This site is built or published (I’m not sure which) using WordPress. Recently I’ve started to host images on Smugmug. As well as providing me with another copy for backup it will be quicker and easier to get photographs on the site as I can upload directly from Lightroom.
While playing around to learn how my new workflow will actually function I decided to embed a gallery on my Introduction page. I didn’t expect any problems as I’ve embedded galleries in WordPress before, although not with Smugmug.
I got it up and running with very little trouble and left it to go in search of my image for the day (a topic for a future post).
Later I brought the site up on my iPad and no gallery. I checked the computer and it was working as it should. iPad again and still no gallery. I checked it on an Android tablet I have and again no gallery. It was late so I left it for the day.
Next morning the gallery was still showing on my computer, using Chrome. I tried Microsoft Edge but no gallery.
Not knowing if the problem was with Smugmug, my computer, or some issue with browsers but suspecting it may well be down to me, and completely at a loss, I stepped back. I’ve been here before. You don’t understand why something doesn’t work but continue to tinker in the hope you’ll find a solution by trial and error. Often you quickly find yourself in deep water and discover that you’ve created problems more difficult to fix than the situation you originally faced. I wimped out, I emailed Smugmug help.
Praise where praise is due. Within 30 minutes I had a response, an answer. The problem, as I suspected and everyone reading this will know, was me.
While working on the galleries I had kept them all private. I had copied (Smugmug talks about collecting) the images I wanted to display to another gallery, made this public and embedded it in the page. What I hadn’t even thought of was the images, in their original galleries, were still private. I made the various galleries public and success, gallery displaying. It had worked correctly on my computer because I was logged in on another browser window.
I’m happy to have got it working but I’ve been left with the vaguely uneasy feeling that a few years ago I would’ve seen where the problem lay fairly quickly and not had to contact the Help Desk. On a more positive note I realise as I get older I’m prepared to ask for help sooner.
Anyway crisis over.
You will see gradual changes in the site as I move some images from WordPress over to Smugmug. Hopefully there will not be too many problems.