Amazon Image Upload Errors: What Each Error Means and How to Fix It

The Short Answer

Most Amazon image upload errors fall into three groups: the file itself (format, dimensions, corruption), the file name or product identifier (a bad ASIN or variant, error 990003, error 100239), and the same file uploaded twice. Find the error in your upload's Failure Report, match it below, and fix that one thing (Amazon Image upload errors; Amazon Upload images).

If the upload succeeded but the image never appears, that isn't an upload error. It's covered further down, under "Uploaded but Not Showing".

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Where to Find the Error

Amazon's Upload images help page describes what happens straight after an upload: "Immediately after upload, Amazon checks file format, permissions, and offer status." (Amazon Upload images).

The Upload Results prompt then shows a breakdown of assigned images, unassigned images and failures. "If there are failures, download the Failure Report to identify which files failed, along with failure reasons and suggested next steps."

That is the first check. A second one follows: "Next, we perform additional checks for technical compliance and product image requirements. Processing can take up to 24 hours." Problems from that second check show up in Submission status, where Amazon says "a red exclamation point icon appears in the image tile". Select the Content compliance issues report type for the details.

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Every Upload Error, in Amazon's Words

Amazon's Image upload errors help page lists these, with what happened and how to fix each (Amazon Image upload errors):

The sections below cover the errors that need more than a one-line fix.

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Error 990003: Main Image and Product ID Do Not Match

This is the error with the longest message. Amazon's help page quotes it (Amazon Error 990003):

"The MAIN image that you have submitted shows a product that is different than the product represented by the ASIN's existing MAIN image."

It gives three reasons it happens:

1. "The main image you submitted does not match the product currently associated with the ASIN."
2. "The product identifiers (such as UPC, EAN, or ASIN) in your submission do not match the product shown in your main image." Amazon's example: the identifier for one product with an image of another.
3. "Our image recognition detected significant visual differences between your submitted image and the existing image on the ASIN, such as differences in product category, shape, color, size, or brand."

The third is the one that surprises sellers. The check isn't only on your identifiers. Amazon compares your photo with the photo already on the ASIN.

How to fix it, per Amazon:

1. Check you're on the right ASIN. Compare the existing title, description and main image with your new image.
2. Check every identifier. UPC, EAN, ISBN, ASIN or SKU, against your packaging, manufacturer documents or inventory records. Amazon specifically mentions "transposed digits, typos, or wrong codes".
3. If the image is right but the ASIN is wrong, create a new listing with the correct identifiers in Add Products, and upload the image there.
4. If you meant to update the existing ASIN, make sure the new main image clearly shows the same product.

Then wait: "Allow 24–48 hours for our catalog team to review your corrected submission."

One more line from Amazon's error table is worth knowing: "If the product has materially changed, create a new listing instead." A changed product doesn't get a new photo on the old page (Amazon Image upload errors).

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Error 100239: Image and Title Do Not Match

Amazon's help page for error 100239 describes a different check: "This error occurs when your product title information (item_name) contradicts the main image that you're submitting for that particular SKU." (Amazon Error 100239).

Its example makes it concrete: "if your SKU item_name is of a shoe, but your main image is of a purse."

The error message itself reads: "The title and the image that you provided on this SKU don't seem to represent the same product."

How to fix it: review the main image and the item name, change whichever is wrong, and resubmit your product data.

If both are right, Amazon's advice is to contact Selling Partner Support and "mention the SKU, item_name, and URL of the main image that you used."

Note that Amazon's upload errors table describes 100239 slightly differently, as the main image not matching "the image file name". If you get this error through the Upload images tool, check the file name first. If you get it on a product data submission, check the title (Amazon Image upload errors).

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"Image File Was Corrupted or of an Unexpected Format"

This error covers more than corruption. Amazon's help page lists the causes: "An image will fail to upload if the file is incomplete, corrupted, in the wrong format, or too large." (Amazon Corrupted image files).

The specific triggers it names:

• A wrong extension: "the file type extension was incorrectly attached"
• An unflattened layered file: "an unflattened TIFF or PSD file that was saved as a JPG"
• Colour mode problems: "color tonal variations in the image (which may occur when CMYK images are used on the website)"
• Too many pixels: "Images with more than 10,000 pixels in either height or width may also cause this error."

Amazon's fix depends on whether you can open the file:

• If you can't view it, it may be corrupt or carry the wrong extension. Open it in an image editor and re-save it with a known file type.
• If you can view it, it may be incomplete. Re-save it as a JPEG.

Either way, flatten it first, and "verify that it can be viewed on your computer using a preview or image-editing program" before uploading again.

Renaming a file doesn't convert it. A PNG renamed to .jpg is still a PNG. Export it from an editor instead. The image format guide covers which formats Amazon accepts and refuses.

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The Same File Twice: Resubmission and Duplicates

Three errors in Amazon's table come from uploading something Amazon already has (Amazon Image upload errors):

• Resubmission of previously accepted or rejected images: the exact file was already submitted for this product
• Authoritative image already exists: a preferred image is already on this ASIN and variant
• Image with identical ASIN and variant submitted: a newer image replaced yours while it was processing

The fix for all three is the same idea. Amazon: "Make changes to the image (crop, adjust resolution, or re-export) so the system recognizes it as a new submission, then upload again."

This catches sellers who fix a problem in their listing and re-upload the original photo, or who keep re-uploading an unchanged image hoping a suppression will lift. Amazon's help page is blunt about it: "Do not upload the same file multiple times." If a listing is suppressed over its main image, the suppression guide covers what to change.

