Print your Photos at Picta

Order Upload is Taking a Long Time

Why is my order upload taking such a long time?

The time it takes for an order to upload is dependent primarily on two things:

  1. the strength of your internet connection
  2. whether or not the app is open and running (for iPhone and iPad users)

The necessary internet connection

We suggest using a strong personal WiFi or a 3G/4G/5G internet connection when submitting a photo order. If you have a strong internet connection it shouldn’t take more than a few minutes at most to upload even large photo orders!

Not all WiFis are made equal. Public WiFi hotspots may be strong enough to ensure the upload of an order, but your safest option is usually your personal WiFi connection. If we detect that your order is taking too long to upload, you may see an error message in the app.

Is the Photo Print app open and running?

For customers with an iPhone or iPad, it is a very good idea to remain in the app after submitting an order to give us the necessary time to upload your ordered photos to our server. You don’t have to stay in checkout, but can look at other images in your gallery while you wait.

While there is no specific rule to how long you should keep the app open after ordering, one indication is whether or not you have received an order confirmation email. This automated email is sent immediately as soon as an order is successfully uploaded and is processing. If you haven’t received that email after leaving the app, we strongly suggest reopening the app and verifying the status of your order in the order history section. If the order status shown next to the Walgreens logo is stuck on “Uploading your photos” or “Warming up the printer” instead of advancing to “Printing”, we would suggest actively remaining in the app until this status progresses.

If you left the app immediately after clicking submit, it is possible that we didn’t have enough time to upload your images to our server before the app timed out. Apps can’t run permanently in the background on your iPhone or iPad and the uploading would have stopped. However, an order upload will automatically resume when you reopen the app.