Media Attachments (ZIP) export remains "Pending" for a large project

User Support Data Management
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1

Hi KoboToolbox Team,

I am experiencing an issue while exporting media attachments from a KoboToolbox project and would appreciate your guidance.

Project Details

  • ~3,500 submissions

  • Approximately 56 image questions

  • Photos captured using Android devices

  • Project hosted on kf.kobotoolbox.org

Issue
When I select Data → Downloads → Media Attachments (ZIP) and click New Export, the export remains “Pending” for many hours. Previous attempts have ended with “Failed”.

What I’ve Tried

  • Waited several hours

  • Refreshed the export status

  • Used a stable 40 Mbps internet connection

  • Left the browser open during processing

Questions

  1. Is there a limit on the number of submissions or media files that can be exported as a ZIP?

  2. Is this expected for large projects?

  3. Does ZIP generation happen entirely on the Kobo server, or can the user’s internet connection affect it?

  4. What is the recommended way to download all media for a project of this size? Is there an official tool or API-based method?

  5. Is there any way to determine whether the export is still processing or has become stuck?

This project contains important field photographs, and I need to archive all images while maintaining their link to each submission.

Thank you for your support.

2

Hi @cmh and welcome to the community!

If your project has many media files, exporting all media attachments as a ZIP file may fail or take too long. As Kal stated in the post below, I think this is something the core team is working on.

In the meantime you can check the Media attachment ZIP export fails subcategory under the Managing respondent-submitted media - Troubleshooting, which I share in the link below.

Hopefully this works for you.