I had to get paid help on this, here is the solution:
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OK, it’s as I thought – the plugin that aMember works with to control image content was blocking all images, not just those for private posts.
I installed a new plugin, called Relocate Upload (https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/relocate-upload/) that allows you to specify a different folder for public files. This new folder is called uploads-public.
When you upload files to this new directory, they can be seen by any user – the permissions system doesn’t know about the folder. Here’s an example public post with an image (you’ll want to delete the image now): https://www.roenreport.com/2009/05/is-the-recession-over/
So, to remedy the situation with your current posts:
1. Go to each public post you have images in, and delete the image
2. Go into the media manager and move the public files from the uploads folder to the uploads-public folder. In the media manager, click on the title of the image, then at the bottom of the page, select “public files” in the drop-down next to the “Folder” label. This will move the file for you.
3. Go back to your public posts and re-insert the image.
If you ever want to have images appear both in public and private posts, you’ll have to create a duplicate image with a different name and upload it into both the public and private directories.
