Missing graphics for some recipients in Outlook

[CellucomGroup]

Is anyone else all of a sudden not seeing graphics in CC sent emails?  Last Thursday we had 3 (maybe more) employees all using different OS and outlooks just stop being able to see the graphics of our company emails from CC.  We've googled and looked at security settings and enabled features, etc.  Can't seem to figure out why suddenly some stopped being able to view graphics. 

Anyone else experiencing this?

Has CC changed some settings?

Any advice on what to look for?

help!  I have no idea if any of my 3000+ customers are also experiencing this from our emails.

:)Audrey

[CellucomGroup]

Hello all. We understand this issue has been ongoing for a period of time and we apologize that we have not provided a timely update. As previously mentioned, there was a change made to our SSL certificate configuration back in June that we believe had solved the issue with missing images in Outlook and Mac Mail. After further research, it appears that the issue goes beyond our initial fix. We assure you we have been looking into the reasoning why this keeps happening to our customers and your contacts.

We'd like to gather some specific information to see if we can narrow it down to some specific programs or settings. This brings us to our next step in fully tackling the issue. In order for us to keep track of these items and escalate them to the appropriate team to further research, we need some help from you.

Please email us at communitysupport(at)constantcontact(dot)com with the subject line "Outlook/Mac Mail Image Issue Information" and include as much of the following information as you can (the more the better):

• Your username
• The names of some affected email campaigns, as listed on the Campaigns tab
• Email client/program type and version. Here's how to find the version of your affected email client:
  • 2003, 2007: Help > About Microsoft Outlook
  • 2010: File > Help
  • 2013, 2016, 2019, 365: File > Office Account
  • If using Outlook webmail, please include the browser type and version. Most browsers list their version under Help > About.
  • Mac Mail: Mail > About Mail

• What is the exact behavior of the images? Red X, "Linked image can't be displayed" message, "Right-click here to download pictures" message, etc?
• Rough timeline of events, if known. Did it work previously? If so, when did the problem start? Does it seem to be all campaigns or just specific ones? If you have an email that used to successfully display images, does another test or resend still look good, or is it also affected now
• Screen shot of the issue in the email client
• If possible, save the email as a file and attach it to the email. 
  • In Outlook Desktop, open the email so that it's in a separate window. Next, click File > Save As. > Outlook Message Format - Unicode (*.msg). HTML is also fine.
  • In Mac Mail, open the email and select Choose File > Save As and select Raw Message Source as the format (.eml)

Once we receive the information attached, we will forward it to a team that will gather all of the information and further address the issue.

We understand that this is a lot to ask of you, especially with the issue persisting for a while. We again apologize for the lack of an update on our end.

We are locking this thread for the time being while we gather information. We don't want this action to be perceived as us ignoring the issue but instead allowing us to focus and put our resources towards a solution. We will check in and provide updates as we find out more.

[BethH43106]

This thread is incredibly informative, but one thing we noticed was that when we changed all the URLs the photo quality was greatly diminished. Is there a way to prevent or improve this in our future contacts?

Additionally, do you think there will be a solution to this problem any time soon?

[RFTMarketing]

I am also experiencing the same greatly diminished picture quality when I switch from https to http on the images. 

[Siena10525]

Hi Mary,

Is your team aware of any other domains experiencing this issue besides Outlook? I have a contact with a cox.net email address and they informed me that they have been experiencing this for a few weeks now. At first, I thought they just needed to right-click and download the photos, but they sent me a photo with the same error message described above. I have the "workaround" instructions and am curious to see if this fixes their issue. 

It also might be worth mentioning that I used the "workaround" on an email that went out a few minutes ago. I have an Outlook email address and did not notice any change in the photo quality when I received the email. I was also not experiencing the above issue in my Outlook.

[RFTMarketing]

Any update on this issue? I'm surprised the number of people who have found and commented on this thread as still having the issue. I posted 5 weeks ago.

[MeritageVocalArts]

I don't use outlook and I'm having the same issue. No pictures.

