How do I upload book photos via FTP?

Modified on Thu, 19 Oct 2023 at 12:24 PM

You no longer have to have a separate FTP program to send files to your Biblio FTP account! We have recently added a Drag & Drop option to upload photos in bulk, via your BiblioDirect bookseller menu! We're still using your FTP account login to do so, but you don't have to enter your FTP login separately, or use separate FTP software. Note that your image file names still have to match your inventory numbers exactly in order to get them assigned to the correct books. Click here to try it out (you will need to be logged into your BiblioDirect bookseller account for the link to work):


Drag & Drop to send to my Biblio FTP 


This link will take you directly to the Drag & Drop page. You can also login to your BiblioDirect menu, click on the Inventory tab and choose "Upload Listings" from the menu. On the "Upload a file" page, to the right, you will see "You can bulk upload photos via FTP or via your web browser using drag and drop". 


Please note, uploading of folders is currently not supported for all browsers. You can open the folder on your computer, select all the files, and drag them all at once.


If you have image files in that folder which you have already uploaded, no worries! It never hurts to upload an image file more than once, as long as the file name and book ID have not changed.


Please note that after you have added images one at a time or in bulk via FTP, or when you have replaced an image with another one, it can still take one to three hours before you will see the images updated in search.


Please send your feedback about this feature and any bug reports to bookseller-support@biblio.com!


Standard FTP uploading:


To bulk upload book photos or listings to Biblio via FTP, you can use your Biblio FTP account login and an FTP client or program. Click here for more information about a recommended FTP client. 


A Biblio FTP account was automatically set up for you when you submitted your application to sell books through Biblio. To view and/or change the log-in for your Biblio FTP account, use the "Upload settings" link in your bookseller menu.


Your image files must be named to match your book numbers exactly. For example, a photo for your book record number 123 should be named either 123.JPG or 123.jpg.


After your image files have been named accordingly, simply place them in an open space in your FTP directory (do not place the image files inside any other folders within your Biblio FTP directory), and our system will pick them up within about 24 hours.


You can upload folders full of image files, rather than individual image files. You can even upload a whole folder full of images each time you add new image files to the folder, even if that means you are re-uploading images. There is no harm in repeatedly uploading book photos. As long as the inventory numbers still match up with the image file name, images will be associated with the correct listings. You can even leave images for sold books in the folder you upload. If our system cannot find an active listing to associate with that image file, it will simply ignore the image file.


You may enclose all images in ZIP files (compressed files) as well, as long as the zipped files/folders do not expand into subfolders.


We also have options for uploading multiple photos for each book by FTP!