A Blog without pictures is like a night without stars
February 1, 2019 4:16 PM Subscribe
I have a blog on the Blogger platform, owned by Google. I started it in 2011 and I no longer update it, but it's full of good memories and I'd hate for it to disappear. (link on my profile if you're interested in Hiking in Minnesota).
Today I received an email from Google saying that Google + is going away (whatever, I deleted my G+ account years ago) and they're going to be deleting the photos and videos attached to it. I clicked on their "Album Archive" link and holy shit, it's got all of my Blogger pictures on it. I've FAQ'ed and (ha) Googled but can't get a straight answer. Are my pictures going to disappear? And if so, what now?
Here's the actual email language:
You've received this email because you have a deleted personal (consumer) Google+ account or you've owned a deleted Google+ page
In December 2018, we announced our decision to shut down Google+ for consumers in April 2019. We want to thank you for having taken part in Google+.
When you previously deleted your consumer Google+ account or your Google+ page, we informed you that your photos and videos from Google+ wouldn't be deleted from your Album Archive and your Google+ Events content wouldn't be deleted. As part of the Google+ shutdown for consumers, we will begin deleting this content on April 2, 2019. Note that photos and videos backed up in Google Photos will not be deleted.
If you want to keep this content, you can download and save it before April 2019. See the full FAQ for more details.
Note that the process of deleting your remaining photos and videos from Google+ in your Album Archive and Google+ Events may take a few months, and content may remain through this time.
From all of us on the Google+ team, thank you for making Google+ such a special place blah blah blah blah go eff yourself.
So:
1. Are my Blogger pictures going to be deleted?
2. Will they then disappear from my Blogger blog, leaving a blog full of words and broken picture icons?
3. Is there a way to download them and keep the pictures on my Blog?
3a. Is there a way to do it that won't involve me fixing every picture individually?
Thank you kindly. Please assume that my level of competence is that of a person who maintained a really basic pictures-and-words blog, but no fancy htmling or whatever the kids are doing these days. It would break my heart to lose the blog but I understand that the internet is a fickle place and nothing lasts forever.
Here's the actual email language:
You've received this email because you have a deleted personal (consumer) Google+ account or you've owned a deleted Google+ page
In December 2018, we announced our decision to shut down Google+ for consumers in April 2019. We want to thank you for having taken part in Google+.
When you previously deleted your consumer Google+ account or your Google+ page, we informed you that your photos and videos from Google+ wouldn't be deleted from your Album Archive and your Google+ Events content wouldn't be deleted. As part of the Google+ shutdown for consumers, we will begin deleting this content on April 2, 2019. Note that photos and videos backed up in Google Photos will not be deleted.
If you want to keep this content, you can download and save it before April 2019. See the full FAQ for more details.
Note that the process of deleting your remaining photos and videos from Google+ in your Album Archive and Google+ Events may take a few months, and content may remain through this time.
From all of us on the Google+ team, thank you for making Google+ such a special place blah blah blah blah go eff yourself.
So:
1. Are my Blogger pictures going to be deleted?
2. Will they then disappear from my Blogger blog, leaving a blog full of words and broken picture icons?
3. Is there a way to download them and keep the pictures on my Blog?
3a. Is there a way to do it that won't involve me fixing every picture individually?
Thank you kindly. Please assume that my level of competence is that of a person who maintained a really basic pictures-and-words blog, but no fancy htmling or whatever the kids are doing these days. It would break my heart to lose the blog but I understand that the internet is a fickle place and nothing lasts forever.
