Hi gliders,
when I insert a new data row, I cannot select the multiple image row (that row simply doesn’t appear when setting up multiple image component).
However, when I edit an existing data row, I can use the multiple image row as expected.
Is anyone else experiencing this issue?
Row or column?
How are you inserting a row?
I would like to set up the “add new data” form where I use the image upload component and I want to set it to the multiple image column - but that column doesn’t even appear when I insert new data.
However, when I edit an existing data row, I can set the form up with the image upload component and the multiple image column.
I can’t be the only one with that issue?
Out of curiosity, is that multiple image column set up as a user specific column? Is your data source something other than a glide table?
No, it’s not user specific. The original data source is Google Sheets, but the multiple image component is added within Glide
If the data source is a Google Sheet, then by definition the Multiple Image column will be User Specific. Because Multiple Files columns cannot sync with external data sources.
Could you provide a screen shot from the Glide Data Editor that shows the column please?
Like @Darren_Murphy said, I can almost guarantee 100% that the column is indeed marked as user specific since it’s attached to a google sheet. That is one quirk with the Multiple Files/Images column types. They do not sync to external data sources and you are stuck with them being user specific, meaning UserA can fill it with files, but it will be empty for UserB and vice versa. This does not happen with Glide Tables.
Typically, user specific columns are not able to be used in an Add Form or Add Row because it’s generally thought that a row would be created for multiple users, and later other users would fill the user specific columns with data specific to only them. There is also the fact that user specific columns are heavily reliant on on Row ID’s, but a row id is not created until AFTER a row is added, so essentially if it was possible to write to user specific columns at the time a row is added, they would most certainly break because there would be no row id to link the user specific values to the parent row. The values would just be lost in the ether.
Think of user specific columns like this. Behind the scenes, user specific data lives in its own separate hidden table with a type of relation/lookup in the parent table that links it to the child row in that hidden table, using user email and RowID to create that link. In reality, user specific column data does not live in the same table where the user specific columns are located. If there is no way to establish that link when the parent row is created, then there is no point in allowing people to fill user specific columns at that time.
I truly wish this is something that glide would fix. What they should be doing is allowing data from a Multiple Files/Images column to be written to an external data source, but maybe they store it as JSON or a delimited string which is just converted to an array on the Glide side. We should really have a true basic array type column that stores as JSON or a delimited steing, but displays as an array. I think it’s easily doable, but they would have to rethink how they are doing it now. There really isn’t a need for separate Multiple File/Images type columns. It should just be a Basic Array type instead in my opinion.
I can confirm having the same issue Alex: when I try to add pictures on a multiple image column (not user specific) it doesn’t open the window to upload images. I solved this problem uploading single images on single image column and add a column “make array” to create a carousel of that pictures. I hope the team will solve this problem! Multiple image column is a great feature!
Thanks for the replies, i attach a screenshot, the column is not marked as user specific. Not sure if there might be another reason that the row needs to be created before the multiple image component can be used?
I realize only now that multiple image components cannot even be used as row owner. But maybe I am missing something?
It is. The blue colour of the column icon tells you that. It’s connected to a Google Sheet, so it’s impossible for it not to be User Specific. If you want to confirm this for yourself, create another one without saving. You will observe that the User Specifc box is checked, and cannot be changed.
Yes, that’s correct.
If you want to use an array column as a Row Owner, you can create a series of numbered columns in the Google Sheet (eg. Owner 1, Owner 2, etc). Glide will see those as an array, and will allow you to apply Row Owners to them.
I think I understood now. So I would need to use a Glide table in order to make it work. Thanks also to @Jeff_Hager for your help!
Yeah, either switch to a Glide Table, or maybe have a seperate glide table just for the images, but that makes things a lot more complicated.
I only use Glide Tables these days, I’m totally oblivious to the subtleties between various data source. Perhaps these are not that subtle, but there are to me. I’m truly amazed as to how you Jeff, Darren and surely many others are aware and understand what appears to be the inner workings of the system. I read this thread and learned quite a bit. I’ll forget it, but that’s okay. I had no idea the multiple images/files columns functioned differently depending on the data source. I will try to jot this down somewhere 
My main project is heavily reliant on google sheets for various reasons, so I’ve ran into to this issue myself. Airtable has a lot more subtleties that are a lot less subtle, which is pretty apparent in numerous forum posts (even though I’ve never used it myself). Not really sure about Excel since people don’t talk about it much.
I’ve been in the forums every day since 2019 reading absolutely
everything, so I’ve absorbed a lot of information and learned a lot from my own trial and error. A lot of knowledge on the internal workings is at most a best guess by most of us since some things regarding the internal workings have never been documented or confirmed by Glide.
Plus, my real job title is Senior Software Engineer, so I think my brain just tends to work that way. I like figuring out how things work and I like to tinker. 
