Error message given when trying to upload a video to VideoPress from wp-admin while site is Private

[masperber]

Quick summary

An error message is given when trying to upload a video to VideoPress when the WordPress.com site is set to private.

Steps to reproduce

1. Set a site to Private.
2. Ensure that the VideoPress module is active.
3. Click on Media > Library, or go to {siteurl}/wp-admin/upload.php
4. Ensure that Grid view is active (because if list view is active, the Add New Media File button will redirect you to {siteurl}/wp-admin/media-new.php and bypass VideoPress)
5. Click on the Add New Media File button and try to upload any video file.

What you expected to happen

The video should be uploaded either to VideoPress or to the site's upload folder if uploading to VideoPress is not possible while the site is private. An error message should not be given.

What actually happened

An error message is displayed:

{filename}
An error occurred in the upload. Please try again later.

Impact

All

Available workarounds?

Yes, difficult to implement

Edit - Yes, and an easy to implement.

If the above answer is "Yes...", outline the workaround.

To workaround, either make the site public or Coming Soon to upload videos to VideoPress or deactivate the VideoPress module or go to {siteurl}/wp-admin/media-new.php to bypass VideoPress while the site is Private.

Edit - Another workaround is to select "default" view and upload from the calypso media library URL:

Platform (Simple and/or Atomic)

Atomic

Logs or notes

No response

[masperber]

Customer report: 8710353-zd-a8c

[github-actions[bot]]

Support References

This comment is automatically generated. Please do not edit it.

• [ ] 8710353-zen

[Addison-Stavlo]

Tested and confirmed there is an error shown when uploading through wp-admin/upload.php for a private atomic site:

NOTE - Another Available Work-Around (il update above post to mention this): use the default calypso interface for uploading at wordpress.com/meadia/{siteSlug}, which is the default and can also be found and managed from the wp-admin page in the top right:

This work-around seems easier than what was originally mentioned above regarding changing site privacy. When testing this I initially uploaded at the calypso url given following instructions above to Click on Media > Library, and the upload to videopress worked with no errors. Changing to 'classic' interface and uploading from wp-admin did encounter the error.

With the easier work-around, this could be considered less than high priority (as per pciE2j-oG-p2).

[masperber]

My opinion is that this should be considered high priority since migrated, developer, and agency sites are defaulted to use wp-admin view.

[Addison-Stavlo]

My opinion is that this should be considered high priority since migrated, developer, and agency sites are defaulted to use wp-admin view.

Good points. I was back and forth on leaving this high or not, but ended up following the matrix laid out here pciE2j-oG-p2 as its instructed as part of the groundskeeping rotation.

Even if the workaround is difficult, it only recommends high priority if it is experienced by all users. Here it is limited to a subset of users, has one workaround conflated with privacy settings (that is hinted at with the notice above the error), and another simple workaround for others.

[phcp]

Added to the VideoPress project board so it can be worked in the next maintenance rotation, in case no one does it before.