You should be able to export your Blogger account and get a back up of everything that way.
posted by COD at 6:03 PM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by COD at 6:03 PM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
You should use google takeout to download your googleplus stuff, if only as a safety.
posted by smcameron at 7:01 PM on February 1, 2019
posted by smcameron at 7:01 PM on February 1, 2019
Are you certain that you'll be losing the images and videos on your blog, and not just that it will be deleted from your Google+ account? I'm confused about the situation and I hope somebody who knows more can fill us in. Is this situation particular to the OP somehow, or does everybody who has a Blogger blog have to worry about pictures being deleted when Google+ shuts down? When I sign in on Blogger I don't see any notice about this.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:36 PM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Ursula Hitler at 9:36 PM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I don't know anything about Blogger or how it's set up. If you don't get all the information you need here, maybe check for some Blogger-specific forums or guides. And it's worth checking that your blog actually links to the Google+ pictures and that they aren't just some weird automatically-created backup or something.
That said, in general,
3. Is there a way to download them and keep the pictures on my Blog?
Sure, you download them, upload them someplace new, and change the html on the blog that links to them. How best to do that is the Blogger-specific part I don't know.
By changing the html, I mean that when a webpage links to a picture it will at some point mention its url, which is just the address where the picture is located. So something like
https://something.google.com/whatever/whoknows/picturename.jpg (for example).
After you reupload your pictures, they'll be living someplace new and have a new address, and you'll be wanting to replace the part in bold with the new information. If your pictures are stored in subfolders, maintain that same structure when you upload them to the new place, so that then you'll be able to replace the same information on each url:
https://olddomain.com/.../subfolderA/pictureA.jpg
becomes
https://newdomain.com/.../subfolderA/pictureA.jpg
You don't actually need to know any html for this, just change all the old addresses to new ones. But again, I have no idea how Blogger is set up, maybe there's some centralized or automatic way to change things.
3a. Is there a way to do it that won't involve me fixing every picture individually?
If Blogger doesn't provide another way, you could at least do a commandline global search-replace with the new domain name of wherever you upload the pictures to. Or at minimum open each of your blog's html files and run the same find-replace. In practice, maybe there are some Blogger-specific ways. I found this find-replace tool, but I have no idea how well it works or if you can trust the author.
Whatever you do make a backup of your blog first, so you don't have to worry about making a mistake somewhere along the way. And wait for answers for someone more knowledgeable about Blogger.
posted by trig at 10:01 PM on February 1, 2019
That said, in general,
3. Is there a way to download them and keep the pictures on my Blog?
Sure, you download them, upload them someplace new, and change the html on the blog that links to them. How best to do that is the Blogger-specific part I don't know.
By changing the html, I mean that when a webpage links to a picture it will at some point mention its url, which is just the address where the picture is located. So something like
https://something.google.com/whatever/whoknows/picturename.jpg (for example).
After you reupload your pictures, they'll be living someplace new and have a new address, and you'll be wanting to replace the part in bold with the new information. If your pictures are stored in subfolders, maintain that same structure when you upload them to the new place, so that then you'll be able to replace the same information on each url:
https://olddomain.com/.../subfolderA/pictureA.jpg
becomes
https://newdomain.com/.../subfolderA/pictureA.jpg
You don't actually need to know any html for this, just change all the old addresses to new ones. But again, I have no idea how Blogger is set up, maybe there's some centralized or automatic way to change things.
3a. Is there a way to do it that won't involve me fixing every picture individually?
If Blogger doesn't provide another way, you could at least do a commandline global search-replace with the new domain name of wherever you upload the pictures to. Or at minimum open each of your blog's html files and run the same find-replace. In practice, maybe there are some Blogger-specific ways. I found this find-replace tool, but I have no idea how well it works or if you can trust the author.
Whatever you do make a backup of your blog first, so you don't have to worry about making a mistake somewhere along the way. And wait for answers for someone more knowledgeable about Blogger.
posted by trig at 10:01 PM on February 1, 2019
Also FWIW the Blogger blog talks about changes to the Google+ integration but says nothing about pictures, so I'm gathering this isn't meant to be a common problem. Which makes me wonder if your pictures are definitely stored in Google+ versus some other Google product (like Blogger)? If the link Google sent you was just to https://get.google.com/albumarchive, it looks like that shows you all the photos you have under all Google products, not just Google+.
posted by trig at 10:15 PM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by trig at 10:15 PM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
Photos under Google Photos are not supposed to be affected per the same email, so if you can see the photos in question there, you're probably all right.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 11:10 PM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by I claim sanctuary at 11:10 PM on February 1, 2019 [1 favorite]
I too have an old blog on the Blogger platform with hundreds of posts (and probably thousands of pictures) that I need to keep alive even though I no longer post on it. This possibility did not occur to me when I got the email about the demise of Google+, and your question made me totally panic.
