Fw: Image Projects are failing with unknown error

[Powers, Kelly]

Hello Dale, 

My students created an image project stored in their browser. They upload files to each class. When they Learn and Test, they receive an error, unknown error. We created a very small project to test this with 5 pics in two categories. Our images, are jpegs and are about 50 K each ( for one project) . So, we concluded that the number of images is not the problem. Can you share any wisdom?

Kelly

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[Dale Lane]

Sorry about that.

If you are able to provide a diagnostics log, please, that would give me a technical description of what had happened in a way that would let me hopefully fix the problem for you. 

There are steps for how to do this at https://machinelearningforkids.co.uk/#!/debug 

For step 3, please do whatever it is that resulted in the "Unknown error"

Kind regards

D

[Powers, Kelly]

Thanks, Dale. I've asked my students to send me their images. Once I get them, I'll try to recreate the problem.  I was present while he was recreating his project but I am unable to get his error, and will need his data to conduct an accurate test.

Kelly

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From: mlfo...@googlegroups.com <mlfo...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Dale Lane <dale...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2025 9:13 AM
To: Machine Learning for Kids <mlfo...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [mlforkids] Re: Fw: Image Projects are failing with unknown error

 

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[Powers, Kelly]

Hello Dale, 

I had this error reappear Thursday with another student and we did capture the log!! Here it is. We were in the learn and test phase. When she clicked train the model we received, I think it was, "unknown error". She is classifying dog breeds in her project. 

Kelly Powers

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From: mlfo...@googlegroups.com <mlfo...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Dale Lane <dale...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2025 9:13 AM
To: Machine Learning for Kids <mlfo...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [mlforkids] Re: Fw: Image Projects are failing with unknown error

 

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[Dale Lane]

Thanks for sharing this. 

The error suggests that the computer ran out of memory. There's not a lot I can suggest about this beyond the obvious answers (use fewer training images, or use the same number of training images but with a computer that has more memory), sorry!

I will use your log to improve the error message for such situations, so it gives a more meaningful explanation in future. 

Kind regards

D

[Powers, Kelly]

Thank you! Our students use Chromebooks, and that may be the problem.  

I'll loop back with the students to come up with a new plan.

Kelly

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From: mlfo...@googlegroups.com <mlfo...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Dale Lane <dale...@gmail.com>

Sent: Friday, December 12, 2025 12:38 PM

To: Machine Learning for Kids <mlfo...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: [mlforkids] Re: Fw: Image Projects are failing with unknown error

 

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mlforkids/e9621364-551a-437d-b905-4f389bc2090en%40googlegroups.com.

[Dale Lane]

Using Chromebooks isn't intrinsically a blocker - I frequently help at schools where Chromebooks are used, and they work fine. 

The issue here was just that there were nearly 400 training images. That is a *lot*. For context, when I lead primary school groups, students will typically collect 20 - 30 images for a project. 

Now, that's fine - if you want to do a super complex BIG project, that's okay. But at that point, maybe a Chromebook becomes a little less viable

Kind regards

D

[Dale Lane]

I've made a start on improving the message displayed in the event of this problem happening again - you can see the details at https://github.com/IBM/taxinomitis/commit/2bd44f4d03cdb8e7dd17a1cbdb702e7d9aee2616 

While working on this, I did find and fix a few memory leaks. I can't say for sure whether that will be enough to enable your student to train their model - as they do have a large number of training images. But I hope it'll help 

(I still need to make similar fixes for models trained from inside Scratch, but that will need to wait for another night.)

Kind regards

D

[Powers, Kelly]

Thanks Dale! My students are ambitious ! Thanks for the tip on limiting images. Some are entering a competition, so they do want lots of training data but for AI/CS learning goal purposes I agree that is not necessary. 

Kelly

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From: mlfo...@googlegroups.com <mlfo...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Dale Lane <dale...@gmail.com>

Sent: Friday, December 12, 2025 6:35 PM

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mlforkids/d374e530-935a-434b-8eb1-4ae4d8e7f183n%40googlegroups.com.