Multiple image-related blog problems
November 18, 2007 9:48 PM Subscribe
I'm suddenly having multiple problems with my blog, and I've Googled as specifically as I could without much success. Problems involve Wordpress, Flickr, Gravatar, and images in general. I had no problems a week ago.
I'm working on non-blog things for about 80 hours a week and can't get around to trying any suggestions until Tuesday night, so take your time. Problems to follow:
1. I regularly use Flickr's "Blog This" function to showcase photos from a Flickr group on my blog. This worked fine until a few days ago. Now it won't post at all, and suggests that my login/pw for my blog is incorrect. It's not! I tried to re-add my blog on Flickr, using the proper http://your.blog.address/xmlrpc.php format they recommend, but now it tells me that the API endpoint I entered is not correct. What's going on here? Nothing is incorrect, I am 99.999% sure of that!
2. Gravatars. They used to show up in my comments. I'm using a plugin that does that. The plugin still works, I know that because the proper default gravatar (for gravatar-less people) shows up for everyone, but people who have an actual image registered on gravatar just got a "G" picture (from gravatar.com) instead of their own. I emptied the cached images for these gravatars, forcing the plugin/wordpress to request new ones from gravatar.com, and now everyone has the default image. No new images are being pulled in.
As a person who doesn't know much about programming, both problems seem somewhat similar to me in that my blog no longer wants images from outside sources.
I went back into my cpanel and set various layers of folders to 777 permission, but this didn't solve anything.
3. I also had ANOTHER problem, that I DID manage to solve using a support forum and clever Googling: I couldn't upload any images anymore in my blog posts (notice how this is AGAIN an image problem.) but solved this using the very last tip mentioned here. At least, I think that's what I did. I can't check, because at this moment I can't seem to access my site at all. That's not related to any other problems, though.
4. I obviously want to reinstall/upgrade wordpress, but not before I manually back up everything. Unfortunately I can't get into ftp. I probably have my password wrong, and I can't remember it at all. The bottom line is: I am not reinstalling anything right now, so that suggestion is out. I know backing up is a good idea anyway, but without ftp I don't know how to do this reliably (I want to drag files from ftp to my computer, so I know exactly what I have)
Forget this for now, just don't suggest "reinstall wordpress" because i can't do that right now. (I can technically use cpanel, but it's S.L.O.W. and I have no time to even be typing this question)
5. Theoretically, I could ask my host for help, but they (CyberPixels) have never been helpful in the past with simpler questions, and I don't trust them to be able to answer a three-part question.
6. I don't think it would help, because you can't see inside my control panel, but my site is in my profile. That's the blog with all the issues.
7. I recognize that there are hilarious jokes to be made about the phrase "image problems", but since my mood is a bit affected by my blog being broken at the least convenient time, I didn't feel like making any right now.
1. I regularly use Flickr's "Blog This" function to showcase photos from a Flickr group on my blog. This worked fine until a few days ago. Now it won't post at all, and suggests that my login/pw for my blog is incorrect. It's not! I tried to re-add my blog on Flickr, using the proper http://your.blog.address/xmlrpc.php format they recommend, but now it tells me that the API endpoint I entered is not correct. What's going on here? Nothing is incorrect, I am 99.999% sure of that!
2. Gravatars. They used to show up in my comments. I'm using a plugin that does that. The plugin still works, I know that because the proper default gravatar (for gravatar-less people) shows up for everyone, but people who have an actual image registered on gravatar just got a "G" picture (from gravatar.com) instead of their own. I emptied the cached images for these gravatars, forcing the plugin/wordpress to request new ones from gravatar.com, and now everyone has the default image. No new images are being pulled in.
As a person who doesn't know much about programming, both problems seem somewhat similar to me in that my blog no longer wants images from outside sources.
I went back into my cpanel and set various layers of folders to 777 permission, but this didn't solve anything.
3. I also had ANOTHER problem, that I DID manage to solve using a support forum and clever Googling: I couldn't upload any images anymore in my blog posts (notice how this is AGAIN an image problem.) but solved this using the very last tip mentioned here. At least, I think that's what I did. I can't check, because at this moment I can't seem to access my site at all. That's not related to any other problems, though.