Panic aside, though, I assume that because the email (as well as Google's linked FAQ about this change) only mentions Blogger in the context of Google+ comments on Blogger posts, this won't be an issue. Add to that the fact that Blogger's own blog, which trig linked to above, only mentions it affecting widgets, buttons, comments, and profiles. I also think (hope?) that if Google/Blogger was about to remove millions of photos from people's blogs, they'd send an email about that too. Again, maybe I'm being naive. But I haven't heard anything about this and while it's true that everyone uses Wordpress for new blogs now, I think there are probably still tons of Blogger blogs out there that are now so customized you wouldn't necessarily know they're on Blogger. So it's not like it would be an issue impacting only us weirdos who hold on to old blogs from 2009. It would be a big thing that they'd have to announce just as they have been doing with Google+.
That said, I hope someone who actually knows the answer sees this, because I don't need another thing to be freaked out about!
posted by DestinationUnknown at 9:43 AM on February 2, 2019
Panic aside, though, I assume that because the email (as well as Google's linked FAQ about this change) only mentions Blogger in the context of Google+ comments on Blogger posts, this won't be an issue. Add to that the fact that Blogger's own blog, which trig linked to above, only mentions it affecting widgets, buttons, comments, and profiles. I also think (hope?) that if Google/Blogger was about to remove millions of photos from people's blogs, they'd send an email about that too. Again, maybe I'm being naive. But I haven't heard anything about this and while it's true that everyone uses Wordpress for new blogs now, I think there are probably still tons of Blogger blogs out there that are now so customized you wouldn't necessarily know they're on Blogger. So it's not like it would be an issue impacting only us weirdos who hold on to old blogs from 2009. It would be a big thing that they'd have to announce just as they have been doing with Google+.
That said, I hope someone who actually knows the answer sees this, because I don't need another thing to be freaked out about!
posted by DestinationUnknown at 9:43 AM on February 2, 2019
This isn't an authoritative answer but if I had to make an educated guess I'd say your photos on your Blogger blog will be OK - Looking at the source of the page, the images are all hosted on domains like "1.bp.blogspot.com". It would be odd if Google+ closing affected images that are hosted on blogspot.com.
I'd assume that they've copied images from your blog into your Google+ album with the intention of aggregating all your images in one place. And so I'd assume those are copies, and their deletion won't affect the files on your blog.
posted by fabius at 4:14 PM on February 3, 2019
I'd assume that they've copied images from your blog into your Google+ album with the intention of aggregating all your images in one place. And so I'd assume those are copies, and their deletion won't affect the files on your blog.
posted by fabius at 4:14 PM on February 3, 2019
Response by poster: Final Update: my old blog still has all of the pictures. I guess the Google + Photo Scythe didn't extend to Blogger pics. Yay!
posted by Gray Duck at 10:33 AM on April 24, 2019
posted by Gray Duck at 10:33 AM on April 24, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
I got the same email, relating to my Google+ which I have not interacted with for years but which has pictures and poems on it. I have both saved elsewhere but I selected the "download" option, and am now awaiting the email which will tell me it is complete. *gulp* No idea if I will then be able to actively access the material. The page said they will send me a link where I can access but not sure what that means. (I share your level of competence which is why I have failed at Wordpress.)
I hope you get your pics back! but, why not go ahead and download and see if the pics show up in that, er, download, as well as being in the archive? (That would not solve the "individual fixing" issue, but at least you would have them!)
posted by luaz at 5:55 PM on February 1, 2019