Processing Failed - Poof

HTTP Status: 500

{
  "code": "processing_failed",
  "message": "The model could not process this image. Try a smaller image or a different format.",
  "request_id": "req_3f6a2c1e-9b0d-4e7a-8c21-5d1f0a9b7e42",
  "doc_url": "https://docs.poof.bg/errors/processing-failed"
}

Reasons and How to Fix

The Image Could Not Be Processed

The image was decoded successfully, but the background removal model or the output encoder failed on it. The message says what to try. The request is not billed. Common causes:

Very large dimensions close to the 6000 px per side / 36 MP limit
Unusual color modes (CMYK, 16-bit, indexed with odd palettes)
Extreme aspect ratios (e.g. very thin strips)
An output combination the encoder cannot produce for this image

To fix:

Resize the image to a smaller resolution and retry
Convert it to a standard 8-bit RGB JPEG or PNG
Try format=png with default channels
Retry once; if it fails again with the same image, the image itself is the cause

from PIL import Image

img = Image.open("photo.tiff").convert("RGB")
img.thumbnail((4096, 4096))
img.save("photo.jpg", quality=90)

Retry Strategy

Unlike upstream_error, this error is usually deterministic for a given image, so retrying the identical request rarely helps. Change the input first.

import os
from poof import Poof, ServerError

client = Poof(api_key=os.environ["POOF_API_KEY"])

try:
    result = client.remove_background("photo.jpg")
except ServerError as e:
    if e.code == "processing_failed":
        result = client.remove_background("photo-resized.jpg")  # smaller/re-encoded copy
    else:
        raise

Need Help?

If the problem persists, contact us at support@poof.bg with your request_id and the image (if possible) so we can investigate.