Plugin Randomly Uploading Old Photos to My Media Library

Hey, big thanks for reaching out, this certainly sounds as an interesting problem, which we would be more than happy to help you out with!

Is this the current blog in question? — https://mostlysunnyblog.com/
What was the URL of the previous blog, where those images were coming from?

Were those images only stored in your Media Gallery or were they also displayed as thumbnails in some of your related posts? And were those images stored in your Media Gallery in its original size or in its thumbnail size? Were they all being imported or just some of them?

Sorry for this bunch of questions, but this is really concerning for us and we really want to help you out here, so any additional feedback is more than appreciated!

Looking forward to your reply! Take care!

Best,
Silvo

Hey Silvo, thanks so much for the reply!

Yes that is my blog. My old URL is https://mostlysunnybunny.wordpress.com

Those images are just in my media gallery, and that was before I even learnt I should resize my photos so they’re kinda giant (not in thumbnail size). Only some of them are being imported, but I can’t seem to find a logic. When I deleted the photos, the same ones kept coming back, sometimes even in double.

Please let me know if you need further information! I’d be so happy when I can turn the plugin back on!

Hey, thanks for getting back to me, much appreciated, although we have to admit that we are still a bit in the dark, to be honest. But we’re confident we’ll get it sorted somehow!

Are those images that are being duplicated only stored in the Media Gallery of your previous, older blog or are they just being duplicated in your current Media Gallery? Are the ones which are being imported also published in one of your current blog posts? If so, can you send us the links, so that we could have a closer look?

Also — have you by any chance installed any other plugins recently? What’s the current list of the plugins you have installed (& activated)?

Since this is the first error report of this kind that we received, we think this might be an isolated example of the error you’re experiencing, so we’re now just trying to narrow it down to the possibilities that might be causing it in the first place.

If you would activate our plugin again, would those images be copied/imported in your Media Gallery immediately and all at once, or sporadically and only some of them (one by one)?

Sorry for this bunch of questions, but this is a bit weird for us, so we have to know as much as possible. Thanks for your cooperation & I’m looking forward to your reply!

Best,
Silvo

Hey Silvo, thanks for the reply!

The images are only stored in the media library of my old blog. I never moved them to the new site’s media library, and I’ve never used them.

I just turned the plug-in back on and immediately the problem started. Here is a link you can take a look at:

https://mostlysunnyblog.com/2012/03/27/swatch-review-dior-vernis-257-incognito-537-riviera-579-plaza-659-lucky-top-coat-matching-lips-and-nails-anyone/rp_dior-vernis-incognito-lucky-riviera-plaza-group-shot-jpg/

I haven’t installed any other plug-ins lately. For the moment here is the list:

Add Signature, Akismet, All in one Favicon, Disqus Comment System, Google Analyticator, Jetpack, jQuery Pin It Button For Images, Maintenance Mode, Wordfence Security, WordPress Importer, WP RSS Images, WP to Twitter.

The images would immediately start streaming in, but not all at once. For the moment (7 minutes after I re-activated it), I can see only one. Give it a few minutes and there might be more though.

Just as I predicted… A whole bunch just came in again.

https://mostlysunnyblog.com/2012/05/31/my-cleanser-line-up-philosophy-purity-made-simple-sampar-white-velvet-mousse-la-roche-posay-effaclar-purifying-foaming-gel-review/rp_philosophy-purity-made-simple-sampar-white-velvet-mousse-la-roche-posay-effaclar-purifying-foaming-gel-jpg-2/

This one even came in double.

https://mostlysunnyblog.com/2011/12/09/review-yves-rocher-jardins-du-monde-shower-gel/rp_yves-rocher-jardin-du-monde-shower-gel-jpg/

It’s always the SAME images. I kill them, they come back. Like some sort of zombies!

Hey! Again — big thanks for getting back to us, very much appreciated!

It actually makes perfect sense now and I’m kinda embarrassed I didn’t notice the solution earlier!

The thing is, if you look at those old blog posts (from your previous blog), the images still have the old URL’s, which means that they are not stored in your current Media Gallery, since you choose not to import it to your new blog.

This means that our plugin will make a safe copy of that image in your Media Gallery, since it’s not stored locally in the first place. It does that because the image might be gone from that outside link (sometime in the future), thus securing your images and thumbnails for the future. It’s a natural process for most plugins that are dealing with images with old URL’s.

Here’s the screenshot I’ve made, for easier explanation: https://cl.ly/image/0m2z272z2L06

But there are two solutions for you right now:

1.) replace old URL’s for those images with newer ones, in each blog post or in your database, or
2.) just let our plugin make those copies as it already has with new URL’s and just leave them there.

Since you mentioned that those images are probably too big for your blog, the first solution should be more attractive to you. If you have a webmaster who made that migration from your old blog to the newer one, ask him/her for help, or you can just do it manually.

In any case, do let me know how it goes or if you have any more questions what-so-ever —?I’ll be more than glad to help you out!

Take care & have a nice day!

Best,
Silvo

Hey Silvo,

Thanks so much! Now it makes more sense.

I’ve been using the plugin for a while now though. Do you know why it suddenly started doing it? Is there even an option to switch it off? It is just that by now it’ll take so long to replace the old URL’s, and letting the plugin import all the photos will make finding the right photos to attach to a new post a bit complicated.

Thanks so much again!

Sunny

Hey Sunny, glad I could be of any help, to be honest!

Why has this started just now? Well, from which version have you updated our plugin from? Is it possible you just haven’t noticed it before?

Those old URL’s can also be automatically modified (and really fast too) with a simplified SQL code — you’ll just need someone who knows his way around your database. That’s why I asked if you have a webmaster of some sort who could help you out here.

We are more than ready to it ourselves or to guide you through this setup, but it will take some time and trust from your side as well, to be honest, since it’s only all your data we are talking about here.

In any case, let us know what you think about this or if you have any other questions, but I’m afraid there really is no third solution to your case right now. Sorry!

Looking forward to your reply! Take care!

Best,
Silvo

Hey Silvo,

Well I’ve had the plugin for a while, so I updated from the previous version. I don’t think it’s something I didn’t notice before, since the site is updated on a daily basis.

So… nope I don’t have a webmaster. A friend helped out a little when the site became self-hosted, but since then I’ve been pretty much on my own. It would be great if you could help, but I don’t want to impose!

Thanks so much for everything again!

Hey Sunny, sorry for not getting back to you any earlier!

Yes, we are more than willing to help you out, no problem at all, but for privacy and security reasons, I recommend we move this conversation to our email inboxes, if possible.

Here’s my email address where you can reach me anytime: support[at]zemanta[dot]com

What we’ll need is an access to your phpMyAdmin database via the cPanel tool (or whatever you are using to access it), since we can run only that SQL command over there.

Please bear in mind that we won’t do anything until we describe every step to you beforehand, since we do not want to execute any commands prior to your approval. The process itself is not complicated at all, but some precaution measures are necessary. After all, it’s our hands on your blog and we do want to be on the same page here, don’t we? ??

In any case — please do not hesitate to ask me anything regarding this process or if you have any other doubts what-so-ever! We’re here to help!

Take care & I’m looking forward to your reply!

Best,
Silvo