Attempting to upload a photo gives "Geni Will Be Right Back" response

Did you provide the file=<base-64 encoded photo> parameter in POST body? I have not tried uploading photos, but that is how uploading documents worked.

the photo was in the post body

httppost.setEntity(new ByteArrayEntity(b)); //where b is the photo as a byte array

Try with UrlEncodedFormEntity and check that content type is application/x-www-form-urlencoded.

thanks, that works OK, photo uploaded OK

byte[]b=StringHelper.filetoByteArray(file);
String payload=Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(b);
NameValuePair np=new BasicNameValuePair("file",payload);
httppost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(Arrays.asList(np)));
httppost.setHeader("Accept", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
httppost.setHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");