom for individual requests) and noted some requests for which we do have images. I guess they should be removed with a helpful edit summary after a week or so. I think the problem is more a lack of a clear maintenance procedure rather than volunteers to maintain it. —LX (talk, contribs) 14:03, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Import from en:

Where do I request images from en: to be imported in/moved to Commons? In this case: How do I get the rest of the sports kits somewhere where fy: can use them? Aliter (talk) 01:54, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

You could go to the English page and add {{Move to Commons}} to it. // Liftarn (talk)

In that case: Is there a bot service that will put {{Move to Commons}} to a whole list of pages? (Kits, not exact, but you'll get the idea.) You're right, though: If there's no procedure on Commons to go get them, it might be possbile to solve the problem from the en: side. Aliter (talk) 21:55, 21 October 2008 (UTC)

As you can see on en:Category:Copy to Wikimedia Commons you can tag an entire category, but if you have to create a category then you might just as well tag the individual files. You can also use CommonsHelper to transfer the images directly. // Liftarn (talk)

Importing a whole set from Flickr

Is it possible to automatically import a whole set from Flickr? I'm looking at [1], and more than two thirds of these pictures would fill an empty gap straightaway; moreover, they're all cc-by. Classical geographer (talk) 12:45, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

@Classical geographer: https://flickr2commons.toolforge.org/#/ Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 07:00, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

separate pages

Hi, I'm just browsing this page as an outsider to this project but I noticed the list is incredibly long. I experience some lag going through it all. Maybe the subjects could be split into separate pages. Like all of the requests for Africa on an "Africa" page, or European requests on a "Europe" page. Flora and Fauna could be included too on their own. I think it's cool to have all of the requests together, it's just sort-of hard for me to browse and I'm wondering if it's affecting others too. Would like to hear all of your thoughts on this. --Turn685 (talk) 19:10, 7 June 2013 (UTC)

The page is already made up of individual subpages like Commons:Picture requests/Requests/Africa, Commons:Picture requests/Requests/Europe and Commons:Picture requests/Requests/Nature. —LX (talk, contribs) 09:58, 9 June 2013 (UTC)

Wow! Those lists are huge :) --Turn685 (talk) 04:08, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Requesting a sound file

How can one request a sound file? I have a new pronounciation of the name of Bulgaria in mind, since the current one ([2]) has a strong (US) accent and a RP pronounciation would be more appropriate. --Kreuzkümmel (talk) 21:05, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

Cross-wiki idea: Crowdsource photos (discussion at Wikidata)

I've started a discussion at Wikidata about a better way to integrate photo requests across all the Wikiprojects. Please contribute to the discussion if you're interested. Thanks! Wikimandia (talk) 00:43, 9 December 2015 (UTC)

Notify about nearby request in Commons app

If latitude/longitude were clearly indicated, we (the Commons app developers) could make a notification pop up to people who happen to come nearby. Syced (talk) 07:43, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Maintanance strategy

Something needs to be done here. There is no clear strategy for maintaining this page. It is the same situation as when this topic was discussed 13 years ago in 2008. So what can we do? I would prefer turning it into a discussion page like Village pump with a bot archiving posts older than e.g. 180 days. Any constructive opposite views? --Indeedous (talk) 10:40, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

As nobody seems to care I moved this page to from Commons:Picture requests here. It is now redesigned based on village pump. I will see what happens and work on subpages etc. afterwards. --Indeedous (talk) 22:03, 14 March 2021 (UTC)

i set up two archiving schemes. in addition to the original setup, now sections not closed with {{Section resolved}} will be sent to /Archive/Unresolved/... maybe they would be interesting for future users. RoyZuo (talk) 07:53, 11 November 2022 (UTC)

I don't want to request a file so much as I want to request a source, "what do"?

I have quite a few files that I know would be compatible with Wikimedia's criteria for reusability due to being US Government works, but I have issues with how said files do not seem to be available from a source that actually acknowledges their status as US government works in terms of their (lack of) copyright status (fig. 1, fig. 2) or are being rehosted someplace that does grant unfettered access but at the same time doesn't document the original US government source (which is something that I would like to acknowledge in addition to the actual source) with the possible exception of any VIRINs or similar metadata identifiers (fig. 3).

