diff --git a/src/main/java/auctiora/ImageProcessingService.java b/src/main/java/auctiora/ImageProcessingService.java
index d72dd49..8f87f8d 100644
--- a/src/main/java/auctiora/ImageProcessingService.java
+++ b/src/main/java/auctiora/ImageProcessingService.java
@@ -38,6 +38,9 @@ class ImageProcessingService {
     */
    boolean processImage(int imageId, String localPath, long lotId) {
       try {
+         // Normalize path separators (convert Windows backslashes to forward slashes)
+         localPath = localPath.replace('\\', '/');
+
          // Check if file exists before processing
          var file = new java.io.File(localPath);
          if (!file.exists() || !file.canRead()) {