Google photos error

1

Hi, I followed the instructions on here make a tile following, uploading the image to google photos and copying the address into the box.

All worked ok, but after a day or so the box is blank and nothing loads…

pic attached.

any ideas why?

GP

2

What instructions are you talking? This would help to diagnose the issue.

3

Hi Tom,

I’m also not exactly sure which instructions you’re referring to, but here’s a few pointers to troubleshoot this:

  • Test the URL in your browser. If it loads fine (unlikely), then there might be a problem with SharpTools, and you should post here for help. But probably it won’t load, which tells you that the URL you got before is no longer valid.
  • Assuming it’s the latter, I’d open your Google Photos account, find the image you’re trying to use, and check its URL. I’m guessing the URL has changed. I am not sure if Google Photos provides static URLs but I assumed they would not. If not, then the link you find today may not work tomorrow.
  • If that is true, then you could setup an account at a different image-sharing service that keeps static URLs, such as Imgur, which offers free accounts. From Imgur you can get a URL directly to your image which won’t change. That is the solution I am using for my dashboard images.
1 Like
5

I suspect it could be this post:

I’ve updated that post with a warning for the Google Photos approach. From my testing, it seems like you need to be logged in to your Google Account in whatever browser you display your dashboard on otherwise the image URL is only valid for an hour.

6

Yeh they were the instructions I followed.

one step I did miss was creating the link first.

Since Ive done this its been really stable

regards