General Warning:Repeating Cover Image and First Image

I am getting the same issue. Did anyone find the solution?

Check if you use the same size of the image for example for the featured image and the actual image in the article.

i.e. if you choose image.jpg for the featured image but image-1024-600.jpg for the actual image in the article then the plugin doesn’t sort it out correctly. If you use the same image sizes then it works fine.

Maybe the plugin can be enhanced that different image sizes of the same image can be detected. That way it would be fully compliant to the IA guidelines.

Yes Dave_S, you are correct. It detects same picture in different dimensions and names.

This happens when we set a featured image (in bigger resolution) and insert a ‘medium-sized’ image to the content area.

Is there a solution here other than uploading the same image to both the featured image and content area?

I have the exact same problem. How can I write a transform rules to delete either the featured image or the first image.

Chiming in as I just hit this. No solution? The ‘Disable Featured Image’ button doesn’t seem to tether to this.

Bummer this has been around so long with no reply. Surely it happens to a LOT of people. Replying mostly to subscribe.

One thing I’ve noticed, while previewing in the FB “Pages” app, is that even when this error DOESN’T show I get erratic behavior WRT the “Cover Image” and “First Image”.

I DONT USUALLY SEE THE ERROR DISCUSSED ABOVE

I have Cover/First Image using sufficiently similar formats that I usually don’t see the error. My featured image size is a 16:9 crop of upload, my “large” size is original aspect ratio and often close in size/shape to the 16:9 version as long as the image is “landscape” orientation.

I see the error for posts with an image inserted as “small” size at the top of the post.

FB IA IS CHOOSING WHICH ONE TO SHOW WHEN THEY ARE THE SAME

On some posts, the result is iA hides the “Cover Image” completely and the article starts with the site logo and post title, then the post content including image.

On other posts the Cover Image is shown and (WTF) the image in the post is completely hidden, including it’s caption.

It seems like FB has some logic that, WHEN THE ERROR DISCUSSED IN THIS THREAD IS NOT SHOWN, but it detects that the images are THE SAME, it hides one of them or the other to avoid total duplication.

My question is WTF is that logic and how can we predict which will happen?

For me, I’d much rather keep the in-post image rather than the cover one, because it usually has a caption with attribution information/links that are legally mandatory (Creative Commons). Replacing it with the Cover Image means only the pic is shown, and so far I’m not seeing any evidence of it copying the caption into the caption field of the Cover Image.

Correction of above: I didn’t realize this before, but the Cover Image does have an automatic caption, which applies in cases like mine. It uses the text that was last entered as “caption” in the media uploader in the WP post editor. This means that if you only inserted the image once at the top of your post and never edited the caption in the uploader, the Cover Image will have the same caption added automatically (galleries have a similar effect where their caption is the last one used while inserting the image).

This is good news, because it means that your image DOES HAVE A CAPTION when it’s in the Cover Image/Header space, so in theory FB hiding the image in the post body isn’t the end of the world.

The problem is that the caption in the header/cover image is hidden by default, you only see it in tiny text when you click the header. To me this is a big difference in terms of attribution. I want that info to be loud and clear, not hidden in tiny text behind an unlikely click.

FYI this github ticket (no feedback from plugin author) poses the question of how to disable the Featured Image->Cover Image relationship entirely:

https://github.com/Automattic/facebook-instant-articles-wp/issues/57

So far, I’m coming to the conclusion that if we want a “solution” to this problem, then that is what we are looking for, a simple way to disable the header Cover Image entirely (because you rely on images at the top of a post), or a more complex solution that removes them only when the featured image is the first thing in the post content.

Here’s a PHP solution:

/**
 * Filter for Facebook Instant Articles that disables the featured image 
 * as "cover image" for all instant articles.
 *
 * By default FB uses the WP featured image as the "Cover Image" for ia, 
 * which shows above the headline.  * FB forbids having that image repeat
 * in the post, and especially when it's at the top of the post, it looks
 * terrible to have two copies in a row. 
 * 
 * This code disables the Cover Image entirely, and is useful if you 
 * usually have the featured image inserted at thetop of your posts so you
 * don't need the cover image. 
 * 
 * Note: This has no effect on the FB share display, which is driven by
 * the Open Graph og:image tag and not iA. 
 *
 * @param array $image_data
 *
 * @return array
 */
function 57_filter_instant_articles_remove_featured_image($image_data) {
	return array(
		'src' => '',
		'caption' => '',
	);
}
add_filter('instant_articles_featured_image', '57_filter_instant_articles_remove_featured_image');

• This reply was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by Jer Clarke.