[IconKoolTrends]

We just sent out a CC eblast consisting mostly of an image - which does not show up in Windows recipients' email. The test emails - sent to a Mac user & Mac recipients showed up fine, but not for Windows people.

I saw lots of other peoples' complaints about the very same problem  - dated about a month ago. The upshot of those complaints is that it is a problem on CC's end.  Why is this still an issue a month later?? Is there something we can do on our end, or is CC still working on it? 

Please let us know if you have any information about this issue. Thanks!

[Mary_S]

@IconKoolTrends 
I apologize your images are not being seen by all of your recipients of your campaigns. Let me gather a bit more specific information so that we can check to see if there is anything we offer to improve the Windows users experience.
* Do you happen to know what email client the Windows users are  using? (For example Outlook 2010)

* What is the name of a campaign or campaigns where you have noted the missing images?

If you could email communitysupport(at)constantcontact(dot)com with the information requested, we will investigate further.

[roemerind]

Hi Mary, 

I am also experiencing this issue with my customers using Outlook 2013 on Windows 7. It also turns out that my team mates are not able to download images as they are using Outlook 2013 on Windows 7. I'm using Windows 10 with the same Outlook version (2013) and the images display just fine. Have they found a fix for this yet? I am frustrated as this will impede our marketing efforts for our clients who are using Windows 7. I have no idea how to track how many of my 5000+ recipients are using Outlook 2013, but I would imagine that our emails are just being deleted if the images do not show. Let us know if and when this issue will be resolved. 

[RFTMarketing]

Any update on this issue?

The 2 Microsoft links provided by Kyle_R did not apply or help resolve for my organization. In both cases the settings called out were not turned on.

I did try the the http vs. https image links. The images did come through, but this is not a solution and defeats the purpose of an easy to use tool. The image quality dramatically drops when using this http link method. 2 screenshots of the before (https) and after (http) are provided.

Before with https linkAFTER with http (S removed)

[Anusara]

when you get the link for the URL -- sometimes -- you have to delete the word "thumbnail"  -- in the URL and then "preview the image" --- 

i found this solution on my own to this ongoing issue that is highly disappointing. 

[user989115]

Big huge unexpected problem for an email that just went out to 107K subscribers.

Ultra disappointing Constant contact for not fixing this since it has been reported in March. 

I have outlook 365 as do many customers we rely on for this pre-memorial-day email.  The trust center settings in outlook are set to NOT block images. All other emails via competing businesses are showing images just fine.

What are the other email list service providers doing that Constant Contact is NOT? This could easily be an outlook 365 bug BUT its not an issue for the competing business email campaigns so I am counting on CC to resolve

[InsMarketing2237]

I have having issues with images not appearing in email & not allowing me the opportunity to view/unblock. Has anyone has a similar issue?

Using Outlook 

[DebbieC227]

Images Not Appearing in an Email is an issue that has been going on for about 3 months - I have called, I have contacted online support, and nothing has been fixed. They state "Our Network team is aware of this issue and are determining the root cause of the issue. We are looking into what we can do from our end to implement a fix. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. This would appear to be an issue on our end.  It affects Outlook clients in all operating systems." 

I have a lot of questions about how an email marketing service pushes changes to production that break emails on all versions of Outlook, and I have even more about how they can be in production for three months with no timeline for a resolution.  I'm also interested in knowing why status.constantcontact.com only reflects issues beginning on 5/20 when the issue was reported here on 3/2.  But mostly, I just want to know when this issue will be resolved, so I can make important decisions regarding my business.

Talk to your developers and get us an answer.

[user989115]

Same issue here, devastating to open rate (and of course the resulting click through rate).  Coming out of a pandemic, not acceptable.  Very LARGE expensive number of subscribers here, so planning to switch providers if this isnt resolved this week.

The workaround that support offered was hillarious: it allowed images to show up, IF a recipient has customized their outlook settings to go for http hosted images and not https.  Not suprisingly, our resend to non openers (after going through the painful process of editing the text links in each of the images in the email, which we didnt budget time for), got a very low open rate & click through rate because an even larger number of folks did not see the images.

Interestingly, we were also not able to edit the icons for social media that appear at the bottom. Those are like widgets outside of our control (although if we'd known, we'd have added our own images).

