[NOT A BUG] Images on emails not showing

For a few months now all postcard images in my emails are showing as broken.
Is it me or a glitch? Can I fix it?
Thanks!
Linda

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This isn’t really a Postcrossing issue or bug, but could be issues with your browser, computer or email provider.

It also depends on several things, so it’s hard to give a finite and spesific answer to how you can solve it.

A quick google search can help you.

Deleting emails and clearing caches might be the best general advice I can give you.

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Thanks for your reply!
I have done all that and Postcrossing emails are the only ones that have broken images for me.
I will do a Google search as you suggest.
Linda

Since none of the Google search results worked, I did an inspect of the html for the page (of my email) and I found this URL inside the IMG object:

(https:// taken off because if it’s there it will only show the broken link image)
ci3.googleusercontent.com/meips/ADKq_NbuwOZIQHdxZwpl1EkuqmTANr5bu8DXabIWioEK6Z3x86l1TQ8SzYLBXhDQFMkNZZIOHvxZkCQhD6pvBRIpN0XB5GU_Xvbex87u7SRF8fLBlC79jHy7hVrW2tf88zYaVQcJzlRs2UArvblzshYkSz3d9ocfopQGG7CHqA=s0-d-e1-ft#https://s3.amazonaws.com/static2.postcrossing.com/postcard/thumb/818285rmrj1y1q2wnqk0jdsdz14rhd18.jpg

When I go to that URL, this is the message I get:

404. That’s an error.

The requested URL /meips/ADKq_NbuwOZIQHdxZwpl1EkuqmTANr5bu8DXabIWioEK6Z3x86l1TQ8SzYLBXhDQFMkNZZIOHvxZkCQhD6pvBRIpN0XB5GU_Xvbex87u7SRF8fLBlC79jHy7hVrW2tf88zYaVQcJzlRs2UArvblzshYkSz3d9ocfopQGG7CHqA=s0-d-e1-ft was not found on this server. That’s all we know.

So I believe that Postcrossing is including dead links in these emails.

Respectfully,
Linda

I know sometimes that happens when I see the email after the receiver changes the card photo. Meaning, the email is sent with a link to a photo, but if the receiver changes it for another the email doesn’t update, so it isn’t found, and gives error (I don’t know if I’m explaining myself correctly :confused: )

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Yes, I have noticed the same, if the receiver changes or deletes the photo, it’s shows broken in my mail.

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That’s true, but in my case theses are photos that I uploaded and the receiver didn’t change.
Also, it is happening to the user ID also!

Just in case it’s a useful data point, this abruptly started happening to me too about 3 weeks ago and manifests the same way. It’s only emails from Postcrossing, all images in other emails display fine, and I get the same issue with both user ID images and card photos so at least in my case it doesn’t appear to be caused by the image no longer existing. If I click through everything loads fine on the website. One thing that’s a little odd is sometimes in these emails it will also include my own user image and that usually displays fine even when alongside broken icons for other user images. I initially assumed it was a temporary caching issue or similar, but so far it hasn’t gone away, and it happens across all devices and formats.

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Yes, exactly! Thank you for explaining it better than I did. :blush:

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These URLs are not the ones included by Postcrossing on its emails: that’s the URL that google replaces ours with to act as a proxy — we have nothing hosted in googleusercontent.com. If you are using Gmail, to see the actual source of the email we send you need to go to the “Show original” entry.

If you try the URL that is at the very end of that long link you posted (the bit that says https://s3.amazonaws.com/static2.postcrossing.com/postcard/thumb/818285rmrj1y1q2wnqk0jdsdz14rhd18.jpg you should be able to open the image — that’s the actual link included on the email. I don’t know why google is failing to proxy the image correctly.

I have not experienced this myself as I see all images on the emails and I’m using gmail too. I suspect there’s something in your browser that is somehow blocking those images. Try with a different browser to see if you get the same behavior?

Having said all this, please note that if a) a user changes their avatar or b) the image of a postcard is replaced, then you may see that behavior on emails as the email would still link to the older ones who no longer exist in that case. That however doesn’t explain if it’s happening with all images and on a recurrent basis.

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