Uploaded images that were working, are suddenly broken

Permissions are:
wp-content, uploads, subsequent folders: 755
files within uploads: 644

htaccess file contains:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . index.php [L]
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Authorization} ^(.*)
RewriteRule ^(.*) - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%1]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http:/cmfmedia.org/web/wp-admin
RewriteRule ^(.*)wp-content/uploads/(.*) /index.php?attachment=$2&scoper_rewrite=1 [NC,L]

I have run a few tests on the files themselves:

1. They are located on the server, although they show up broken when linked on web pages, and display nothing but the url when accessed directly.
2. I downloaded the uploads folder to my computer and opened up the images just fine, they are not corrupted.
3. We’ve duplicated the uploads directory and renamed it. The renamed directory uploadx (as seen on CMF’s homepage) works fine.
4. All of the template images show up fine (as seen on CMF’s homepage)
5. This same error applies to PDFs and other documents that we’ve uploaded through WordPress
6. The files are showing up broken within the wordpress media upload feature in the admin.
7. Files that I uploaded now, still show up broken within wordpress’s admin, and on the live site. The file uploaded has been placed within the uploads folder as expected. Direct access just shows the file url and nothing else. View test. (right click, view image on empty space)

Settings > Miscellaneous > Store uploads in this folder
I previously had the full file path on the server:
/home/cmfmedia/web/wp-content/uploads

But due to some advice in other threads I switched it over to
wp-content/uploads

I’ve also tried moving it over to uploadx, but it didn’t seem to change anything. In fact, I’ve tried a few things including what’s below, and no change seemed to have been made.
web/wp-content/uploads

Also, another interesting development occurred: I was using thickbox to display some profiles, but now it is no longer working. Interestingly enough, I am using thickbox to display some gallery photos, and even when moving the images to uploadx, the images show up in the modals just fine.

In the status bar, I see the following:
https:///?TB_iframe=true&width=720&height=540

It appears this may be a permalinks issue?

Here are my permalink settings (custom structure):
/%year%/%monthnum%/%postname%/

Category base:
section

Again, all of this stuff was working before 5pm on October 30th. The last I had worked on it was publishing a new issue on the 29th. I did not adjust any of the settings, just uploaded files and created new posts.

As a side note, I have an old testing install of WordPress 2.7.1 on this same server (different domain) and the images are showing up just fine.

I have not upgraded to 2.8.5 yet, but I had a development testing blog set up that was having the same issue with the images, and the new install did not fix the problem. I am going to do some more testing on there because there is something funky going on with it and report my findings.

Some help in this issue would be great… as I am completely baffled on this issue.

My apologies on breaking this post up over several posts. I tried to post it all at once, but it kept removing my post as soon as I posted it.

On another side note, there was only 1 pdf (consequently, the first one I checked) that wasn’t working. For some reason that file was misplaced, but I put it up again and now it’s working. However, the image files are still not displaying, so this must be related directly to image files.

I talked with my host again, and he was much more helpful than the last guy I talked to. When my htaccess file was removed completely, none of my permalinks and stuff worked, but the images did.

I have a copy of the htaccess file on my computer that was working before Oct 30th, which I renamed and then downloaded the one that was on the website currently to see if they were different. They were identical.

But at least I know that there is something that is causing it not to work properly in the htaccess.

Ok, here’s my update. I commented out the following line in my htaccess and now it is working:

# RewriteRule ^(.*)wp-content/uploads/(.*) /index.php?attachment=$2&scoper_rewrite=1 [NC,L]

Still not sure why it suddenly stopped working.

Thickbox profile modals on the Trustees page is still not working, but I suspect it’s another rewrite issue.

hey, I am trying to figure out why my thickbox media window function is not working to display my product images. Thickbox suddenly stopped working for me.
https://micamiseta.com/tienda/usa-y-destinos-internacionales/

Should I look into the htaccess file also?
I think the thickbox function is part of the wp-ecommerce plugin I’m using.