Media Hotlinking / Prohibited symbol

  • Resolved hebhansen

    (@hebhansen)


    2 weeks, 5 days ago

    Hi

    I have setup WordPress as a subdomain site and a temporary sub domain. I have migrated over to a top.level domain. Domain and Zone is good in c-panel, DNS working with Cloudflare as CDN. I WordPress Network > sites I have changed sub to top domain.

    • Only native TT5 images show All other displays a prohibeted symbol . Screen from Media Manager.
    • In phpmyadmin I have searched and replaced sub.domain.com to domain.com. I have checked again from better search and replace plugin, and 0 found.
    • In c panel I have checked hotlinking that is disabled.
    • In wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/02 I have checked for files and they are all in place, where permissions are 744 folders and 644 files
    • I have regenerated thumbs using the plugin. It regenerates the prohibited image and nothing shows up.
    • I tried replace an image in Media Manager with the exact same file and it does not show
    • If I click an image and then go to edit it shows. I guess here it grabs the original and not a thumb.
    • I have ofcourse purged Litespeed as well as Cloudflare

    So what am I missing? Is this a CDN issue? What do I need to do to get media to my site?

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Moderator bcworkz

    (@bcworkz)

    Hello hebhansen,
    Sorry about the slow reply, I was hoping someone with more insight would reply first ??

    Is the bindesboell(.com) domain the correct one for your current site? If not, you need to do further search and replacing to correct the domain names.

    If that’s the correct domain, the reason for the no hotlinking response is a false positive. Such a response could be due to your server’s configuration, or it could be due to your theme or a plugin you are using. Rule out the latter by deactivating all plugins and switching to a default Twenty* theme. Flush any caches to be sure you’re seeing a current server response.

    If the no hotlinking responses remain, they are due to a server configuration. If they went away, identify the module that was responsible by restoring your theme and plugins, one at a time. When the problem returns, the last activated module is the cause.

    Thread Starter hebhansen

    (@hebhansen)

    Hi @bcworkz – I hope you are well

    Yes bindesboell.com is the domain name. I have deactivated all plugins and turned them back on. Theme is TT5. So it appears I have a server issue.

    I used string locator plugin and I did find stuff on the old sub-domain. I am getting tired here, so I will dig further into it tomorrow and get back.

    Thread Starter hebhansen

    (@hebhansen)

    @bcworkz

    This is getting urgent as all images do not show. I went over everything and I am completely in the blind by now. I simply do not get this and have never seen this behaviour before.

    My suspision is something has not realised domain name has changed from old.com to new.com. So some kind of hotlink prevention blocks images from showing even though old.com does not exist anymore.

    I have searched and replaced old > new in the database

    I have searched in strin locator Anything matching old.com is logs in Sucuri, Complianz, WP Forms and all of this occurences are in the log before domain change. New domain also appears in these logs, so I trust this is just historic stuff.

    I have turned off all plugins. Troubleshoot plugin does not work on multisites, so I do this live. I am clearing cache. Hotlink is OFF in C-Panel and also in Cloudflare. I wonder if Litespeed has this setting somewhere, that I missed?

    All ideas how to locate this issue are very welcome. I am getting desperate and extremely frustrated with images not loading. When I open image in new tab, it shows!? and files are there. How can I locate this issue?

    Moderator bcworkz

    (@bcworkz)

    I’m confident it’s not any kind of default WP behavior. I even tested by hot linking an image from another WP site I manage. No complaints from that site. If you’re confident it’s not due to your theme or any plugin, the only other explanation is some kind of server module providing hot link protection. It sounds like there are such modules in your server or proxy service but you’ve apparently turned off such protection. For some unknown reason it seems like turning it off is ineffective?

    Maybe one possible way of locating the source of this module is by looking at the URL for that No Hotlinking image that is replacing your actual images. Maybe its path is closely related to where this mystery module resides. You should be able copy the image’s address by right clicking on the image. Paste it into a text editor for further examination. If you cannot right click, try the element inspector tool of your browser, or examine the HTML source code of the page.

    Have you tried examining all .htaccess files along the image path for any kind of directive that would redirect any external image requests to the No Hotlinking image? (Apologies if you had mentioned this already.)

    Thread Starter hebhansen

    (@hebhansen)

    So here goes…. Problem is now solved. If you see this behaviour check this:

    If your Cache has a CDN integration, make sure it is setup correctly. In my case Litespeed Cache, I completely forgot the selection of Cloudflare as CDN, the API key for integration and also, you have a check confirmation, that domain is located and active. In my case confirmation took about 2 hours before kicking.

    This is a case of why will my car not start.. Did you check gasoline.

    @bcworkz Thx man and sorry for the inconvenience

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.