# Bypass image processing / access original source image?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/bypass-image-processing-access-original-source-image/100868
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [October 30, 2018, 2:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bypass-image-processing-access-original-source-image/100868 "2018-10-30T14:26:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ryanerwin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ryanerwin)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2018, 2:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bypass-image-processing-access-original-source-image/100868/1 "2018-10-30T14:26:47Z")
Users of our Discourse forum have a device that photographs and displays holographic images. Think 3D x 2. I would like to allow users to upload this format of holographic still (3.3 MB, 8.3 Megapixel, 3840 x 2160) directly into their posts.
Uploading appears to work OK, but when I download the image from Discourse, the dimensions are still 3840 x 2160, but the image size has shrunken from 3.3 MB to 2.6 MB… and **all of the dimensional metadata embedded in the image is gone** …
Relevant SiteSettings:
```plaintext
max image size kb = 5000
max image megapixels = 40
max image width = 3840
max image height = 2160
strip image metadata = false
min ratio to crop = 0.45
create thumbnails = false
enable s3 uploads = true
```
Is there a straight forward way to bypass image processing or specifically bypass the removal of certain metadata? I’ve already set “strip image metadata = false”…
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2018, 10:08am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bypass-image-processing-access-original-source-image/100868/2 "2018-10-31T10:08:36Z")
Upload them as compressed `.zip` files, so they won’t be processed as images.
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [August 5, 2021, 10:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/bypass-image-processing-access-original-source-image/100868/3 "2021-08-05T10:00:58Z")