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Jim Hughes

8 Years Ago

Missing Images... Again...

I sold a print of a photo today. I knew there was trouble right away, because no image showed up on the Announcement page, and my Sales page had no thumbnail for that sale. Late tonight I got an email from tech support, as expected, telling me there was a problem with printing the image because the "link was broken". Fortunately, I'm not out of town or tied up in some other way and I'm able to re-upload the file.

I know this has been happening here for ages, because I've seen the posts from other artists, but I've never seen an actual explanation of what's going wrong or how we could avoid it. How can we know if we have images with "broken links" before one of them gets sold?

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Nancy Merkle

8 Years Ago

I've had images disappear, too, and it is disconcerting. No explanation ever surfaced, though I posed the question in the forums. At first I thought it was something at my end, but when it happened to images that had previously sold without a problem, I figured it wasn't me, but something at FAA's end. Unfortunately, I ended up reloading images which was a pain in the neck. I hope they get it fixed soon. It is obviously a reoccuring issue.

 

Andee Design

8 Years Ago

We have been told that is can be a server issue and other times it can be a corrupt file. Seems to me the last time is was a coding issue that went out of whack. But I have seen those things explained as to why. Maybe you missed those threads. Still no fun when it happens. Odd that it can be seen to be ordered tho if it is not there or corrupt.

 

I've paid close attention, and know all of my vanished images were uploaded in 2011 -- the year I joined. Now, when I go looking for one and realize it's gone (apparently, there are quite a few), I don't even bother to report it as none of the reasons, so far, have made sound technical sense to me. I now consider it just part of doing business here.

I guess every site has specific quirks.

I don't want to be on my deathbed thinking, "I wish I hadn't wasted time trying to find out what happened to that Autumn Trees file!" ;-)

 

Andee Design

8 Years Ago

Wendy your old files never came back? I had that happen all 2012 and before were broken then anyone in that thread said they came back. I would send tech one more email if you are missing those unless you re-uploaded them all.

 

Dan Carmichael

8 Years Ago

Is it possible to successfully view the image on the image page and for the hi-res (printing) version to be corrupted?

In other words, when an image is uploaded is a smaller thumbnail for page display created or is a smaller version of the hi-res file rendered (on the fly) each time an image is viewed?

 

Judy Kay

8 Years Ago

If you store the image on your memory card you can transfer the image to your smart phone via nfc (?) or wifi. As I recall you have the sony a6000 has that technology, .Ypu can then upload it from your phone to FAA,

 

Jim Hughes

8 Years Ago

Dan: yes. The pre-generated 'preview' image still exists but the full size image can't be found. I suspect that's why 100% zoom fails for these images. Since the preview was created successfully, the original upload succeeded and the 'broken link' happened later.

 

Gill Billington

8 Years Ago

I have found five of those which appear small and the high res doesn't work. It is so frustrating, it will be a nightmare if someone tries to buy one although they may not want to if they can't view it in high res. Sad thing is that I've sold most of these in the past.

 

Edward Fielding

8 Years Ago

There is no system backup? Come on when I worked in corporate world 20 years ago we could get a back of up an accidentally deleted document in 24 hours. Not a good plug for being exclusive.

 

Jim Hughes

8 Years Ago

@Wendy J St Christopher - in my case, the missing image was uploaded in 2013.

@Edward Fielding - I'm sure there is backup, but whatever is going wrong is 'silent' and no one at FAA knows which images are affected. What is probably happening is something like this: the database record for an image has a link pointing to the original file, but that link has become invalid, maybe because it contained the name of a server, and that server has been replaced by one with a different name. That's just a guess and is only one possibility out of many. As a former software developer I can say with authority that Things Happen as time goes by. Maintaining a database the size of FAA's is no small task.

It would be great if FAA could run a database script that checks for invalid links like these, and generates emails to any affected contributors.

 

Dan Carmichael

8 Years Ago

@Gill
"it will be a nightmare if someone tries to buy one "

Could also be a lost sale if FAA was unable to print it, emailed the artist, and for whatever reason the artist was unable to re-upload the file in the tight time constraints often given.

@Jim
"but that link has become invalid, maybe because it contained the name of a server, and that server has been replaced by one with a different name... Things Happen as time goes by"

In principle, I'll disagree. In your example scenario (server name change) random images would not be affected. Affected would be every image on the server which could be thousands, tens-of-thousands or even millions. Proper care taken when maintaining or upgrading any computer or data storage facility would prevent it. Sloppy procedures = sloppy results. On the other hand, data (files) do periodically get corrupted. But randomly corrupted files would not address the reports above of all images from 2011 or 2012 being lost.