At first I thought about asking a fuller version of this on the copyright village pump but ultimately felt like that place isn't really geared for what I want to ask. I then came across this, the file request page, but as my title indicates I'm not actually looking for files so much as I'm looking for a proper source for said files. So which venue is best placed for the sort of query I want to make? - Dvaderv2 (talk) 04:06, 3 January 2023 (UTC)

@Dvaderv2 that's a rather specific and rare kind of request. i suggest com:vpc or com:vp. as you said, this page is definitely only for requesting files.

about your requests. you can see certain identifier strings or names of photographers in those links. you can try searching that piece of info in dod databases, etc. RoyZuo (talk) 13:10, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Dont turn back to old format

@Jmabel this page was turned into the current format a few years ago, because a by topic format makes it impossible to maintain. old requests stay on the page forever.

i've been designing Commons:File requests/Map and Template:File request that makes use of User:DB111's https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:DB111/Tools#WikiMap . the goal is to have a map that shows all coords of "file requests" waiting to be done. i havent had time to finish it but that's on my plan. RoyZuo (talk) 14:00, 17 December 2023 (UTC)

@RoyZuo:

Feel free to come up with something better, but the way it was was pretty much unusable. No quick way to find out what is even on your continent!

Things cwould still age out within each section, no? And really: should an unfilled request ever age out?

Anyway, those are my thoughts, but if you feel more ownership over it, go for it. I almost never look here; saw it referenced on (I think) the help desk and came over to see if there was anything I had half a chance of shooting, decided to fix what looked like a mess to me. I don't really care. - Jmabel ! talk 18:53, 17 December 2023 (UTC)

see sections above.

"should an unfilled request ever age out?"

yes. check page history and see sections above to see what it becomes when requests accumulated to the point of being impossible to manage. RoyZuo (talk) 09:28, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

Commons:File_requests/Archive/2004-2020. RoyZuo (talk) 09:36, 18 December 2023 (UTC)

"Find nearest photographer" link broken

In the instructions at top, there is a link to click on to "Find nearest photographer. When I click on that, my browse displays an error message: "Looks like there’s a problem with this site https://wikipedia.ramselehof.de/foto_range.php might have a temporary problem or it could have moved." I'm not sure if it is an issue with my browser, or if that web site is defunct. If it is defunct, it should be removed from the instructions. Noleander (talk) 21:04, 13 August 2025 (UTC)

Edited header, but page isn’t updated

I edited Commons:File requests/header, but this page doesn’t reflect those edits. Does anyone know why not, and how to fix it? Zanahary (talk) 07:05, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

It's because of the translation tagging. Hundreds–thousands of pages have changes that don't display because they weren't marked for translation by a translation admin. Prototyperspective (talk) 12:41, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

Wondering about the archiving here

Do we really want to archive unfulfilled requests after 1 year? [3]. Doesn't seem obvious to me that they cease being relevant. - Jmabel ! talk 18:28, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

The problem with not doing that is that the page can become very long. Additionally, people would not get thread archived notifications which is what I used to for example escalate things to other places like the Community Wishlist or implementing sth myself. The same problem you describe also affects lots of other requests pages such as Commons:Bots/Work requests, a sizable fraction of threads in Commons:Village pump/Technical and d:Wikidata:Bot requests.

This is why I made this proposal about a rough concept how this could be addressed: m:Community Wishlist/Wishes/Do not fully archive unsolved issues on Talk pages (Talk pages here includes meta/requests pages like this).

Additionally, the file requests probably needs a complete replacement – just very few people browse or find or are connected with requests on this page and a static page with a list of untagged&unlinked&undynamic threads is not a sophisticated effective requests system. Prototyperspective (talk) 17:38, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

Revamp 2026

i've had these ideas for a while but havent had the time to do them.

1. new requests would be filed on yearly pages "Commons:File requests/2026".
2. no more archiving will be done. instead each request will get a status indicator template, so users can find requests that are still open by ctrl+f.
3. i wanted to make use of wikimap. see https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer_Diskussion:DB111#c-RoyZuo-20230910192200-Geogroup_fuer_Seite_auf_Commons
   the idea is that requests can be filed using a template, which sets coord either given by users or automatically based on location (P276) or similar wd properties. then users looking to fulfill requests can click the map and find something near them.
   for physical things or humans, coords are where they are located or where they most likely appear. even requests for something like pronunciations of words, which has nothing to do with physical objects, can be assigned coords like where speakers of those languages are concentrated.
   i believe this'll be much better than scrolling thru a page to try to find something someone can do, like needle in haystack.

if someone can make it better like this or other ideas, please feel free. great thx. RoyZuo (talk) 19:01, 19 January 2026 (UTC)

so now, i've finished major redesign of Template:File request and finally made it usable. here's a demo of the new design Commons:File requests/2026.

i plan to do these things in the following months when i find the time. if you can, please go ahead and do them:

1. construct the preload for Template:File request so users can easily fill in the parameters.
2. Template:File request/doc copyedit.
3. simplify and trim down Commons:File requests/header. fix its problem that causes the reply function to fail.
4. reformat all old requests to these new format yearly pages.
5. optionally, geographic subpages like "Commons:File requests/Fiji" can be created and all open requests located in that area can be manually listed there.
6. merge Commons:Audio and video requests into this and move all those old requests over into the new format.--RoyZuo (talk) 11:34, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

