Images missing from IceTV newsletter

[robertdowdell]

Recently I've noticed that the images next to descriptions of programs are not showing up in the IceTV newsletters on my computer.

I'm using the Microsoft Edge browser with Outlook, but they also don't show up when using the Outlook app. I've tried using Google Chrome - same result. I've tried using the "View this email in your browser" link - same result.

Any ideas?

[BazzaG]

I believe this is caused by the images being "served" from a non-HTTPS server or address/url.

If I'm correct, then IceTV need to upgrade the image server or location to use HTTPS connections.

Could be wrong of course, if so, then I have no idea but this has been happening in Chrome for 6 months or more.

Looks like MS Edge has finally caught-up.

[robertdowdell]

Thanks for the information.

It looks like I can't do anything to change the behaviour, other than using a different browser such as Firefox.

[BazzaG]

I have no idea whether or not changing to Firefox would resolve the issue since I don't use that browser (although I am seriously considering doing so for other reasons).

In any event, I believe IceTV should update to use HTTPS for all connections given that is where, at least, Chromium based browsers are heading. Firefox is 1 of only a few browsers these days that are not Chromium based.

[robertdowdell]

It looks like when I thought I was using the Outlook App I was actually using a newer version of the Outlook Web app.

When using the Outlook App from Microsoft 365, the images appeared so I'll use that whenever accessing the newsletter at this stage.

I agree that there seems to be an issue accessing external web servers when using Chromium based browsers.

[BazzaG]

@Daniel &/or @MD ... Can you please look into this. Thankyou.

[BazzaG]

Firstly, I'm somewhat disappointed that neither Daniel or MD have replied to this post, with either a yes, we'll fix it or even nope, costs too much. Either way, an acknowledgment would have been nice.


Moving on, I've found a work-around (and an apparent bug in Chrome)...

* Click on the option to View this email in your browser, which will go to: "sendy.icetv.com.au/............"
* Immediately to the left of the URL "View Site Information" icon:



* Click on it & go to "Site Settings". This will open a new tab.
* About half way done the list of options, you should find "Insecure Content" which has: "Block (Default)":



* Click on the "Down arrow" and change it to: "Allow".
* Close the tab
* Now refresh the "sendy.icetv.com.au" tab/page.
* The site info icon should now be showing as:



and the url is now: "http://sendy.icetv.com.au/.........."

Along with all the images embedded on the web copy of the email.

Warning: In theory you should be able to back to site settings and reverse your changes. I did that, as part of testing and oops, I still see the images & Chrome still says the email webpage is "Not Secure". So it seems this is a one-way street ... a bug (at least that's what I call it, & yes, I did clear the Chrome cache & also tried old IceTV emails, etc.).

So, if you view all of your emails in a browser based app, then I wouldn't make this change there.

Finally, this is only a work-around, the proper fix is to update all of the IceTV servers/websites/pages/etc. to use HTTPS. I wouldn't be surprised that this work-around gets closed sometime in the future.

[Daniel Hall at IceTV]

Hi Bazza,

Is this on the web version of the email?

I haven't seen an issue using gmail for the actual email itself, but I can replicate this now on the web version.

[BazzaG]

Daniel, I don't use GMail as my primary email provider (I hate GMail with a very strong passion), so I can't say whether this issue exists in GMail or not. However, I don't see why not, given that GMail is accessed through your browser ... in my case, Chrome.

I use Zoho as my email provider which is also browser based & this is what I see after clicking on the "View Images" option:



After a while it changes to this:



If I were to make the above changes to the Site Settings for mail.zoho.com then I would expect I would be able to view the images. However, I'm not prepared to do that since it appears that the change is un-reversible even after going back to update the "Insecure Content" back to Blocked I still get to see all of the images in the online copy of the email. That would be a security risk.

Cheers

[BazzaG]

I haven't seen an issue using gmail for the actual email itself, but I can replicate this now on the web version.

OK, this got me interested...

Opened my GMail webpage, checked the site options & Insecure Content is Block (Default).

Forwarded a copy of an OLD IceTV email from Zoho to my GMail A/C, and bingo Google ignores that option and all the images are automatically shown.

Well done Google ... NOT. Yet another reason to not use GMail as your primary email provider and IMHO, breaks their own security protocols or whatever you want to call it.

[BazzaG]

Oops, I'd forget my head if it weren't screwed on !!!!

Before I made any changes to the site settings of the web based email, if I selected "Inspect" then in the console tab I would see that following msg:

Mixed Content: The page at '<URL>' was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure element '<URL>'. This request was automatically upgraded to HTTPS, For more information see <URL>

Which is why the images fail to load.

I still see the above in Zoho when I select the "View Images" option.

[raymondjpg]

Hi Bazza,

Is this on the web version of the email?

I haven't seen an issue using gmail for the actual email itself, but I can replicate this now on the web version.

I see images in Firefox, Edge, Chrome and Opera. That is from link clicked on in Gmail, and then URL copied from Firefox.

Which "web version" and web browser are you referring to?

Edit: My bad. Gmail web interface in Firefox is showing no images. Likely a hazard for all web based email applications?

[Daniel Hall at IceTV]

Yeah, and this will come up more and more often for mixed content.

I will have a look at the template and see if something can be done before Friday's email.

[BazzaG]

Thanks Daniel. For me, the webpage version of the email is working OK. I don't mind making the change for 1 site but not for everything if I were to alter the settings for zoho and like I said earlier, I hate GMail.

In any event, I think that over time non-HTTPS sites will become harder to get to. So it would be a good idea over time to update all of IceTV to HTTPS.

[raymondjpg]

In any event, I think that over time non-HTTPS sites will become harder to get to. So it would be a good idea over time to update all of IceTV to HTTPS.

Or embrace a nice user-friendly email application...?