If you’ve recently upgraded your WordPress platform blog from 2.8.x to 2.9 you might (and most likely) be experiencing issues and bugs with your website or blog platform. Please note that this post is only treating the Facebook Thumbnail bug.
Let’s begin with a tip for the future,
- Don’t automatically upgrade whenever a new version is available.
Sometimes upgrading may result in plugins that are a bit behind, and deactivate them, cause errors along the site and might even mess up your whole site platform. As far as I know, blippr does not corporate with FCG in WP 2.9.
One of my major problems with upgrading to WordPress 2.9 was the sharing ability, and the thumbnailing of each shared post to Facebook. This resulted in a discussion board under the topic of “BLOG THUMBNAILS NOT SHOWING!” which is why I originally created this blog post, to help you figure this issue out.
If what’s stated in the picture below, happening to you this is the post for you:
Worry not guys, the issue will be solved within a few minutes. Here is the 5 steps you will need to follow to restore your blog from WordPress 2.9 to 2.8 (or downgrade WordPress version) in order to have those thumbnails appear on Facebook Shares / Digg submissions / StumbleUpon submissions – that is until WordPress resolves the WP 2.9 issues.
Download WordPress 2.8
Back up your database MySQL using phpMyAdmin – if this is Chinese to you don’t hesitate to ask me “Hey, Daniel, how the hell do I back up my database?” because I will help you! (Can give detailed support for any WordPress blog hosted on GoDaddy) but if you want quick instructions without screenshots just sign in to your GoDaddy account, click on Hosting>Manage Account>Databases(tab)>MySQL> Under “action” click on that little pencil and then hit “Backup” (The backup process may take up to 2 hours. The file will be available at the time in the folder listed below.)
Now that you’ve done both basics it’s time to open up your FTP client I use Cyberduck it is one of my favorite Mac FTP clients
Follow these careful steps
>Select the files in the WordPress 2.8 folder that you downloaded earlier, and excluding (do not copy) the wp-content and wp-config (if it’s in the folder, most likely it is not but if you’ve got wp-config-sample unselect that one as well) if you don’t follow these steps this will result with you losing your plugins, themes, so remember, don’t copy wp-config, wp-content, wp-config-sample. Once you’ve got that under control – paste them into your FTP root. Note that when you drag those files a message will pop up and will have you overwrite your WordPress 2.9 files, click accept, don’t be afraid. Now that it’s really happening, go make yourself a cup of coffee and know that in just a few minutes your issue will be resolved.
Note: this might take anywhere between 3 to 9 minutes.
If you are running Meebo Bar and still experiencing issues with “Share this page” or “Drag to Share” ability you will have to follow different steps which is, contacting me.
If your website is running any e-mail marketing campaigns consider to switch to MailChimp, free, and much better then any other e-mail marketing service, awesome templates, fonts, and easy service.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I followed your instructions to a ‘T’. Now my site is inoperable, can’t even log in because this procedure somehow doesn’t agree with my theme functions. Unfortunately, this process is not as simple as it should be. FYI…
@Mike: Hi Mike, I’m terribly sorry you have had trouble with downgrading your WordPress blog. Are you still experiencing problems? Please feel free to contact me via e-mail and I will help you step by step, or even help you downgrade your WordPress by myself.
I did this process to fix the facebook share problem, but nothing changed at all.
Hi Alan, how are you mate? I’m sorry to hear you are having issues with your Facebook Share. Could you please send me your URL so I can examine the site for you? :)
All the best, Daniel
http://www.wickedwoodart.com
I appreciate you trying to help.
Hey Alan, thanks for your response. I’m wondering why your site is not cached by Google, do you know? I did this quick search in Google and it seems like it’s not acknowledging the website at all. Have you disabled visibility?
See test: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&q=site%3Awww.wickedwoodart.com&aq=f&aqi=&oq=
No. That’s another issue that I’m not too happy about. I paid for the search engine submission and it doesn’t seem to have happened. I am trying to do things currently to improve my SEO, but I don’t know how to set the submission manually. I totally forgot about this issue, but since you have brought it up, I am going to go raise some hell again with my host site.
Hey Alan, you don’t need to spend money for SEO when you can do these things by yourself. When your site does not appear in Search Engines that’s a bad sign. Perhaps something went wrong with either the hosting company, or your site might have been penalized. I do recommend taking a deeper look into that, and if you ever need SEO consultation I’m more then willing to help an old WordPress fella :)
Good luck with all!
/ Daniel
no, it’s a problem with the hosting company. It never got submitted somehow. It has never been up there. I submitted a problem ticket for it (I paid for the “submit to all search engines” option because I’m not too html savvy.) I really do appreciate your assistance, and for reminding me about this problem.
Hey Alan, this doesn’t sound too good. Who are you hosting your website with? Search engines should find your site from the moment it is brought online and you shouldn’t pay for submission to search engines anymore. I remember bringing this issue up just about a year ago with a few SEO heads back in London and one said it the best
“I used to submit to search engines when I was 18″ he is 30 now. They don’t do it anymore!! It doesn’t really work, the Search Engine finds you!
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you need any help. I recommend switching to another Host mate! GoDaddy !
justhost. I used to use GoDaddy and I had real problems with them (not with this particular domain, but I wasn’t happy with them). I chose justhost because the price was great and they give you unlimited bandwidth. They now know about the problem and I am going to make sure they fix it. I paid for the service because I don’t know how to do this kind of thing myself. I’m learning as I go and frankly, was surprised I didn’t cause my site to crash when following your instructions above.
Hey Alan, thanks for writing again :) really don’t be shy to ask for any SEO / SEM tips. You can send me an e-mail via the Contact tab and I’ll reply to you.
I do recommend switching back to GoDaddy host as they really have been improving their services over the past year also, their services of hosting are outstanding. It seems like your site might have an issue beyond the search engine listing. – As I said before you don’t need to list yourself in search engines anymore – this happens automatically from the moment you purchase a domain and host it. There might be a penalization going on which causes the site to pretty much be in “ghost mode”.
I can help you optimize the site for free in a few really quick ways if you would like! Just e-mail me :)
All the best, Daniel
Hi Ktsixit, this problem seems to be with Facebook directly and not with any host problem anymore.
is it work for new themes? for example F8 Lite?
Thanks