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In the old image uploader (which opened as dialog) there used to be "Upload from web/URL" option. Now in the new uploader embedded inside the editor, such option does not exist:

Can this please be added again? It's very useful when I prefer to not download the picture to my local device first.

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15
  • Joe Friend added status-completed to meta.stackexchange.com/questions/175123 about 10 minutes bofore this post. Perhaps the changes there messed things up a bit.
    – user392547
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 15:23
  • @Chair not relevant, the bug here isn't about pasting images, but URL as plain text. Oh, yes there was major change of the uploader, which naturally cause lots of new bugs.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 15:25
  • Yeah, but it seems possible that the changes made to enable the feature requested in that post messed with the functionality and now you can't post images. I've edited my old comment to make it clearer.
    – user392547
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 15:26
  • I can still post images in two ways: direct upload and pasting from clipboard, just not by URL as it used to be.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 15:31
  • 1
    Shadow Wizard, I genuinely appreciate how hard the team is working on this. It's a huge positive change, but can't happen without problems. Is there any way you can feature this, or some other post that shows the ctrl-v work around, on every SE site? I come mostly from Gardening:SE, and we ask for pictures with virtually every question. I got stuck today, and am fortunate to have found this. If we could understand how to help people through this transition, it would be an enormous help! Thanks for your consideration!
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 23:45
  • @Sue cheers, though I did not take part making this change, I am just an ordinary user like you that just noticed this bug first. Anyhow this will hopefully get fixed shortly and then we will be able to paste the URL inside the image uploader. See Stijn's answer for some details.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 1, 2018 at 0:51
  • 1
    I have just hit on this problem. I don't know about you, but whenever I click "add picture" my computer immediately jumps into action and shows me my computer files, I cannot close the window and proceed to paste the image because that means clicking "add picture" which makes the window pop up again. Wash, lather, and rinse ad infinitum. This makes pasting or copying images from the Internet very very awkward and very very very annoying. The easiest solution (for me) is to save the image on the hard disk and proceed from there. It was so simple to use before.
    – Mari-Lou A Слава Україні
    Commented Nov 6, 2018 at 9:06
  • @Mari-LouA what you describe is a bug, it doesn't happen to me (clicking the image icon in editor does not auto trigger the upload file dialog). What browser do you have? (Version and OS too.)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 6, 2018 at 9:08
  • @Mari-LouA to be clear, how exactly you upload? Full steps and details, maybe you do something wrong. (As it sounds really weird that file upload will just auto jump)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 6, 2018 at 9:11
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    @Mari-LouA ohh... just paste the URL (you can't type) after clicking the image icon in editor, without clicking anything else. It will auto magically show a textbox with the URL you pasted, and allow you to upload that image. Totally against any common sense, terrible UX, but it works.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 6, 2018 at 9:21
  • OMG, I did it. Thank you!!!! But this is so counterintuitve for "normal" people. I have to click paste w/o clicking on the box that tells me to "Drag and drop or click here to upload an image (max 2 MB)". And it does not work if I try to use the link button. How the f*k are new users suppose to discover this function? Yes, yes to the bit about *Totally against any common sense, terrible UX, But no to "it works" b/c just look at how much time I had to spend doing it.
    – Mari-Lou A Слава Україні
    Commented Nov 6, 2018 at 9:27
  • @Mari-LouA can't agree more. Feel free to downvote Joe's answer and upvote the last comment there about bad UX. :)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 6, 2018 at 9:28
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    @ShadowWizard I've updated my answer. We will add back in an explicit entry point for pasting in a URL. We will also still support the implicit paste action.
    – Joe Friend StaffMod
    Commented Nov 9, 2018 at 18:47
  • @JoeFriend thanks. I appreciate reconsidering a design choice and changing it due to feedback.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 9, 2018 at 18:52
  • Hello! Now the flaw has been fixed (hooray!), it might be a good idea to update the following post: How to upload an image to a post? P.S. I deleted some old comments of mine.
    – Mari-Lou A Слава Україні
    Commented Dec 2, 2018 at 19:16

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
10

We added back an explicit entry point for this and you can paste an image link when the uploader UX is showing.

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0
18

It's still possible, but it's not easy to discover. After clicking the image upload button, you can paste an URL with Ctrl+V:

screenshot

It then proceeds with uploading to imgur as before.

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10
  • 1
    I tried that actually and nothing happened when pasting the URL.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 15:21
  • 2
    Huh, which browser? I'm using Firefox 63.
    – Stijn
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 15:22
  • Chrome 69. Tried again now just to be sure. Still nothing when pasting URL.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 15:24
  • 3
    Confirmed that it doesn't work in Chrome.
    – Stijn
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 15:27
  • 7
    Heh, so... This is a bit odd, but in Chrome you can make this work: click any whitespace in the uploader pane, then paste.
    – Shog9
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 15:44
  • @Shog9 seems like a focus issue.
    – Script47
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 15:50
  • Chrome 70. Mac. Clicking the white space etc. doesn't work for me. Hitting tab (to focus the drag & drop area) then Cmd+V does work however.
    – Turnip
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 16:26
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    Hi Stijn, thanks so much for showing us this!! I got stuck on my most common site today, Gardening:SE, and was fortunate to find it! We ask for pictures there on almost every question. I've asked Shadow Wizard if this post, or a related one with this work-around, could be featured on all the SE sites. I'm not sure that's possible with the work all of you are doing, but I'd really appreciate it! Thanks for everything!
    – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL
    Commented Oct 31, 2018 at 23:52
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    I suppose allowing typing is out of vogue now :(
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Commented Nov 1, 2018 at 17:47
  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit who types URL these days?! We are the copy&paste generation! ;)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Nov 6, 2018 at 9:15
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As a work around until/if this is fixed, we can Copy&Paste the image instead of pasting its URL, at least in some browsers. For example, here is a guide for Chrome browser:

  1. Right click the image in the browser and click "Copy image":

  2. Without clicking the image upload icon, paste (CTRL+V) while inside the editor.

Enjoy the image. :)

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