Google Photos problem - please, help

[BlackPanther]

Over the last couple of days, I have experienced a strange problem with Google Photos. Basically, many of them stopped displaying in WH reports.
I contacted Paul about the issue and he suggested raising this problem here, maybe someone is experiencing the same issue with their Google Photos.

I'd appreciate any help or advice about how to solve this issue!

Here's the story:
It all started on Friday evening. Suddenly, photos from my reports began to disappear. At the moment, all pictures from reports written after January 2017 don't display. All TRs from before that are perfectly fine. Most of my photos are stored on my Google Photos account so they are just embedded in WH reports, but there is no difference between those before and after jan 2017, so I was puzzled: why only the more recent ones vanished?
I checked on my PC (windows), mobile phone and tablet (Android), used four different browsers, and two different hubs, all the same so it's not any of my devices/programs causing the problem.
And here comes the strange bit. I assumed that the photos in question got corrupted or deleted somehow, so I logged in to my Google account in the same browser I use to read WH. Then, ta-daaa, all vanished photos reappeared in reports. It looks like they are still there and all links work, but only when I'm logged in to my Google account. It means only I can see them I checked settings in my Google Photos account and there are no restrictions on accessibility, nothing in settings that would make the pictures invisible to the public. And strange, why all the older ones, pre 2017, work OK? Settings are the same for all photos

On Saturday I re-embedded all photos in my latest report (Stob Ban route) and the report returned to normal, pictures were visible to everybody, but today, they are gone again!

It looks like an issue with Google, Paul suggested that it may be the case of Google having an issue where they are only showing (some) photos when I'm logged in with them, even if I set the images to public. I will try contacting Google by "send feedback" but to be honest, I don't even know how to properly describe the issue to them (with my far from perfect English). Hopefully, I can get some suggestions from fellow Walkhighlanders. Any help would be much appreciated. it's 3 years worth of reports and I can't even consider rewriting them all...

BP

[nigheandonn]

I have a vague recollection of someone a while ago having the opposite problem - they couldn't see the pictures, but everyone else could. I'm not sure whether in that case it just resolved itself - which doesn't help you much, sorry!

[Mal Grey]

I've seen this happening on several forums.

Its only a vague recollection, but I seem to remember reading that Google Photo links change over time if they photos are not organised into specific albums and given the requisite permissions. So if they're just all on your "photostream" they alter, but if you use folders within, they don't. I may be imagining this...

I'd also contact Google.

And I'm sticking with Flickr for now, though fully expect that to be messed up at some point, it seems to be a feature of photo hosting websites - suck people in then complicate matters later...

[BlackPanther]

ts only a vague recollection, but I seem to remember reading that Google Photo links change over time if they photos are not organised into specific albums and given the requisite permissions. So if they're just all on your "photostream" they alter, but if you use folders within, they don't. I may be imagining this...

I'd also contact Google.

Thanks for your suggestions
All my photos are neatly organized into albums, nothing "floating in the stream", so it's not a matter of "messy account".
Funny, it's the pictures form the last 3 years that have vanished - all the old ones from albums back to 2011 are still working.

Paul said it had to be a problem with accessibility, because the so called broken links work for me when I'm logged in to my account.

I have contacted Google, see what happen sin the next few days...

[BlackPanther]

Fighting the problem, I have re-embedded photos in one of the broken reports. I had to move the album to a different account, but I can now see them all, even when I'm logged out of google. Please, folks, let me know if you can see them, too?

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=69536

[Lakeswalker]

Hi BP. If I click on your report link I just see the word ”image” until I get to the image after “Kevin on the summit”. Then I can see photos to the end of your report. Not sure if it’s relevant but looking on an iPad running ios13.

[nigheandonn]

I can see the last five!

[malky_c]

I can only see the last 5 or so photos unfortunately.

[BlackPanther]

Thanks so much everyone!
I'm still puzzled about this case. I can still see them all (even when logged out) on my PC, but on my tablet (android) only the second half show up, the first half come up with a blank space. Seems this is a major problem with Google photos as the re-embedded pictures were saved on a different account. It is definitely not just a set of broken links, but something more complicated. I have contacted Google about this issue. My only hope is, if it's a major problem and many people experience it, it should be fixed at some point.

Apologies to all Walkhighlanders who want to use my blog as reference for future trips. There's nothing I can do at the moment to make this bl***dy thing work

If in the next few days nothing changes, I'll start the process of moving all photos to a different host server. But because it's nearly 3 years worth of TR's it will take time!

