Problems With Non Google Hosted Photos Are Separate From Problems With Picasa Hosted Photos

We see daily evidence of confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about photo hosting.

How much space do I get for photo storage?

and

What happened to the pictures on my blog?

and

Why does my blog look weird now?

Some of these questions come from photos (pictures) hosted by Google, others from photos (pictures) hosted outside Google - and the uncertainty about hosting leads to confusion about the problems.

We've been exploring various issues with Picasa, aka Google photo hosting, recently.

• Identifying Picasa problems.
• Interference involved in setting up other Google services.
• Loss of Picasa accounts.
• Storage limitations involved in Picasa hosting.

Similar issues exist with photo hosting outside Google - and blaming Google for problems which they don't cause (except, as they provide a service like Blogger, which permits use of non Google services) is not a productive use of anybody's time. Non Google services like Flickr, ImageShack, and PhotoBucket each have their own limitations and policies.

One interesting problem with photo storage, seen occasionally, comes from third party template providers and hosting of background images used in the templates. Loss of a background image, even if it does not result in multiple views of the infamous ImageShack Frog when bandwidth limits are exceeded, can cause problems with blog layout.

There are advantages, and disadvantages, of using Google and non Google photo storage. If you publish a Blogger blog, you're entitled to use any choice which pleases you - but you, as the blog owner, need to be aware of the choices, and possible consequences.

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Diagnostic Improvements With Photos And Picasa

For some time, blog owners would note mysterious problems with photos on their blogs, in various ways - depending upon the browser in use.

Some blog owners and readers would report a mysterious red "X", others a big, blank space - and still others would see nothing at all, not even a space. The only common symptom would be

My pictures have vanished!

Recently, photos hosted under Picasa changed that vague symptom, by displaying two "place holder" icons, depending upon either of two commonly diagnosed problems which had caused the missing photos.

Photos hosted under Picasa, and subsequently being either deleted or made private, are now being replaced by either of two diagnostic icons when referenced.

This improvement will go a long way to resolving much confusion about missing photos (including photos uploaded to the blog using the "Insert image" wizard in post editor), which has long been a source of despair in the Blogger community.

If your photo has been deleted, you will see this icon - an exclamation point inside a triangle.



If your photo is now private, you will see this icon - a dash inside a circle.



These icons are simply the new symptoms of a problem - they are not the problem itself.

• If you just made your Picasa photo album private, maybe when setting up your Google+ account, you can correct the problem easily enough. Just login to Google, use Picasa, and make the photos public, again.
• If you just deleted the photo album, when setting up your Google+ account - or maybe trying to save storage space on your camera / phone, you may be able to recover the deleted photos.
• If you just deleted the Picasa photo album, by having deleted the Google account, however, you are out of luck. Picasa does not provide any un deletion options.
• If these are not your photos, and you are linking them from somebody else's Picasa album, you are likewise out of luck.

However, at least you can now detect - and diagnose - the problem, when your photos are hosted by Picasa.

Incorrect Orientation Of Photos Uploaded In Post Editor

We see occasional reports of problems with photo orientation, from various blog owners posting in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

Why are my photos displayed horizontal, when they should be vertical?

Presumably, if someone's photo was taken with her standing, the blog owner does not want the photo showing her lying on her side.

Modern cameras store meta data with each photo, recording information about how the photo was taken.

This information is called "Exchangeable Image File format", or EXIF, data. Along with the information about date / time / exposure ("aperture" / "F stop" / "shutter speed"), some cameras store whether the photo was taken, with the camera held horizontal or vertical.

Some cameras store the "horizontal" / "vertical" information - then, the Blogger post editor "Upload image" wizard picks up on the orientation, and re orients the photo, depending upon it having been taken "horizontal" or "vertical". If the photo was intentionally rotated, the blog owner does not want the photo rotated again.

There are several possible resolutions for this problem.

• Use a different camera. Some cameras do not contribute to this problem.
• Per the comment below, see if the camera has a setting to disable autorotation.
• Use a photo editor such as IrfanView, and strip out the EXIF data, before uploading. Without the EXIF data, the "Add image" wizard won't reorient the photos.
• Use a photo editor such as IrfanView, and rotate the photo again, before uploading.
• Log in to http://www.picasaweb.com, using your Blogger username and password. Find the album, then the picture, that is rotated and open it. Edit the picture - rotate the image, then save it.

Is Blogger Free?

Occasionally, in Blogger Help Forum, we get the querulous inquiry

Is Blogger free, or must I pay for the service?

or

What upcharges will I have to deal with, after publishing my blog?

To answer the question, I'll say

Yes, and no.

