EE Channel Form, file upload - access to directory for specified field error

Question

Ok, this one has me stumped.

Running EE 5.3.2

I'm using the Guests membergroup to post entries via front-end {exp:channel:form ...} syntax.

So one of the form fields is a file upload field, and it triggers this error message when a "guest" without an EE session/account tried to upload a file. But without using the file-upload, the form and all functions it needs to do works fine. It's only the file-upload field that causes this issue.

image_upload: You do not have access to the directory specified for this field.

Here's what i can confirm.

1. server side
   • all permissions and paths are correct
2. Upload Prefs
   • Guests doesnt show up in "Allowed Member groups" and i cant get it to show up either.
3. Member Group ( Guests )
   • membergroup does not have cpanel access
   • tried giving cpanel access + create entries + access file manager + new files - didn't work, and still did not show up in the list "Allowed member groups" for upload preferences.
4. Channel Settings
   • Default authors set to member of "Guests" membergroup.
   • Allow guests submissions? setting checked ON/Yes
5. Channel Field
   • Type: File
   • Allowed FileTypes: All
   • Allowed Directory: let's call it X which throws the error above

The code ( abstracted out for clarity ) that's used in the front-end form is:

{exp:channel:form 
    channel="channel_x" 
    return="/channel_x/confirm/ENTRY_ID" 
    include_jquery="no" 
    include_assets="no" 
    unique_url_title="yes"
    logged_out_member_id="153"
}
<div class="form-block">
    <label for="image_upload">Upload Image or PDF</label>
    {!--field:image_upload--}
    <input type="hidden" name="image_upload_directory" value="75" />
    <input type="file" name="image_upload" value="" data-content-type="all" data-directory="75"  />
    <p class="monospace-gray-xsmall">One file upload per event</p>
</div>

{/exp:channel:form}

So at this point im completely at a loss.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

AFAIK for a guest to upload a file you need to set a logged_out_member_id=.

More generally allowing guests to upload stuff to your server is possibly a recipe for much spam / dodgy file transactions... I hope you have lots of storage ... :)

HTH