Storing images in the database
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- UpdatedJan 30, 2025
- 2 minutes to read
- Yokohama
- Navigation and UI
Administrators and users with the image_admin or content_admin role can upload and store images in the database. These images are saved in the Images [db_image] table. Uploading an image to the database allows it to be referenced from HTML fields by appending the name of the image to the URL of the instance.
Images vs attachments
If you want to access an image from a record, or if you want to prevent users from appending the image name to the URL of the instance, upload it as an attachment instead. When you upload an image as an attachment, the image is saved in the Attachments [sys_attachment] table. See Administer attachments and Add and manage attachments for more information.
Acceptable image file types
- .gif
- .jpg
- .png
- .bmp
If you upload an image that may not be supported in Internet Explorer browsers, a warning message appears.
The system does not support uploading images in the .ico format through this interface. Microsoft Internet Explorer requires the .ico format for favorite icons. To upload an .ico image, attach the .ico image to a record instead of using the standard image upload interface.
To understand how to insert an image into a form record, see the Insert an image into your article, incident, or other form record blog post in the ServiceNow Community.