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Are there any missing images from Imgur, and especially images that were uploaded using the editor (to the Stack Exchange pro account)? When did those images go missing?

For at least the past 20 hours, https://i.stack.imgur.com/zOc0U.jpg as used in a question on Meta Stack Overflow shows a generated image claiming "The image you are requesting does not exist or is no longer available". Like:

GET /zOc0U.jpg HTTP/1.1
Host: i.imgur.com

HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently
Content-Type: image/png 
Content-Length: 2609
Expires: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:50:29 GMT  
Cache-Control: max-age=31536000

The author meanwhile has indicated he used the upload feature from the editor.

Note that after refreshing a page, Safari might not show the generated image either, eventually timing out. A copy of the generated image, just for future reference if this is ever fixed:

Copy of the generated image

(My Safari on a Mac times out after a refresh. That could be caused by the missing Location in the HTTP 301 Moved Permanently; using Chrome or Firefox always seems to get me the generated image. I am not sure if the missing Location is an Imgur feature, but that's not the issue here. I have not tested the refresh with Internet Explorer.)

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  • Are you sure this image wasn't uploaded to imgur manually? I do this myself when I use an external editor to write a post.
    – moinudin
    Jan 16, 2011 at 12:01
  • @marcog, I am not sure, but the author claims so in the comments of the question. And given the earlier comments about the JPG format, I guess it's indeed true.
    – Arjan
    Jan 16, 2011 at 12:06
  • And, @marcog, despite the current problems: for important images please consider using the Stack Exchange account? Link rot and image rot are not too nice...
    – Arjan
    Jan 16, 2011 at 12:23
  • I wasn't aware of the implications, so for sure I will do so in future. I don't suppose there's any way to use the SE account without going through the built-in upload feature? I also wonder if it would be a worthwhile feature to automatically replace linked images with self-uploaded images (I hope that makes sense)?
    – moinudin
    Jan 16, 2011 at 12:41
  • As for using the SE account, @marcog: I don't know, but I've always been wondered a bit about imgur not using the Referer headers when images are requested by a browser. That is, of course, nice for folks who use the data dump, but would (might) make it an easy target for abuse... I don't know if there's any feature request for automatic conversion yet (there is some request for Can we have some tools to handle link rot? but that is not about the time an new/edited post is submitted).
    – Arjan
    Jan 16, 2011 at 12:51
  • NOTE: when still missing images, see Images manually uploaded to Imgur are not displaying?
    – Arjan
    Jul 23, 2011 at 10:45

1 Answer 1

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This is Alan from Imgur. I just wanted to let everyone know that the issue has been resolved and all of the missing images should be working again. Please let me know if anyone runs into any more issues with Imgur; I'd be happy to help.

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  • And as an aside: note the remark on the missing Location in the 301 Moved. If you want Safari (on a Mac) to show the generated message after a page refresh too, then I assume you might need such Location — even though this might also be a bug in Safari; I don't know the specs.
    – Arjan
    Jan 16, 2011 at 20:06
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    Mental note: [time to talk to the boss' boss about throwing these guys some business]. Jan 16, 2011 at 23:05
  • @Arjan: yeah, sorry, I'd redraw it nicer, but the feature-request itself seems flawed anyway... Jan 17, 2011 at 8:19
  • @Hans Many years ago we found one of our carriers playing a game with our SLA window: they dropped some links intentionally just to brag about how quick they recover from failure :D. Not this case I bet, but I learned a lesson: "better than fast recoveries are the unneeded ones" Jan 18, 2011 at 2:14
  • @Alan, my current ISP is blocking imgur images. Are you guys aware of that?
    – Geoffrey
    Feb 14, 2011 at 6:59
  • 2
    @Alan It appears to be happening again.
    – user154510
    Jun 13, 2011 at 15:11
  • @Alan, there are two instances for this question alone.
    – rcollyer
    Jun 13, 2011 at 15:52
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    @Alan, The third pic here is missing. Jun 16, 2011 at 3:29
  • @Alan: You should be aware that the third picture in this question is missing.
    – casperOne
    Nov 4, 2011 at 14:31
  • @Alan , right now, the following links don't work: i.stack.imgur.com/ndf3W.png i.stack.imgur.com/zX4Ig.png (they are used here stackoverflow.com/a/25641247/3885376 ) May 16, 2016 at 16:41
  • i.imgur.com/nm1MbxH.gif May 22, 2016 at 3:30
  • Hello, is the problem back? I cannot display the images on this link: blender.stackexchange.com/questions/72662/… May 5, 2017 at 9:14
  • @ Alan - if you're still at the same job all these years later, could you have a look at meta.stackexchange.com/q/314028/276027
    – Tetsujin
    Dec 18, 2018 at 13:59

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