images got all messed up!

Hi eve2016.

Sorry you’re experiencing issues with our plugin.

The problem appears to have been caused by the WPML plugin corrupting the metadata our plugin stores about compressed images. The result is that Zara 4 cannot distinguish between which images have already been compressed. This is why the images that have already been compressed have been re-presented, and compressed again resulting in the low quality images.

By default Zara 4 keeps a back up copy of images before they are compressed (unless you have disabled this function). You can restore your images from the WordPress Media library in table view. Click ‘restore original’ for each of the affected images. Hopefully this will allow you to recover your original images.

We will of course credit any quota lost as a result of this compatibility issue and our developers are looking for a fix to stop this issue happening again in the future.

Let us know how you get on and we’ll get back to you as soon as we have a fix.

Friendly regards,
Anita.

Hi Anita,

Thanks a lot for your quick reply, and the table view tip. Unfortunately the restored images look the same bad. Maybe they’ve been compressed more often than twice. But I found I have a pretty recent backup with most of the images in their previous state. So that saves a lot of work.
If you need any info from my side that could be of any help, please let me know.

Have a great weekend and a happy new year!

Erik

Hi Erik,

Just to keep you updated, we are working on a significant upgrade to our plugin to stop this event happening again…which is taking longer than expected.

We will continue with this and get back to again when it is fully functional; please bear with us.

In the meantime, can you please send us your email address or API client ID so we can credit your account. Please email this to us at [email protected]

Friendly regards,
Anita

Hi Anita,

Great you are working on this !!

I asked the support already to stop the monthly payment, I don’t need a refund.

Just wondering about the fix you’re working on. If I would update the plugin and activate it again, will it recognize the currently compressed images, or only work good with newly added images?

Hi Erik,

After a major re-build, we have just launched a new version of the Zara 4 plug-in; version 1.2.1

We hope this will resolve the issues you have outlined previously.
Can we get you to make sure you have a back-up of your WordPress website, before you upgrade.

The new features offer the opportunity to exclude any pictures you do not wish to compress by accessing the WordPress media table view; there is now a drop-down option next to the ‘compress’ button for each image.

Images compressed from here on, cannot be re-compressed (causing the original poor quality issue you reported). This unfortunately does not apply to ‘legacy’ photos; which you will need to exclude manually at this time to prevent double compression.

Feed back is of course very much welcomed. Let us know how you get on and whether this has resolved your enquiry.

Friendly regards,

Anita

Thanks, I really appreciate your efforts, and would love to try out!

Unfortunately after updating and activating the plugin, the whole site went down with a 500 internal server error.

PHP Fatal error: Cannot use Zara4\API\Communication\Util as Util because the name is already in use in /home/mcnvorg/public_html/wp-content/plugins/zara-4/lib/WordPress/Zara4.php on line 4

Kind regards, Erik

Hi Erik,
Deepest apologies. The problem appears to be different plugins conflicting with each other.
Are you able to restore your site?
Working n it now…..any more feedback is welcomed.
Friendly regards,
Lisa

Yes, seems to be the biggest WP issue, conflicting plugins. Makes it a tricky business!

Was no problem to restore the site, took the plugin out by ftp

Good luck, looking forward to be a happy Zara user again ??

• This reply was modified 7 years, 10 months ago by eve2016.

Hi Erik,

We have created a version for you to try; which hopefully sorts the problem out.

https://downloads.www.ads-software.com/plugin/zara-4.1.2.3.zip

PLEASE make sure you have a backup of your site before you install this version.

You are being a really good sport acting as our ‘crash-test’ site. This is of fantastic help as conflict between multiple plugins appears to a problem generally.

Let us know how you get on.

Friendly regards,
Anita

Hi Anita,

Actually the site that crashed is not really suitable as crash-test site (I just finished it for an organization that is actively showing it around now :)), so tonight I’ll get a copy running to test your latest version.

Unfortunately I have to leave now and can only do some testing in about 6 hours.

I let you know how things go!

Erik

Looks great for now, no crashes, no errors.

I’ll install it on the production site, exclude 250 images from compression, and test it for some time.

Thanks !

Erik

Hi Erik,
Hopefully, your help has identified a problem which will save other users the same fate.

Heart felt thanks for your patience and understanding, the new version is now available for all to use.

Please do not hesitate to come back if you need further assistance / find any more issues.

As a token of our gratitude, your account has been credited 5GB free data to be used at your convenience (no expiry date)

Friendly regards,
Anita

Hi again!

I finally installed the latest Zara – but when I exclude images from bulk compression, this doesn’t take effect. When I return to the library page they are back in ‘included’ state, and the number of images that will be compressed with a click on the button, stays on 245.

Erik

Hi Erik,

Its sounds like the plugin is not recording which images should be excluded properly for some reason.

Can I get you to double check you have version 1.2.5 installed (released earlier today) https://downloads.www.ads-software.com/plugin/zara-4.1.2.5.zip

The last link was for v1.2.3 and we have made some improvements to the exclude from bulk feature since then.

If you’re definitely using v1.2.5 would it be possible for you to email a copy of your website’s error log to [email protected] so we can try and find what’s going wrong?

Friendly regards,
Anita

yes it was the v1.2.3, the 1.2.5 solved the issue!

Thanks, Erik