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Google+, And Blogs Containing Picasa Hosted Photos

As Blogger blog owner interest in Google+ grows, we're seeing occasional reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, about problems involving photo hosting and Picasa. Some Blogger blog owners, who have previously uploaded images or photos in post editor, setup their Google+ accounts, and notice that their photos are disappearing.
I just setup Google+, and now all of my photos are gone from my blog!

When you setup a new Google+ account, you'll see a rather monolithic privacy warning about your Picasa hosted photos becoming publicly visible.

You have only two choices here.
  1. Don't join Google+.
  2. Take a major step into the unknown.



This lack of choice confuses some blog owners, who may make one of two mistakes, after they join Google+.
  1. Some blog owners will delete their photos from Google+, not realising that this also deletes them from Picasa.
  2. Other blog owners may choose to make their photos visible only to members of their Circles.
Both actions will cause problems.

Like many mistakes involving Blogger, there's good news, and there's bad news here. Blog owners who just deleted their Picasa accounts or hosted photos, thinking that this would only remove their photos from exposure in Google+, are probably out of luck. Like other mistakes involving Google / Picasa account deletion, this action is possibly not recoverable - though Google suggests that some photos, deleted under Google+, may be recoverable.

On the other hand, if you chose to make your photos visible only to Circle members, you can recover, by changing the setting just made. Make them visible to everybody - which is how most blog owners share photos, on their blogs. Do just that, and your blog should show everything again, just as nothing happened. Of course, clear browser cache, to update your personal view of your blog, as usual.

If you deleted your Picasa account, I'm truly sorry for you. Maybe eventually, Picasa mistakes will be recoverable. Right now, and judging from the anguish being heard, this does not appear to be a possibility. Your only choice appears to be to edit each post, one post at a time. For each post, remove each deleted photo, and upload a new copy of each photo, one by one.

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Comments

Adam said…
Chuck, this is a little alarming. Maybe you can clarify.

Pre Google+ (currently for me), the default setting for my blogger photos on Picasa was that anyone could see them provided they had a the url, but they would not show up in search engines or otherwise be revealed on the web.

Also, the Picasa web album these images are in is not public and cannot be found through Picasa web.

I'm not sure, but it sounds as though you are saying that this level of sharing and privacy is no longer available once one opts onto G+.

Is that right? Or does the "share with everyone" option you describe include keeping the photos off of the search engines? And keeping the web albums private?
Lorelei said…
So is Google+ inevitable? If it is, where do I go to set it up. As for me I don't care where my photos are visible since they are all from my Sims 2 stories. My pics ARE with Picasa, hundreds of them. If I understand you correctly, all I have to do should I set up this Google+ to what end?) I just have to make sure they are visible?
Margaret Duarte said…
This is a test if I can leave comments.Thanks.
Nitecruzr said…
Adam,

Note the second point in the warning.
* Your albums' visibility settings aren't changed, but people they're shared with can now share them with others.

The albums are still private.

If you decide to keep them private, you can apparently share them using Google+. If you do not share them, using Google+, nothing changes.
I made this mistake and now many of the pictures from my blog are gone. Unfortunately there is not sufficient notification on either the Google+ side or the Blogger side that these things are connected and changes made on one end will affect the other end.

I am upset at not having the option to not connect the Picasa account. I realize this must be the way that Google+ hosts images, but there should be another option, or separate albums that appear on Google+ only. I want to share photos through my blog, but I don't want to share them with everyone who may look at my Google+ account. Very frustrating.

Thank you for posting about this. I found no mention of anything like this on Blogger anywhere. (Except for a reply by a user that linked to this post)
PAUZAK said…
google. how things like these can be messed up?! sooooo stupid!! just like the whole "invitation needed" thing. absurd. instead of loving goole, I started to hate it.

I also had BIG problems with my blog wehn connected to G+. can't belive the billion worth companies do such terrible mistakes. I'm angry.
Nitecruzr said…
Thanks for your observations, PZ.

The failure of Google to design a well integrated product frustrates many of us - as does the failure of Blogger to write well functioning code.

Crappy product design is similar to crappy written code - it's a sign of lack of attention to detail. Similar to both deficiencies, we see people who fail to write coherent comments.

Improper use of capitalisation and punctuation, and vague phrasings, are other forms of lack of attention to detail.

Learn to write coherently, to be taken seriously. And use the Google+ "Send Feedback" wizard, to express your displeasure about the Google+ design snafus.
Maria Elena said…
Very enlightening stuff.

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