Uploading FAQ’s

I've uploaded my items, but they aren't available for sale, why?

There are a few reasons why your portfolio may be disabled (ie. not available for sale). A red banner on your Market Dashboard will say "Your portfolio is currently disabled and your items are not available for sale", and we will have sent you an email to explain why. Check your spam folder if you haven't received the email, and mark Envato communications as "safe". 

The most common reasons for this are:

• You have not successfully completed an ID check.
  • Unfortunately, if you do not complete an ID check you are not able to earn as an Author on our platform, so we can't sell your items! You can request a new check via the Author ID team here. Once successful, we will re-enable your portfolio and you can keep selling. 
• You have requested we remove all your items from sale. 
• There was an issue with your items; we needed to remove them from sale so that they can be fixed. 

Please do not resubmit your items if your portfolio has been soft-disabled. You need to have your portfolio re-enabled by our Author Support team.

How do I contribute and select my items to sell on Envato Elements?

All content types (except for graphics items - see the next question!) need to be uploaded through Envato Market before they are able to be selected on Envato Elements. You will only be provided the option to select your items for Envato Elements if you have been invited to contribute to the platform.

See all the details for how you can select your items to be added to Envato Elements in your item type section of Upload Methods.

How Do I Upload Graphics Items to Envato Elements?

Unlike the other content types (as mentioned above), graphics items do not need to be uploaded through Envato Market before being added to Envato Elements. If you have been invited to contribute to Envato Elements, you can upload your graphic items to sell on Envato Elements through the Elements Contributor App.

See all the details on how you can upload your graphics items to the Elements Contributor App in the Graphics section of Upload Methods.

How many items am I expected to contribute to Envato on an ongoing basis?

Elements is a subscription product that relies on author contributions and curation to keep the library fresh and relevant to customers. While Envato regularly reviews content to ensure it meets our requirements, authors are encouraged to regularly remove, add and update content as well.

Furthermore, all authors are expected to contribute regularly to Elements. For most authors, this means publishing at least one new item per quarter (90 days) or, for authors who produce more complex items, updating an item at least once per quarter.

For complex items, minor updates (such as bug fixes or changing an image) will not be sufficient. Feature releases or major updates will be expected to ensure that items are relevant to customers.

It’s important to publish new items as each Envato Elements author is automatically considered for a Content Bonus payment on top of any earnings. This is one of several ways in which authors can be rewarded for regularly contributing great content to Envato Elements.

On Envato Market, there is no publishing requirement, but we do recommend regularly uploading and updating your items to keep your portfolio fresh, relevant and selling! 

How do licences work?

There are a number of different licenses an item you upload could be sold under on Envato Market, and then a different license for Envato Elements. 

When you ‘sell’ an item, you’re making your item available to customers to use that item under certain conditions; you’re not actually selling the item itself. 

Customers will buy a non-exclusive license to use your item under certain conditions; what they can and can’t do with the item is determined by the relevant license options that we set.

What options you have depends on what kind of item it is, (for example, a music track will have different license options to a Wordpress Template). The majority of our items (themes, code, graphics, 3D and flash) are covered by our Standard Licenses, but there are different licenses for music, stock footage, videos and photos to cover different scenarios like broadcast rights.

We also offer a variety of Specialty Licenses to suit the unique needs and uses of our diverse marketplace items.

You can view all the licenses here. 

How do I update my items?

Keeping your item up to date is an important task and having an up to date item can also increase sales. To update an item you can visit the edit tab on your item and under Update Item & Tags tab can upload your file and resubmit this. It’s important to make clear what the update does e.g. bug fix, compatibility with a new platform release, feature add etc in the notes to the reviewer section.

Once approved, this will then be available to customers.

Can I use a CSV to upload metadata?

Yes you can - for Stock Footage and Motion Graphics items. Using a CSV file that allows you to attach metadata to several videos at once, however you’ll need to ensure it matches the correct formatting so our system can recognize it.

See all the details in Upload Methods.

How do I batch or bulk upload my items to Envato?

Envato Market supports FTP uploading for faster and more reliable uploads of large and multiple files. You can upload items from all content types via FTP, but there are slight differences between them.

We also offer bulk submission service for sound effects items that authors can apply for. See all the details in Upload Methods.

Why am I having issues with file uploads timing-out in the main Web Uploader?

If you’re experiencing issues with your item files timing-out in the main web uploader, it is likely because you’re trying to upload too many items or the file(s) are too big to use this system.

We recommend using FTP as it is faster and more reliable for batch uploads of large and multiple files. You can upload items from all content types via FTP, but there are slight differences between them, so please ensure you review the process related to your specific content type.

How do I set up the correct API permissions?

It's very important to set the following permissions when generating an API token. 

• View and search Envato sites
• View your Envato Account username

Unless both of these are ticked, the key will be invalid. Please see our Account Settings FAQs for detailed instructions on how to get an API key.

Which file transfer application can I use?

Whilst there are many different applications available, we know from experience that FileZilla works. https://filezilla-project.org/.

Which FTP address should I use?