If audio and video requests are merged into here, then requests about audio or videos need to be distinguished somehow from normal/image file requests otherwise. So merging these may not be a good idea (unless you know how these can be distinguished and eg browsed/filtered separately). Prototyperspective (talk) 17:33, 20 January 2026 (UTC)

today started processing old requests into single yearly pages. RoyZuo (talk) 17:51, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

It could quite plausibly make more sense to put them on separate pages depending on the type of files requested. For example (haven't gone through the requests to see whether these would be reasonable types): photos of people, location-specific files. Also a TOC that shows headers of requests from across pages could also be useful as one could quickly glance over it and see if one can solve any of the requests. Prototyperspective (talk) 17:58, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

Not sure we have enough yet to be all that worth having many pages but certainly any where geography (or even probable geography: e.g. where someone lives) fit in would be great to group by approximate location. - Jmabel ! talk 20:28, 19 February 2026 (UTC)

principles behind this revamp:

1. facts:
   1. many requests are hard to fulfil, so they remain open for years.
   2. having a lot of open requests on a single page is impractical.
   3. for the time being, we get at most ~100 valid requests each year (2 requests each week), many of which are not fulfilled timely.
2. solutions: breaking into separate request pages is necessary.
3. my choices:
   1. location/topic-based request pages have 2 major problems:
      1. when a location is broad/popular, e.g. Commons:Picture_requests/Requests/Europe, it will still become flooded with too many requests and unmanageable, requiring further splitting into smaller divisions of that location.
      2. when such further splitting is done, pages become too granular and then neglected because i believe each level of splitting will reduce people monitoring those pages by an order of magnitude.
   2. i dislike the practice of shifting discussions to different pages (including archiving), because it makes it difficult for future people to find old discussions and check editing history.
      let the requests stay where they were filed.
   3. these pages should require minimal manual maintenance to avoid wasting precious volunteer activity.
   4. so i decided to use year-based subpages e.g. Commons:File requests/2026. no more archiving is needed or performed.
      if in future requests are filed more often, half-yearly/quarterly/monthly pages can be used instead.
   5. letting discussions stay where they are (even if done) and no archiving allow further response. perhaps someone later makes even better files for the same topic, etc. they can still reply to that request. archiving kills the opportunity and is very inflexible.
   6. while i reorganise discussions older than 2026, i put all the fulfilled requests at the end of those pages under section "done", because it's convenient to do so, but this action is not particularly needed for future discussions. avoid moving discussions to avoid messing editing history up.
   7. geotagged requests can be copied (not moved) to Commons:File requests/Map which enables a global map of open requests.
4. of course, no one is prevented from doing what they like.
   i'm certainly not watching other pages or discussions moved away from the yearly pages. people can do whatever they want and remember to take their responsibility.

RoyZuo (talk) 21:52, 2 March 2026 (UTC)

You say, "having a lot of open requests on a single page is impractical", but I see little or no gain in splitting them by a criterion that has little or nothing to do with finding a request you might be able to fulfill (what year the request was made). You still have to look through the same mass of requests, with the inconvenience of needing to go to different pages to do so. - Jmabel ! talk 06:06, 3 March 2026 (UTC)

Sort the current page geographically?

Would anyone mind if I rearranged this page to bring out the locations of the things that are geographically specific? - Jmabel ! talk 20:27, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

Lacking any response, I'm going ahead with this. - Jmabel ! talk 23:58, 26 February 2026 (UTC) Never mind, I see someone has been doing some sorting, just differently than I would have. - Jmabel ! talk 00:09, 27 February 2026 (UTC)

Thanks, it will be useful! Prototyperspective (talk) 00:09, 27 February 2026 (UTC)

@Prototyperspective: it seems instead to have been sorted by year of request, and with a "Done" section instead of archiving completed requests. This is completely different from how I would have done it, but I don't want to work actively at cross-purposes with someone else. - Jmabel ! talk 04:46, 27 February 2026 (UTC)

It makes no sense to clutter this page and make it huge with requests that are done; will move them into an archive that's just linked. What you described is not at cross-purposes – one can sort requests by year and by whether they're geographic location-specific. Prototyperspective (talk) 11:45, 27 February 2026 (UTC)

@Prototyperspective: Unless each request is in a separate file (like DRs), you cannot sort it two different ways.

Also, if you are archiving requests that are done, we might also want to separately archive requests that are overtly declined. - Jmabel ! talk 18:43, 27 February 2026 (UTC)

Archiving declined requests that separately sounds good. I would just add that a request for a file that cannot be solved, eg because the image requested is impossible or not under a compatible license, is also 'done'.

Also of relevance to this whole topic is m:Community Wishlist Survey 2023/Miscellaneous/Photo and video requests to be fullfilled by Wikipedians all around the world. Prototyperspective (talk) 18:54, 27 February 2026 (UTC)