# Image toFile() fails when name contains hyphen
**URL:** https://forum.getkirby.com/t/image-tofile-fails-when-name-contains-hyphen/11110
**Category:** Questions
**Tags:** v2
**Created:** [August 27, 2018, 3:40pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/image-tofile-fails-when-name-contains-hyphen/11110 "2018-08-27T15:40:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@elhodel](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/elhodel)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2018, 3:40pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/image-tofile-fails-when-name-contains-hyphen/11110/1 "2018-08-27T15:40:32Z")
Hi!
Is it possible, that toFile() returns NULL when the filename contains a hyphen?
I have the following code:
```
if($mitarbeiter->portrait()->isNotEmpty()):
$description = $mitarbeiter->name();
$img = $mitarbeiter->portrait()->toFile();
$border = $img->border()->value();
```
with an image named “test-image.jpg” i get the error
```
Call to a member function border() on null
```
with an image named “test\_images.jpg” everything works.
Since Kirby sanitizes filenames on upload and leaves “-” i would expect, that this should work in both cases?
Tested on Kirby 2.5.4 and 2.5.12
Any ideas?
---
### Author:  [@jimbobrjames](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/jimbobrjames)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2018, 3:50pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/image-tofile-fails-when-name-contains-hyphen/11110/2 "2018-08-27T15:50:45Z")
Strange, I use images with hyphens in all the time, and don’t recall seeing an issue. What version of PHP are you on? What operating system is the site running on?
On a side note, you should check the image actually exists before using it. Checking the field has a value is not enough (the field will still have a value if the image has been physically deleted, unless you make a point of changing the field too).
---
### Author:  [@elhodel](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/elhodel)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2018, 3:56pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/image-tofile-fails-when-name-contains-hyphen/11110/3 "2018-08-27T15:56:11Z")
at the moment i’m on my localhost, with MAMP and PHP version 5.6.10
thanks for your remark, i will add this test.
---
### Author:  [@jimbobrjames](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/jimbobrjames)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/image-tofile-fails-when-name-contains-hyphen/11110/4 "2018-08-27T15:57:40Z")
> [@elhodel](#):
>
> MAMP and PHP version 5.6.10
Try switching to PHP 7.x… 5.6 is still supported I think, but using 7.x is strongly encouraged.
The site I’m working on at the moment has images with hyphens in, running on Kirby 2.5.12 and PHP 7.x - works fine. I can’t test on MAMP because I use [Valet+](https://github.com/weprovide/valet-plus) for local development, although I don’t think its a MAMP issue.
---
### Author:  [@elhodel](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/elhodel)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2018, 5:03pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/image-tofile-fails-when-name-contains-hyphen/11110/5 "2018-08-27T17:03:04Z")
well it is working now…the hyphens weren’t the problem after all, but that i didn’t update the fields properly while testing. 😬 uuups!
i realized that when i added the test to check if the image existed and started some more serious debugging… =)
so thanks for that advice!
---
### Author:  [@distantnative](https://forum.getkirby.com/u/distantnative)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2025, 5:26pm UTC](https://forum.getkirby.com/t/image-tofile-fails-when-name-contains-hyphen/11110/6 "2025-02-06T17:26:23Z")