[gld73]

How frustrating for you! Hope you get it sorted (without having to re-upload 3 years of photos!), I find your walk reports very useful.

[John Doh]

I had the same issue. It is a major issue but google has and will do nothing to fix it. It‘s a shame. I use flickr now plus I download pdfs of my reports just in case. Google bad

[BlackPanther]

It is a major issue but google has and will do nothing to fix it.

I was afraid of this. Google seem to ignore the problem. I will replace all the affected (infected?) photos but it will take weeks if not months. I've been experimenting with Flickr and refreshed my latest TR - hope this works now for everybody?

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=92704

If it still doesn't, I'm going to bang my head against the monitor screen. Arghhh!

I find flickr a bit fiddly and annoying, but might be helpful for storing photos in the future. And it only allows 1000 photos for free - not enough... Maybe I will end up reuploading photos straight to Walkhighlands, depends which procedure is faster. Regardless how I cope with this mountain of photos, I can promise all my broken TR's WILL BE FIXED. Just give me time to deal with it.

Life's never easy, is it?...

Many thanks again to all of you for your kind words and comments.

[Sunset tripper]

Hi BP. That's a real pain your photos getting deleted like that. You mentioned you were thinking of uploading direct to WH. I dont do many reports but I upload direct, the downside being you have to resize your photos down to a small size. I think that size has increased though because I recently tried a 890 x 500 (used to be 680 x 382 or something like that) which it would never accept before and it uploaded ok so dont know the new max size To be honest I dont know much about it. Obviously you lose the clarity on bigger screens with smaller file size but it suits me ok for just now.
Hope you get it sorted, all the best.

[Mal Grey]

It is a major issue but google has and will do nothing to fix it.

I was afraid of this. Google seem to ignore the problem. I will replace all the affected (infected?) photos but it will take weeks if not months. I've been experimenting with Flickr and refreshed my latest TR - hope this works now for everybody?

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=92704

If it still doesn't, I'm going to bang my head against the monitor screen. Arghhh!

I find flickr a bit fiddly and annoying, but might be helpful for storing photos in the future. And it only allows 1000 photos for free - not enough... Maybe I will end up reuploading photos straight to Walkhighlands, depends which procedure is faster. Regardless how I cope with this mountain of photos, I can promise all my broken TR's WILL BE FIXED. Just give me time to deal with it.

Life's never easy, is it?...

Many thanks again to all of you for your kind words and comments.

Yep, the TR with Flickr photos is working for me. Looks great.

I feel your pain. I went through a similar thing with Photobucketofpoo a few years back, and it looked like I was going to have to re-do over 400 reports (on the SOTP canoeing website mostly). Fortunately PBofP seemed to relent and the photos reappeared (despite me cancelling my account payments entirely instead of paying for a Premium account). I don't know what google are playing at, but I would, at least, keep pestering them for answers before starting to re-do all your reports. I hope that Flickr remains as it is; I pay for a Premium account now as I host a LOT of images on there both for trip reports, blogs and storage. There were offers on the Premium account when I signed up last year, but the renewal is looking like US$49.99. I have over 20000 images on there...

Hosting them on WH is obviously an option IF all you want to use the images for is the reports. As I need online storage and like to have a back up (as well as several "physical" back ups! I also tend to use far too many images in reports, and would eventually bring WH storage to its knees!!!! That is, if I actually manage to get out walking again, hardly done any hillwalking this year thanks mostly to a dodgy knee.

[John Doh]

I've been experimenting with Flickr and refreshed my latest TR - hope this works now for everybody?

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=92704

Works for me.

I find flickr a bit fiddly and annoying, but might be helpful for storing photos in the future. And it only allows 1000 photos for free - not enough...

Plus you never know if flickr links will also change sometime resulting in the same situation you have with google now.

Maybe I will end up reuploading photos straight to Walkhighlands, depends which procedure is faster.

It looks like this is the only save way, at least as long as WH is up and running.

I dont do many reports but I upload direct, the downside being you have to resize your photos down to a small size. I think that size has increased though because I recently tried a 890 x 500 (used to be 680 x 382 or something like that) which it would never accept before and it uploaded ok so dont know the new max size To be honest I dont know much about it. Obviously you lose the clarity on bigger screens with smaller file size but it suits me ok for just now.

That's because Paul removed the size limitation, see below thread.

https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=92698

This should make uploading directly more attractive and I'll try it on my next Walk Report (if any).

BP you have my full compassion. In my case only one walk report was affected and it was frustrating enough to do this one report all over so I can only imagine how frustrating it must be if many reports are affected.