Envato’s upload platform has two unique FTP accounts, which differ depending on the type of content you are uploading:

• For Stock Footage and Motion Graphics files use: ftp.author.envato.com
• For all other content types use: ftp.marketplace.envato.com

Please note that some FTP clients may require you to append a “ftp://” to the start of the host/server url field. For example on Filezilla if you are uploading Stock Footage files, the Host URL should be “ftp://ftp.author.envato.com”.

Help! I’m having issues uploading using FTP - Troubleshooting.

If you’re having issues uploading with FTP, please ensure you have first reviewed the how-to upload using the FTP section outlined in our Upload Method article.

Remember:

• Usernames are case sensitive. ('MyUsername' instead of 'myusername')
• We only support TLSv1.0 and above for encryption
• Your password is now generated here: https://build.envato.com/create-token/

From here, we’d suggest you try the following:
​
1. Download/upgrade your FTP client to FileZilla as we know this works.
2. Request a new API Token and ensure you select both permissions. See it here.
3. Enter your username as exactly as it is on your author account. 

4. Ensure you select TLS as per this image. You will also need to ensure you have the correct FTP address as we have two:

• If you are uploading stock footage or motion graphics you will need to use ftp.author.envato.com
• For every other content type, you must use ftp.marketplace.envato.com

If that still does not work, can you try the above again, refresh the FTP session and new token and try using a VPN to change your IP.

Where everything is right yet it still fails, many authors have found this can work. If not, read on! 

Settings: 

You will need to confirm the following settings:

Protocol: FTP - SSL

Host: ftp.marketplace.envato.com*

Encryption: Use explicit FTP over TLS

Logon Type: Ask for password

User: <your Envato username here> (this is case-sensitive)

Password: <you will be prompted for the API key>

*Please note: If you use the https://author.envato.com/upload (stock footage/motion graphics) the Host will be ftp.author.envato.com

We use TLS encryption with FTP to protect your passwords and the passwords of your fellow authors. This can cause upload issues with some Internet Service Providers that actively block encrypted connections.

Password:

You need to create a Personal Token here: https://build.envato.com/create-token/

Use this token as your password in FTP. It is a good idea to create a token specifically for FTP access. It should be kept secret. You will need to regenerate the token if you forget it.

Passwords can sometimes be cached. Try creating a new profile in your FTP client if your token password is not immediately successful.

An error like: ‘530 Login authentication failed’ indicates that your token is invalid. You will need to create a new token shown below.

Copy the created token and use this as your password for FTP. See below for an example. 

You can test your token by issuing the following:

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YourAPITokenHere" https://api.envato.com/v1/market/private/user/username.json

{"username":"your-username-is-returned here"}

If your username is not returned from the above command then the token should be regenerated.

Connectivity:

Our FTP servers are currently located in the US and you may experience issues connecting to them, even though the service is fine.

Some of the possible causes for this are:

• Network latency, packet loss, unstable network
• ISP blocking
• Government blocking of encrypted traffic
• FTP service unavailable
• VPNs can reset connections

These problems are hard to determine and track down but here are some steps you can follow:

• Connection failing at AUTH TLS
• This indicates that you have not selected “Use explicit FTP over TLS if available” or that your TLS version is too old. We currently only support TLSv1.0 and higher.
• You may need to upgrade your FTP client (we recommend FileZilla, which is free)
• Connection gets reset with ECONNABORTED (or similar)
  • Different VPN
  • Call ISP
  • Different local firewall/router
• FTP clients like FileZilla, should reconnect and continue the download.
• This is caused by any network device resetting the connection due to a timeout. This can be your own firewall/router, your ISPs routers, any VPN service provider. Unfortunately this is not something that Envato can fix and you will have to different approaches

• If you cannot reach the FTP server check the https://status.envato.com site to see if there is a known problem

• If there isn’t a known problem, use ping to determine if you can reach the ftp server. (x.x.x.x - is an IP address)
• ping ftp.marketplace.envato.com
  64 bytes from x.x.x.x: icmp_seq=3736 ttl=35 time=281.949 ms

• You can also use traceroute (or mtr) to show the route path that your computer takes to reach our FTP servers. You can add this to any ticket that you might lodge.
• If your traceroute ends at your ISP, check with them for issues.

Photo Authors:

Photo authors may need to create the following directories:

---| bulk_import

   ---| photos

      ---| model_releases

Only jpg or jpeg files are accepted.

How Many Item Variations Can I Upload?

Generally, the maximum number of variations on one item any author can upload is three. However, it's important that you check the amount of variations you can apply for your specific content type as for example, Audio items can have five item variations.

You can find this information by navigating to the Item Preparation and Technical Requirements relevant to your content type.

Please note: Variations are generally discouraged unless they cannot be accomplished by altering the file after purchase. Variations will only be accepted for sale if they offer a distinct new use to customers.

How do I remove an item from sale?

If you want to permanently remove an item you can go into your item under the edit section and delete the item. Note - deleted items cannot be resubmitted.

If you want to temporarily remove an item from sale whilst you make an update, you can reach out to our Author Help Team and they can place the item into a soft-disabled state. You can then go in and update and resubmit this as soon as you are ready.