Why Photos Look Blurry After Uploading, and What You Can Fix
Most sites and apps resize and recompress what you upload, so a huge or already compressed photo gets squeezed again. Upload a file that is close to the size the site displays, saved once at good quality, from the original photo. Real blur from shake or missed focus cannot be undone, only reshot.
Three kinds of blur that look the same
A photo that looks soft after upload can have one of three problems, and each has a different fix.
Processing blur happens on the site or app: it shrinks your photo to its own display size and saves it again with stronger compression. The photo looked fine on your phone and only went soft after posting.
Copy blur comes from the file you started with. A photo saved from a chat app, a screenshot of a photo or a picture downloaded from a website has already been shrunk and compressed, and every new copy loses a little more.
Camera blur was there from the moment you pressed the shutter: a shaking hand, a moving subject or a focus point on the wrong thing. Zoom in on the original file on your phone. If it is already soft there, no upload setting will help.
Why sites shrink and recompress your photo
Most social networks, marketplaces and forms limit how large a stored image can be, both in pixels and in file size, so pages load quickly. When your photo is bigger than that, the site resizes and recompresses it with its own settings, which you do not control.
Each platform publishes its own image guidance, and it changes over time, so check the help pages of the place you are posting to for the current recommended sizes. A photo that already matches those sizes needs less processing, which usually means less visible loss.
Start from the best copy you have
Always work from the original photo in your phone or camera library, not from a copy that went through a chat app, email preview or social post. If someone sent you the photo, ask them to share the original file, for example through a cloud link or as a document instead of as a photo.
If your phone saves HEIC files and the site does not accept them, convert to JPG once with HEIC to JPG. Avoid converting back and forth between formats, since each lossy save throws away a little detail.
Prepare a file that survives upload
1. Open Compress Image and drop the original photo.
2. In the Settings tab, set Max width to match where the photo is going. 1280 or 1920 suits most posts and listings, 2560 suits sites that show photos large. Keep Original only if the site asks for a large file.
3. Leave Target size on Off unless the site has a strict KB limit. Without a target, move the Quality slider up to around 85 or 90, so the site has a clean file to work with.
4. Keep Format on Auto, which picks JPG for photos and WebP for images with transparency. Choose JPG yourself if the site does not accept WebP.
5. Download the file and check it before you upload: open it, zoom to full size and look at edges, text and faces. The download button shows the format and file size.
When the site has a strict size limit
Forms and some marketplaces cap uploads at a fixed size, such as 50 KB or 200 KB. Set Target size to that limit, or choose Custom and type the number. SleekCut looks for the best quality that fits, and if it cannot fit at the current dimensions it makes the photo smaller and shows the new width and height, so check those against the form.
A very small KB limit always costs detail. A smaller photo at higher quality usually looks sharper than a large photo squeezed to the same size, so try a lower Max width before lowering Quality.
What you can and cannot fix
You can fix processing blur and much copy blur by uploading a well sized file saved once from the original. For a small or heavily compressed copy with no original available, Image Upscaler can enlarge it 2x or 4x and rebuild some edges, and the Sharpen slider in Photo Editor can add a little crispness. Use both lightly, since strong sharpening creates halos around edges.
You cannot fix camera blur. Motion blur and missed focus mean the detail was never captured, and no tool can recover it reliably. An upscaler may invent texture that was not there, which is not acceptable for photos that must show the truth, such as product listings or ID photos. Reshoot instead: hold the phone with both hands, tap to focus on the subject and use good light so the camera can use a fast shutter.
Sometimes the best choice is not to edit at all. If the original looks sharp and the site only blurs it slightly, extra sharpening often makes it look worse.
Your photos stay on your device
Compressing, resizing, converting and upscaling in SleekCut happen in your browser. Nothing is uploaded to SleekCut, and the only upload is the one you choose to make to the site you are posting to.