On checking further I now find that I have lost all the pictures on my blog from its inception right up to 18th February this year. This is a direct result of using Picasa, and from what I have learned trawling Internet forums this is not an uncommon problem, and I believe has no solution, other than going back into the computer, finding the photos, resizing again and manually replacing them in each post, but there are literally thousands I think, certainly many hundreds and it would take forever.
I STRONGLY ADVISE ANYBODY OUT THERE TO AVOID PICASA AT ALL COSTS.
I have got my computer man coming to advise me, but I think the best that will be achieved is to uninstall Picasa properly and put the rest down to experience. I am gutted.
I stopped using Picasa a couple of years ago, but hadn't removed it from the computer. I will do so today. Thanks for the warning, Conrad.
ReplyDeleteflippancy aside, can you not sue Google for theft, illegal destruction of property, racketeering, harassment, mental distress, loss of expectation of life, interference with and abuse of a national heirloom, breach of privacy laws etc etc.
ReplyDeleteI have a nephew who works for Google but he is ashamed to come back to England to suffer shed-loads of scorn and infamy
I also stopped using Picasa years ago but it is still on the computer. I never used Picasa Webalbums to upload photos to the blog because I was told that if I deleted them from the web album they would also be deleted from my blog.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should all move to WordPress? Hope you got the link to SmugMug.
The Crow - I had a look on the Internet to see how to uninstall Picasa. It is quite complicated with a PC, and a bit less so on my Mac, but still sufficiently worrying for me to ask my computer man to come and do it for me. I anticipate further horrors may unfold when the thing is uninstalled and I really feel the need for somebody to hold my hand.
ReplyDelete-----------------------
Gimmer - I have just changed my default search engine from Google to Yahoo.
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afoot - From what I've seen of WordPress it seems a bit clunky, but it's probably ok when you get used to it.
I got the SmugMug link thanks. I have had a look at it and I think I will purchase it, but I am still awaiting my computer man and would like to rid myself of revolting Picasa completely first of all.
A few weeks ago I lost my avatar, almost certainly something to do with Google / Picasa settings I think.
ReplyDeleteGibson's comment about losing images from my blog if I removed images from Picasa is something I've been concerned about too. Could this be something to do with 'Google +1'...whatever that is?
From both of your experiences I think I'll follow your example and emigrate to another storage system and search engine.
JJ
aka: Worried of Timperley
I can be counted on to hold your hand, Conrad, if you like...albeit a little long-distance. Will that help?
ReplyDeleteI'm downloading all my pictures onto an 8-gig flash drive, as a precaution, and am considering closing my Google accounts. Maybe I can find a friendlier roost for The Crow.
Best wishes with your computer guru.
Martha
Scary to hear about all the technical problems you and others have been having, don't pretend to understand them. I back up all my computer stored photos and using Wordpress so far has been trouble free - but I do try to keep it simple.
ReplyDeleteScary! Especially for folk like me who have everything on Picasa, though my blog images are uploaded separately from slideshows. They show separately as albums of up to 1000 images each, generated by Google and presumably linked to the individual Blogspot postings.
ReplyDeleteWindows 8 doesn't seem to support Picasa, btw.
When Blogger changed its methods during the past year (especially with regard to image uploading) a neat little glitch made it impossible for me to access pix in the simple way I had used for several years. The only answer seemed to be Picasa and the set-up deliberately tempted you to do this. For a week or so I struggled with Picasa's image handling ways. Then, without trumpeting, Blogger fixed the glitch and I left Picasa à toute vitesse.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed to me Picasa was invasive and was based on folders (of its own making) holding hundreds if not thousands of my pix. The answer would have been to reorganise my pic storage but life's too short. I want to blog not engage in an advanced course of computer management.
There's a useful lesson here. If you're faced with large-scale rearrangements, chances are the new system is defying the reason we use computers in the first place - to use pix and text to tell a story simply.
RR - I reckon if you got out of Picasa unscathed you are lucky. Did you uninstall it?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. All I want is a simple system which works for me. I am not interested in spending ever more valuable time on this sort of thing. It seems with computers if you have a serious problem you are on your own. I would gladly pay a fair amount of money to somebody to fix this for me, BUT WHO?
I often listen on Radio 5 in the middle of the night to a phone in regarding computer problems.[I think it is Thursday ie Friday mornings.] The expert always seems to talk a lot of sense. He has a web site with questions and answers.etc http://www.gadgetdetective.com/
ReplyDeleteWorth a try.
Oh - now I'm worried. I upload all of my photos to flickr (not picassa) but use picassa to do a bit of editing before I upload them. Apparently the files are saved onto files on my hard-drive - are they not independent of picassa?
ReplyDeleteHi Mark - I don't really understand your question. Even if I did, I think you will gather I am no expert, but if you'd like to clarify I will try and answer.
ReplyDeleteHeh - the problem here is probably that neither of us really knows what we are talking about.
ReplyDeleteAs I understand it, Picassa is a photo sharing website not unlike fLickr. But Picassa is also a file-handling and photo-editing software package. I've downloaded the latter and find it very easy to use. But I don't want to lose my photos.
I use Photoshop Elements for editing photos. I was nor aware that Picasa could do that as well.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is that I will NEVER have anything to do with Picasa again. Have a look at:
http://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/picasa/9ttGjFI6GS4
Sorry I can't make that a proper link here. I'll try and put it on an email for you.
The other massive culprit is Google+ and it seems there is no getting out of that once you're in. There are plenty of other photo editing facilities out there. The software that comes with Cannon cameras is quite good.