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File Name Mistakes: Bad ASIN or Variant

With legacy file naming, the file name is how Amazon knows which product and which image slot a file belongs to: Product ID + variant code + extension, for example B000123456.MAIN.jpg (Amazon Upload images).

Amazon's Bad ASIN or Variant page gives the reasons a name fails (Amazon Bad ASIN or Variant):

• "The system did not recognize the ASIN (10-digit Amazon product identifier) or variant."
• "The EAN/UPC/10 or 13-digit ISBN/JAN/GTIN does not belong to an ASIN."
• "Your ASIN was not yet set up in our system for these external IDs to map."

Two traps are worth knowing:

A missing variant code makes the image the main image. Amazon's Upload images page: "Images with a product ID in the file name but no variant code will be treated as a main image. For example, B000123456.jpg will be uploaded as the main image." A secondary photo named that way is submitted to the MAIN slot and could replace the displayed main image if Amazon selects it.

Separators matter. Amazon's Product image guide says the three parts are "separated by a period (spaces, dashes, or additional characters will prevent your image from uploading)." (Amazon Product image guide).

If naming is the problem, Amazon's flexible file naming avoids it: name files however you like, and assign them to products after upload.

Our free Amazon image file name builder builds a name from an identifier and an image slot, or checks one you already have. It runs in your browser, with nothing uploaded.

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Uploaded but Not Showing

If the upload succeeded and the image still isn't on the listing, Amazon's help page gives four checks, in order (Amazon Image upload errors):

1. "Wait 24 hours." It can take that long to appear.
2. Check compliance. Amazon checks images again after the upload scan, and a non-compliant image can be removed, or the listing suppressed from search. The suppression guide covers that.
3. Check Submission status. "Image upload completed" means it processed; otherwise, open the Content compliance issues report.
4. Check for duplicates. "If you upload the same set of images as a previous submission, we may detect it as a duplicate and your contribution will remain unchanged."

Then three reasons an image can be correct and still not show:

• Amazon picks the images. "Uploading an image doesn't guarantee it will be displayed on the product detail page." It selects from every seller of the product, and "We may select images different from those you provided".
• Variation families share images. For a product in several sizes, Amazon picks images "from one option to display across all size variations of that color or style."
• No main image, no listing. "If a listing is missing a main image, it will not display in the store."

The Image Appears Sideways

Amazon's Rotate a product image page explains it: image viewers "will sometimes auto-rotate images so that they look correct in the viewer, but the saved version of the image is still not properly oriented." (Amazon Rotate a product image).

"You cannot edit an image after uploading it." Rotate the image in a photo editor, re-save it, and upload again. If you only rotate it in the viewer without saving, it can still look right on your screen and wrong on Amazon.

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Amazon's Older Error Codes Page Disagrees

Amazon also has a numbered "Product image error codes" page. Two of its entries contradict Amazon's current pages, and they're the kind of thing that sends a seller in the wrong direction (Amazon Product image error codes):

Follow the current pages. The upload errors page, the Upload images page and the Product image guide all agree on PNG and on the longest side. That matters for PNG in particular: it's the format that keeps a main image's white background at exactly 255, and switching to JPEG because of the older page adds off-white pixels around the product.

The error codes page is still useful for what its errors mean. A few it lists that the upload errors page doesn't:

• "Product out of focus": "a digital image was resized (upward) to create a degraded image"
• "Product too small in frame": its example is "a 500x500 pixel image in which the product appears in only 100x100 of that image"
• "Image with identical ASIN and variant already queued for review": the image is waiting in Amazon's review queue

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Errors From Inventory Files and Zip Uploads

Image URLs in an inventory file have to point straight at the file. Amazon: "You must use a direct URL. Pop-up or redirecting URLs will not be accepted and the upload will not process." If an image doesn't appear, check that the URL is a direct link to the image, and fix what your processing report lists (Amazon Image upload errors).

Zip uploads fail when the zip contains hidden system files. Amazon's error reads: "Upload failed. Reduce the number of images and try again, or check for hidden files/folders in your zip." Show hidden files, extract the zip, delete files starting with "." and any __MACOSX folders, re-zip, and upload again. The limit per zip file is 1,000 images and 1 GB.

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What ComplianceKit Catches Before You Upload

ComplianceKit checks an image file, so it can catch the errors that come from the file itself:

• Dimensions, against Amazon's 500 to 10,000 pixel range on the longest side (Amazon Product image guide).
• Format and file size
• Colour mode, flagging CMYK
• Background and fill, which are suppression reasons rather than upload errors (Amazon Image suppression).

It can't see your file names, ASINs, product identifiers or titles. So it can't catch a bad ASIN or variant, error 990003 or error 100239. Check those against the sections above.

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Summary

✅ Find the error in the upload's Failure Report, then in Submission status (Amazon Upload images).
✅ Error 990003: your main image shows a different product from the ASIN's existing one; check identifiers, then allow 24 to 48 hours (Amazon Error 990003).
✅ Error 100239: your title and main image describe different products; fix whichever is wrong (Amazon Error 100239).
✅ Corrupted or unexpected format: flatten, re-save as JPEG, and keep under 10,000 pixels (Amazon Corrupted image files).
✅ Same file twice: crop, change resolution or re-export so Amazon sees a new file (Amazon Image upload errors).
✅ No variant code in the file name makes the image your main image
✅ Uploaded but not showing: wait 24 hours, check compliance, and remember Amazon picks which images display
✅ Older error codes page: ignore its format list and shortest-side rule; the current pages list PNG and measure the longest side (Amazon Product image error codes; Amazon Product image guide).

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