The issue appears to be that the domain hosting the images is on some blacklists, as per some research.  Even norton has the image-hosting-domain of CC flagged.

Its too easy to change domains as the first step toward resolving, and would probably work - takes no troubleshooting.  Troubleshooting would be understandably tough.

Would like to know other folks' recommendations for alternatives to Constant Contact.  is great, but way to expensive when you have above 100K subs on the list.   We switched from to Constant contact for better open rates, and for a reputation of constant contact to have less emails showing in the gmail promotions tab. The latter did not pan out, but its understandably based on email content (theoretically).   We did not opt for one other up and coming email service provider that I can't recall the name of, because they can't do DKIM records for improved delivery rates.

[LisaL4499]

I think you are being a vampire with your posts about the solution being CC users switching to Active Campaign. It is not a good look for Active Campaign to be behaving in this "vampirish" way. 

[Anusara]

I am so frustrated with this on going issue. It's been months and no resolution. It's actually getting more frustrating.
- social media icons (that we can pre-load from CC's supposedly easy features) don't load
- and now the "work around" doesn't work (removing the "s" in https in the image URL + sometimes the word "thumbnail)

HIGHLY frustrated. EXTREMELY disappointed and ready to leave CC and tell all of clients that use CC to leave as well. 

What's the update CC tech team? Is this even a PRIORITY to resolve?

[LisaL4499]

I have been on the phone with CC since this issue is ongoing for the past (2) months.

The work around (removing the "s" from the image URL) no longer works. 

I asked about a timeline for a solution. I was told an engineer would contact me within 4 days. 

Thoroughly DISAPPOINTED. I pay a lot of money every month for a service that is not working efficiently -- and now not working. 

CC invests in client education -- and has told us how important images are in emails. 

And, here we are. A continuing image delivery issue with no timeline for resolution. 

CC is this a HUGE issue. Clients will begin leaving in droves. 

What is your response?

[user989115]

We switched from to Constant Contact 2 years back after research in delivery rates and other things.  Found Constant Contact to be a good one, so went there for a high price (altho lower than ).   Because of the image problem & finding out that CC looks at as a microsoft issue (how long would THAT take to fix lol), we did new research based on lots of reviews, deliverability rates estimates per provider, etc.  Looked at new ones plus old ones, & settled on .  Prices are lower for large lists & it seems to have lots of the features that some folks like, beyond just emailing contacts. 

We will not cancel Constant Contact until we see how it goes after sending out our first email.  If we need to go back to Constant Contact though we'll just send out text-only emails for the time being.  

[InsMarketing2237]

Your email only states COnstant Contact, who did you use prior?

[SamuelM189]

We have been using Constant Contact for years.  It has only been since the  updated the system that our challenges with graphics began.  They come across fine on my  home computer but not the computer I do my work on at the office.  When I click on the view in HTML they seem to work.

[SamuelM189]

I can see that this is not a priority for Constant Contact as it is the middle of June and still no fix on this.  It started when I was forced to use the new templates.

Sam

[Kyle_R]

Hello everyone,

Here is an update on the current status of the issue. We were able to get a change made to our SSL certificate configuration that is a possible fix. Our Network and product teams are closely monitoring the issue to confirm before we say this is officially resolved.

Has anyone noticed any improvement with their images loading in Outlook?

[InsMarketing2237]

I just ran a test email to check & no, the issue is not resolved. Is there something we need to do on our end to update the certificate or reload constant contact now that this change was made???

[Kyle_R]

Thanks for the follow up @InsMarketing2237 . There shouldn't be anything you need to do on our end. If you don't mind sharing, what version of Outlook are you using? Did your test email first arrive in your junk folder or have a banner at the top that it didn't come from a Safe Sender by chance? 

Looks like one nay and one yay so far, so just collecting some extra info that might help narrow things down. 

[HeatherO61]

We are using Microsoft Office 2013 and it did not come to spam, went to inbox. Still cannot open the pictures. If I change the URL to not include the "s" it makes the graphic blurry and amateur.