Every now and then new editors upload their own thumbnails for cover art, seemingly unaware those will be automatically generated. Examples:

• https://musicbrainz.org/edit/74890940
• https://musicbrainz.org/edit/74589287
• https://musicbrainz.org/edit/92440418
  • https://musicbrainz.org/edit/92455688
• https://musicbrainz.org/edit/93003792

Or for specific reasons:

• https://musicbrainz.org/edit/75182211

Another long-standing issue is that uploads are often not immediately processed and until at least the small thumbnails are generated the user sees an error after finishing uploads:

Image not available yet, please try again in a few minutes.

This also seems to confuse more than just a few new users and could lead them to re-uploading files, multiples times in some cases. Others cancel their previous edit and might try again.

Not only increase these things the strain on the IA servers but combined with MBS-4753 they will also result in an unnecessary waste of space.

Last but not least, those who upload photos made with a phone are in risk of exposing their location (MBS-11038).

Currently the cover art tab only states:

These images provided by the Cover Art Archive. You can also see them at the Internet Archive.

Whereas "Internet Archive" links to the corresponding release page at the Internet Archive.

Neither of the linked pages provide direct information for users how the uploaded files are processed.

A notice should inform users that images are not immediately available due to thumbnail processing and until an actual check exists there should also be a general warning that photos might contain location data.