Important: Photo hosting on Google Photos or your own site

[DavidShepherd]

I've been doing a little digging regarding this.
It seems that a number of people experience this - any photos linked or posted with a url that contains googleusercontent.com seems to have the content "unlinked" after a while. It seems that it's just a temporary link and is perhaps working as it should by removing the link.

OP - can you explain how you are sharing the photos? I would like to try it for myself as well and see if i get the same issue.

[BlackPanther]

I've only just seen this thread but your image has certainly already disappeared at the time of posting this.

Commiserations on needing to re-upload all your past photos. Your walk reports are some of the best on here, and some of the most photo-heavy, so I can see it'll be a mammoth task

It took roughly 3 hours to disappear!

I'm currently going through the slow process of reposting. I expect all my Google photos will vanish so better replace them before that happens.

can you explain how you are sharing the photos? I would like to try it for myself as well and see if i get the same issue.

Thank you for finding time to do some digging. I have also noticed that I'm not the only user affected. Photos seem to vanish all over the web...
As for how I embed photos, very simple.
1. upload to Google photos
2. right-click on "copy image location"
3. paste the link into WH using the [img]**[/img] function

[DavidShepherd]

OK. Trying it now: Embedding -



I suspect, and i will check this when the link breaks, that if you were to do the same again the url you are pasting will be different.

[BlackPanther]

I suspect, and i will check this when the link breaks, that if you were to do the same again the url you are pasting will be different.

I have already checked that, using photos from 2 different accounts (mine and my husbands) and the answer is yes, the url is different the second time.

[DavidShepherd]

I suspect, and i will check this when the link breaks, that if you were to do the same again the url you are pasting will be different.

I have already checked that, using photos from 2 different accounts (mine and my husbands) and the answer is yes, the url is different the second time.

Yeah i thought it would, it seems that's just how it works now. There's a lot of supposition as to why but can't find any real reason. I've tried something different (bit of a roundabout route i found) and embedded it below to see if it removes itself:
Also adjusted the size because i wanted to

[DavidShepherd]

My photos still seem to be linked. Will wait a bit longer to see if they go.
Basically, what i am thinking is that when you right click and select image location, the URL you get is derived from whatever server you have connected to to get the preview and after a while it becomes invalid because the link is only temporary. I don't know if this is the case or not but it seems likely in case anyone can gather any account information from the link.

I posted mine by going in to my google photos, sharing the photo, pasting the url it creates in to another browser where i was not logged in and then did the same right click, get image location.
Bit of a long winded way, but a few forums I have read have stated that this is the best way round it. Unfortunately I don't think Google Photos is really meant to work this way and it's facilities are for storing and sharing, unlike Flickr for example.

[BlackPanther]

I can only see the second photo you embedded - the first one comes up as a blank square. Checked on PC (windows) and tablet (Android).

The long-winded way does work (at least the photo below is showing) but it is far too fiddly to use for multiple photos. It would be a good solution for those who have a few broken reports or a single picture here and there, but for me, re-uploading to WH and simply replacing the link works quicker than re-instating thousands of broken links. Many thanks for working that out, regardless, I really appreciate your effort. I'm sure other WH members who have been affected, will find it useful.


Cheers
Black Panther

[rockhopper]

I can only see the second photo you embedded - the first one comes up as a blank square. Checked on PC (windows) and tablet (Android).

FWIW I hve just cleared history etc on my relatively old android phone and yet can still see both David's photos yet on an old samsung tablet I can only see the more recent photo.

[BlackPanther]

FWIW I hve just cleared history etc on my relatively old android phone and yet can still see both David's photos yet on an old samsung tablet I can only see the more recent photo.

It is a strange puzzle indeed. My Android8 tablet can't see the first one. On PC, I can only see it in Firefox, but not in Opera. I'm giving up on it

[DavidShepherd]

Giving up on it seems the best idea!
I can still see both, i was expecting to not be able to see the first one.

The long-winded way does work (at least the photo below is showing) but it is far too fiddly to use for multiple photos. It would be a good solution for those who have a few broken reports or a single picture here and there, but for me, re-uploading to WH and simply replacing the link works quicker than re-instating thousands of broken links. Many thanks for working that out, regardless, I really appreciate your effort. I'm sure other WH members who have been affected, will find it useful

I feel the same! And no problem, when I read your issue I kinda had to have a look at it for my own interest

[2manyYorkies]

Poor old Google! Must be feeling the pinch ...

[Marty_JG]

Could this be related to Google also retiring their URL shortener?

They do not seem to want to be an infrastructure provider.

[DavidShepherd]

Could this be related to Google also retiring their URL shortener?

They do not seem to want to be an infrastructure provider.

I wouldn't think so. The shortener was a different tool, unrelated to how google provides an image shortcut

[past my sell by date]

I've just discovered the same thing - what a pain - and after the great struggle i had moving from Picasa to google Now I'll have to do much the same as BP
I'm afraid it's always been my view that a free internet funded by advertising was never going to work longterm, so Why don't google just make a small annual charge? Did you suggest this to them Paul

[BlackPanther]

I've just discovered the same thing - what a pain - and after the great struggle i had moving from Picasa to google Now I'll have to do much the same as BP

Sorry to hear this I hope you don't have as many to repost as I do. Currently about 50% done but I'm getting fed up with all the copy-paste business!

Suggesting something to Google is probably a waste of time. They have the "send feedback" button but I wonder, does anybody even read the feedback messages?

I also used Picasa (still use the program itself to organize and resize my photos on the PC) and I wondered why Google decided to kill it. It was quite popular. Now this broken link affair. I guess, they want their photo storage to be just that - a personal photo vault, available only for you.