Edit: and yes, I'll agree. Regularly scheduled database integrity checks should be performed and reports generated. If that is not happening, the inherent "flying by the seat of your pants" system design is amateurish.



 

Jim Hughes

8 Years Ago

@Dan, yes if you take my example literally, yes, large numbers of files would have been affected. It was just an example. Note that my image was uploaded in 2013.

A stored image - or any sort of file - could get 'corrupted' if a hard drive was failing, and that wasn't quickly detected; or if that file was processed in some way that introduced errors, for example an attempt to change the JPG compression level on all the images in storage. Files don't corrupt themselves just sitting there, something has to happen.

The actual cause probably doesn't matter - like I said, stuff happens. I just don't like the last-minute panic notifications on lost files. There has to be a better way.

 

Dan Carmichael

8 Years Ago

@Jim
"There has to be a better way."

There is. It's a matter of where priorities are placed. In my personal opinion, time spent introducing new products should be de-priortized, with that time re-prioritized toward fixing the system problems that have been reported repeatedly thru the years.

 

Gill Billington

8 Years Ago

Well, I'm not sure how long ago these got corrupted. I only noticed one because another artist made a random comment on it.

Three were uploaded in February 2013 and the other two in 2014 but I haven't sold any of those this year so it makes me wonder how long they have been damaged.

As I said, if someone can't see the high res square they may think the image is no good. Could be why I haven't sold any more of them this year. Very, very frustrating!

 

Gill Billington

8 Years Ago

I was so worried about it after I noticed the first one that I then clicked through all 1600 images (which took me a long time) to see if any more were affected. That is when I found the other four.

 

Sean McDunn

8 Years Ago

Jim,

The image is fine. The order is in production right now.

Sean

 

Gill Billington

8 Years Ago

Sean,

Thanks for stepping in to this thread and thanks for sorting out my Storming Harley image. I have sent the other four to Abbie to pass on to you which I am hoping she has done, although not sure if she is away.

 

Jim Hughes

8 Years Ago

Sean, thanks for the reply. It's good now because I uploaded it again last night after getting the email. Just wondering how we could avoid this in the future, really. Maybe we can't...

 

Mark Andrew Thomas

8 Years Ago

I've noticed this issue again this week. The thing that makes it difficult is that I have over 600 images now and I'm constantly adding new ones. It's tough to keep track of which ones are no longer showing up unless I'm looking for a specific image. The only reason I noticed an image missing this time is because someone was looking for it. Do I have to spend hours cross referencing my photos and comparing them to what's on my portfolio on FAA every month to make sure that none are missing? I shouldn't have to do that. This is a problem that needs to be fixed...and soon. This seems to be a recurring issue. I'm happy with FAA otherwise but this is getting annoying. It's hard enough to make sales as it is and customers can't buy what they can't see. Guess I'll submit it to support and see what they can do.

 

Lisa Redfern

8 Years Ago

I've been experiencing broken thumbnail links also. Since I have always been careful about meeting the site upload specifications, I am fairly sure the problem isn't user error but something on FAA's end. I sent in a 'help' request about a week ago and got no response. When I first joined the site, in 2010, the tech. support seemed 'on it' and ...helpful. I'd really like to know what's going with the faulty website issues.

My galleries look unprofessional. It is embarrassing.

I am reluctant to pull-the-plug on my FAA website since I have put so much work into it AND I have been extremely pleased with their production and shipping services. I am planning to submit another tech. support request. If there is nothing forthcoming...then I will begin the process of research to find a new 'art home.'

 

Sassan Filsoof

8 Years Ago

I just experienced the same issue Jim Hughes. Despite reloading the image to the site, the problem persisted and as a result the sale was canceled. THANKS FAA! Not good with Christmas around the corner. Does anyone have a solution? I have been on RB for years, and they never seem to have this problem!!

 

Robert Radmore

8 Years Ago

The Glitch persists to this day, I've posted this and several other artists have there's other posts relating to this, today every other image of mine is a broken Image Icon. This means it won't post to Twitter or FB it's not the image that's broken it's server side. It's been sporadic for a while but today as I tried to promo some of my work, I can't share half of my work.

R.

 

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