4. I obviously want to reinstall/upgrade wordpress, but not before I manually back up everything. Unfortunately I can't get into ftp. I probably have my password wrong, and I can't remember it at all. The bottom line is: I am not reinstalling anything right now, so that suggestion is out. I know backing up is a good idea anyway, but without ftp I don't know how to do this reliably (I want to drag files from ftp to my computer, so I know exactly what I have)
Forget this for now, just don't suggest "reinstall wordpress" because i can't do that right now. (I can technically use cpanel, but it's S.L.O.W. and I have no time to even be typing this question)
5. Theoretically, I could ask my host for help, but they (CyberPixels) have never been helpful in the past with simpler questions, and I don't trust them to be able to answer a three-part question.
6. I don't think it would help, because you can't see inside my control panel, but my site is in my profile. That's the blog with all the issues.
7. I recognize that there are hilarious jokes to be made about the phrase "image problems", but since my mood is a bit affected by my blog being broken at the least convenient time, I didn't feel like making any right now.
Off the cuff, I'd think you're on the right track, and have a permissions issue. Check to see that you remain the owner of the files in your account; see if there was, perhaps, a restore of files recently, or a like event that may have made things go whacky.
Careful, though, to not CHMOD to 777 with gleeful abandon... that way lies heartbreak, as those who really should never have permissions to bits and pieces of WordPress can upload and.or overwrite your stuff with theirs.
posted by deCadmus at 10:17 PM on November 18, 2007
Careful, though, to not CHMOD to 777 with gleeful abandon... that way lies heartbreak, as those who really should never have permissions to bits and pieces of WordPress can upload and.or overwrite your stuff with theirs.
posted by deCadmus at 10:17 PM on November 18, 2007
What plugins are you using in WordPress? I had the same problems. I had to disable Bad Behavior and and/or Askimet (can't remember which one). You can try this and see if it works.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 11:28 PM on November 18, 2007
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 11:28 PM on November 18, 2007
Is it possible you made changes to your template or installed a new one recently? I can imagine causing these problems by adding a new a <base href="..."> tag to your pages. Search for the word 'base' in the .php files in wp-content/themes/your theme name and remove the tag if you find it. Don't forget to flush wp-cache if you're using that.
(on preview) Bad Behavior could do it, too. But not Akismet, that one's a font of spam-fighting wonderful and shouldn't be disabled.
posted by Harkins_ at 7:25 AM on November 19, 2007
(on preview) Bad Behavior could do it, too. But not Akismet, that one's a font of spam-fighting wonderful and shouldn't be disabled.
posted by Harkins_ at 7:25 AM on November 19, 2007
Response by poster: Plugins I have installed and active: Akismet, catcloud, Gravatars, Wordpress Multi URI Ping, Miniblog, Wordpress Database Backup
I haven't edited anything in the template lately, so that can't be it. All I did recently was add a link to the sidebar using Wordpress' links -- no meddling with templates.
On the bright side, I managed to login to ftp, so I can backup and I'll be open to "reinstall" suggestions. I had a username/password mixed up yesterday, and by the time I got it right the server went down, but I hadn't noticed that at the time. Everything happened at once!
posted by easternblot at 7:48 AM on November 19, 2007
I haven't edited anything in the template lately, so that can't be it. All I did recently was add a link to the sidebar using Wordpress' links -- no meddling with templates.
On the bright side, I managed to login to ftp, so I can backup and I'll be open to "reinstall" suggestions. I had a username/password mixed up yesterday, and by the time I got it right the server went down, but I hadn't noticed that at the time. Everything happened at once!
posted by easternblot at 7:48 AM on November 19, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
1. Can't post to blog from Flickr
2. Gravatars are also not showing and image upload didn't work for around the same period of time (fixed that last one) so it might all be One Big Problem
3. I can't back up my site right now because I am stupid, so I am not going to reinstall anything or do other risky things for which I would need to back up first.
posted by easternblot at 9:58 PM on November 18, 2007