If you've ever uploaded a passport photo to a government portal and gotten a vague "photo rejected" error, the problem usually isn't the photo. It's the file. I've been running IDPhotoSnap , a free browser-based passport photo tool, for a few months now. The single most common support question is some flavor of "my photo looks fine, why does the portal say it's wrong?" The answer almost always lives in the file's metadata, not the visible image. Here's the breakdown. The 8 file-level rejection reasons 1. File size out of range Most embassy portals enforce strict caps: US State Department DS-160: 240 KB max UK passport portal: 50 KB - 10 MB Schengen visa portals: 240 KB - 6 MB depending on country India passport seva: 20 KB - 300 KB A modern phone shoots 4-8 MB by default. The portal rejects before any human sees the picture. 2. Wrong DPI DPI is metadata. It doesn't change pixel data — it just labels the image as "intended for printing at this density". Phone cameras tag photos at 72 DPI.…