Why is there a upload and multiple upload button in the file manager?

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I'm not really sure where to pose this question, it's more fluff / curiosity and maybe this question is somehow naive as I'm a designer/css front end guy and not a applications dev. I really don't understand why we need a single file upload AND a multiple upload button. I mean, technically you can upload just one file using the multiple upload option right? So why would I ever need to use the single?

There are some times in a rush I'll click in the field to upload, and realize I wish I had just clicked the multiple upload because in my rush I forgot I had several things to send up. Stupid minor backtrack to fix but still it got me thinking. I mean even the single upload "field" is pointless to me. I have never manually typed a file path there, why is it a field anyway? Does anyone find themselves using it that way? I know you can upload from other other sources besides off your local machine, but it seems all those options are built into the dialogues of the multiple upload function. To me, the user friendly thing would be to just have one button called "upload" that is basically the multiple upload option now, but as I said I could be naive to some of the other functionality that's going on here.

SpatialAnomaly
 
MysteriousCleon replied on at Permalink Reply
MysteriousCleon
Upload is faster when adding 1 file - I think thats it... :) I'm using this quite often. I find it not necessary but nice.
mesuva replied on at Permalink Reply
mesuva
I believe it also comes down to the technologies used for the different uploading methods.

The upload multiple option actually uses Flash to do the multiple picking and uploading. While the upload single file option uses the standard file upload functionality native to web browsers. It's not so much the multiple upload part that is the problem, it's the multiple selection of files that isn't natively supported.

So although you could remove the single upload and just have the multiple for all purposes, you are left with the scenario of someone editing a site without Flash (work restrictions, iPads, bugs, etc). The single upload will still work in this case.
bmswebsi replied on at Permalink Reply
bmswebsi
The single upload feature is much simpler to use for beginning users. It is very similar to many html webmail client upload processes. I find that it is much quicker than opening up the multiple screen, and I use it most often. However "they" could probably consolidate the upload process into one option without causing an uproar.