I've tried it again with the same photo on the next day and it worked.
Perhaps their online system is overloaded at certain times and one should simply try again in a few hours.
travel.stackexchange.com/users/9009/JonathanReez
I found a work around that will allow you to complete the DS-160 if it is crashing at the photo upload screen.
You just have to upload a photo that WILL NOT pass the photo verification.
When your photo is rejected you now have the option to continue without submitting a photo, it then tells you can bring a photo to the interview with you as in the image below.
This will allow you to at least submit the application and book an interview.
To have my photo not pass the verification I scaled it down in size to 50% so that it was low res.
Other methods may work, keep trying until you get a failure.
The website is very buggy and this is the best solution I can find to get past being stuck at the photo page.
travel.stackexchange.com/users/75952/Mark Clayton
Just had this issue.
The fix that worked for me was to wait a few minutes after uploading it on the screen where it says "the photo passes the requirements*.
Then press the "Next" button.
I guess that there's a bunch of services talking to each other behind the scenes, and if you press Next too quickly, the photo hasn't had time to propagate fully yet.
travel.stackexchange.com/users/528/Dan
I wrote to the embassy and they suggested I should try starting a new application from scratch.
This time it worked!!!
The only difference is that now I filled everything from start to end.
Before I saved and upload/retrieve a couple of times.
PS: The last time I used Google Chrome in Incognito mode, but
I bet that had nothing to do with it...
travel.stackexchange.com/users/75877/Dragos Rusea
I've had similar experience with that tool.
I think the solution was to resize the photo to make the face much more prominent.
This picture is often given as example
but I think the picture that worked for me looked closer to this one .
Also, the picture needs to be 600x600 px and under 240k and it can't be blurred.
The photo check tool is not reliable in my experience.
travel.stackexchange.com/users/43474/ventsyv
I did what Mark Clayton suggested - uploaded a bad quality (low resolution) photo.
I took it to the embassy with a physical US passport sized photo and it was fine.
There were so many people in the queue without photos uploaded on the forms - it clearly happens to a lot of people!
travel.stackexchange.com/users/77882/Felicity Kear
I have also had this issue.
Tried many times in many ways but not successful.
Finally, I used my friend in a different country to upload my picture from his place, and it worked.
I guess the internet security protocol has some security issue when we are uploading from developed countries or countries which are not up to date with the current internet security protocol.
travel.stackexchange.com/users/76049/NBTT
I'm trying to apply for a B1/B2 US visa through the  official website  but unfortunately can't get past the "Confirm photo" stage as I see the following error:   I've tried to re-upload the photo several times in both Chrome, Android Chrome and IE 11 to no avail. Is there something I can do so that I can complete my application?
How to fix the "an error occurred while processing your photo" message when applying for a US visa?
travel.stackexchange.com
<visas><usa><applications>
travel.stackexchange.com/questions/102402
travel.stackexchange.com/users/9009/JonathanReez
Make sure that the image size and resolution are correct, and that your face is correctly positioned. The system may be overloaded or something may have gone wrong, so you could wait for a few minutes after uploading, try again in a few hours or even get a friend to complete the process from another country. Finally, you have the option not to submit a photo, and instead bring a physical photo to the interview. There are a numbr of solutions to this problem including re-starting the form from scratch, taking in a hard copy of your photo to the embassy, attempting to re-size the photo to fit the upload criteria and getting someone to do it for you abriad. 
One solution can be to start the application form again from the beginning at a later time/date You can take a hard copy of your photo down to the embassy yourself. In most cases this is the default option when your photo upload fails. Sometimes this issue is with the photo no being in the correct format/size so you must re-size it till it fits the criteria Having someone else do the form for you in a different country can get the form to submit.