Within limits, and excepting for minor details, you can publish a Blogger blog, and maintain it for a very long time, without needing a major credit card.

There are two possible charge items, that I can think of.

• If you want to publish your blog to BlogSpot, the service is free. Publishing the blog to a non BlogSpot URL will require paying for either Custom Domain publishing, or service from a remote server published using FTP. Both will likely cost you some money, though you will not pay the money to Google.
• If you publish a blog with photos, and you host the photos using the native post editor upload, you'll be using the Picasa service. Picasa is free, to a limit, then there is an upcharge for additional Picasa storage capacity.

For a free service, there are very few absolute limits to what resources you may use. The limits that do exist may be substantial to some, and you have to decide whether they warrant you finding another blogging platform.

And, as I pointed out long ago, Blogger does not charge us directly for the service, but they are not a non profit organisation. They are compensated, to a nice profit level.

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The Google Custom Domain Photo Hosting Problem Hits Harder

The Google Custom Domain photo hosting problem has been with us for a while. I first reported this problem in August, 2007 - and again, last week. Last year, it was simply a chronic problem that I had noted. Last week, it affected my blogs, but only on one important photo.

This week, the problem became more obnoxious. It now affects multiple photos, which are used in multiple blogs (possibly a lot of blogs). The Cumulus Blogs Hidden LinkLists, the Cumulus Blogs MultiStyle Labels, and the Language Translator Bar, are used by a few bloggers who I've never met. Maybe you're one of them (you've read this far, so maybe you are).

Look in the sidebars of my blogs - like this blog "The Real Blogger Status" or my networking blog "PChuck's Network", at the "Topics" section, or even "Topics" in Roberto's Report (Roberto, a bud of mine, uses the same graphics in his blogs). On most days, you'll see one or more missing buttons / icons / photos, in one or more blogs.

Houston, we have a problem.

A Problem That's Ugly


This is what I see, at 18:00 PDT, 11/05/2008.



This is what I saw just earlier this afternoon, at 13:00 PDT, 11/05/2008.


This is merely ugly. You can use the "en|el" as a button - try it and see (when you see that). You can still see this blog translated into Greek, even if you can't see the flag in the translator bar.

A Problem That's Worse Than Ugly


This is what you'd see on good days, like April 14, 2008.



This is what you'd see on April 15, 2008, the day this article was written, in this blog - though the problem is currently not active, here. Today, May 10, 2008, you'll see something like this, in my recipes blog. Also my bud Roberto reports the same problem in his blogs.


Most cases of missing photos are merely annoying. Unless your blog revolves around the missing photos, your readers simply see a minor bit of ugly blog.

There's bad news, and there's good news.

The bad news is - this case is more than annoying. The 4 missing photos, as you know if they are part of your blog, are actually buttons. Those buttons allow your readers to show a hidden linklist, or to select a style for displaying hidden labels. Without the use of those buttons, your readers can't see a linklist or label list. This might be a major issue in blog organisation or blog visibility, for you.

A Workaround

The good news is - there is a workaround for you, if your blog uses Hidden Linklists or MultiStyle Labels, with the buttons that I provided originally. Until Blogger fixes this, simply tweak your template. Switch the Hidden Linklist feature to "Show", and / or switch the MultiStyle Labels to "Menu" style. It's not difficult, though if your blog uses multiple, hidden linklists, it will be a bit tedious, and your blog will lose a bit of functionality.

1. First (and always) backup your template.
2. Edit the template.
3. Select "Expand Widget Templates".
4. For each hidden linklist, carefully find

   // set default to hide blogroll
   hideBlogroll1();

   and (noting and retaining the linklist number) (they won't all be "1"), change to

   // set default to (hide) show blogroll
   showBlogroll1();

   Remember that linklists are numbered. Do not mess up the linklist numbers.
5. For multistyle labels, find

   // set default to null style
   nullStyle();

   and change to

   // set default to (null) menu style
   menuStyle();

6. Save Template.
7. Last (and always) backup your template, again.
8. And also last (and also always) test your changes.

Not all problems can be worked around this easily. This is a functionality problem, and not too ugly. If you really want to display a photo (not a button or icon) in your blog, and it doesn't display, you're just out of luck. Sorry. No easy answers here - Blogger needs to fix the problem.

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Photos Missing From Blogs Published To Custom Domains

This problem has been reported for many months, and comes and goes. Right now, it seems to have come again.

Look at the Language Translator bar, in this blog. See the place where there should be a Greek flag (between the "German" and "Italian" flags)? What you see there is "en|el" - no flag. THAT showed up the moment I published this blog as part of Nitecruzr.Net.

>> Forum thread links: bX-*00063

>> Copy this tag: bX-*00063

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