Broken attachments links (pre-Nov 2019)

[Kyle D Jackson]

UPDATE: This appears to affect all attachments in posts/threads made *Nov 2019 and earlier*. Everything newer than that is working okay.

Hi, I'm seeing a lot of broken attachments in the forums. Inline image appear as blank spaces, and attachment links goes to a black page that says "Sorry, no content matched your search criteria". Screenshot attached (assuming you can see it...).

I use FireFox on Windows 10 and on Android. I've tried a bunch of reduced security/privacy settings and nothing changes.

I also attempted testing it in MS Edge, but I can't even login with it(!!).

I still don't know if this is a site issue or "just me", so here's a sample thread with lots of attachments of different types. Do any of them work for you?
https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=114961.0

Thanks!

[David Eckels]

Login...
Firefox, Win 11, iOS here: no problems getting into Forum, or Home (I subscribe).

[Kyle D Jackson]

Thanks, David. To be clear though, my question is about broken attachment links. Are they working for you in that example thread I linked?

Yes I'm logged in when seeing broken links -- Firefox, both Windows 10 and Android, and also a subscriber. (My side mention of Edge failing to login is a separate issue...)

Thanks

[francois]

No problem here, iOS, MacOS...

[Kyle D Jackson]

Thanks, Francois. So all the attachment links in that thread display/open okay?

It seems to affect only older posts, about 2019 and earlier. Attachments/images seem to be working okay for posts newer than 2019-ish. But 2019 and older is a mix, with some threads appearing okay, but many others are nothing but dead attachment links, not even any thumbnails for the attached images.

Edit: seems to start Nov 2019...

[Kyle D Jackson]

OP updated... It's definitely an issue that affects attachments on any posts before Nov 2019. It's like everything is gone.

Does this site have a limit for how long attachments are retained? Or was there a big data loss event that caused everything before Nov 2019 to disappear?

Thanks

[David Eckels]

Don't know about your last question, but the links are active on my setup.But then I stay logged in.

[Kyle D Jackson]

Thanks David, so good to know that the attachments aren't "lost". But I'm at a loss then to explain why I can't see anything pre-Nov 2019.

I'm currently re-reading an old thread that spans 2019-2020, and the early posts in it before Nov 2019 are missing their attachments, but the posts in 2020 have the attachments:
https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=129356.0

You've mentioned your login twice now, can you please clarify why? I feel I'm missing something you're trying to convey... As I mentioned, I am logged in, on both the forum and the site (it's the same login), and I'm a subscriber (not that the latter matters).

Thanks again

[mcbroomf]

I no longer subscribe (and the links are broken to me) but when I did it was (confusingly) separate logins.  It appeared to be the same but I found the site login would need periodic  refresh while the forum login stayed locked and logged in all the time.

[David Eckels]

My experience is the same as Mike's.

[Kyle D Jackson]

I no longer subscribe (and the links are broken to me) but when I did it was (confusingly) separate logins.  It appeared to be the same but I found the site login would need periodic  refresh while the forum login stayed locked and logged in all the time.

Thanks Mike, I've encountered similar login status variation across the site (and it seems there are 3 logins: site, forum, and forum-subscriber, and I generally use the latter). I've seen that both before and after I became a subscriber.

In any case it seems to me that the subscriber status doesn't matter for the broken attachment links. There is something else going on. You, I, and apparently now David, all encounter broken attachments (pre-Nov 2019 in my case), and that covers both subscribers and non alike.

I guess I'll hunt for a "webmaster" contact somewhere... I posted here because I couldn't find a contact help/support option for the forum, so I figured this must be where people report forum technical issues. (Edit: just sent an email to the customer service address shown on the main website page...)

For info, which browser and OS are you using?

Thanks

[Kyle D Jackson]

So people can see what this looks like...

This example thread I linked earlier spans Nov 2019 and has both working and broken attachments:
https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=129356.0

On posts before Nov 2019, all attachments are broken. My first screenshot below shows the inline image thumbnails are blank. Clicking any of the attachments (regardless of file type) goes to a dead site page, shown in the second attachment. This happens for all attachments on the forum pre-Nov 2019.

On the posts after Nov 2019, everything works. Both inline and attached images display thumbnails, clicking them opens them in larger view (inline or in a new window, respectively). Clicking non-image attachments (txt, zip, etc) opens the file view/save options just like any other website. The last screenshot shows one of the normal post-Nov 2019 posts.

[Kyle D Jackson]

Update: Just received an email that a fix has been made, and I can see/download attachments on pre-Nov2019 posts again!

Now encountering an issue on some older posts where clicking an image thumbnail returns a 404 page. Still some gremlins to work out... 

[francois]

Thanks for the info... At least we know that someone is working on bugs.