The Grid - instagram missing images

Hi Team!

Writing to check in on the instagram feed for The Grid on our below page. No settings changed but today it’s loading the post meta data but no images, so we can see the likes and comments, links are working too but no images are displaying. X and all the plugins are updated, other sites with the same configuration are not having the same error. A little help please :slight_smile:

Hi @Deesign,

Thank you for reaching out to us. I checked your site and your images are returning the 403 errors. The 403 Forbidden Error is an HTTP response status code , which indicates that the identified client does not have proper authorization to access to the requested content.

Upon further checking, here’s the actual server response:

URL signature expired

Try the following suggestion here https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52185082/url-signature-expired-error-when-viewing-instagram-images-from-instagram-api

Let us know how this goes!

Thank you @Nabeel,

This is over my head a little - the suggestion to run a cron job… how do we do that?

One of my other sites stopped displaying instagram posts in the grid today as well. The Bulk Update Manager says there’s an update but when selected it say’s “The plugin is at the latest version.” Could this be part of the issue?

We downloaded and ran the WP Crontrol plugin and this didn’t solve either of the site issues with not displaying Instagram posts in The Grid.

Hi @Deesign,

This issue has been happening even before, personally I think, this signature implementation kills the integration of the plugins. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47668014/instagram-feed-api-media-url-shows-url-signature-expired/48582513. Instagram will not allow you to store images nor URL as part of their security, and since it’s part of their policy, 3rd party plugins such as The Grid is unable to properly store or cache it, hence once expired, nothing to display anymore.

But seems it’s able to retrieve the images again, and the expired URL is just an old one stored by optimization plugin. Could you try testing again?

image removed

But why does it shows different site when logged in?

Thanks!

We’re having issues with instagram and The Grid on several of our X sites now. The first one first had no images but we could see the meta data of each image - this morning that has been replaced with an API error.

The second started with an error that no user with that handle exists, which is not the case.

The third started yesterday with the same error as the as the second.

The forth is the same api error.

This has happened before and required a Grid update - which X is also telling us is required but the update is not working. Please advise urgently as we have 4 additional sites using the same configuration and I’m sure we will see the same results there over the next few days.

Hi @Deesign,

The API expiration related is in between your site and the plugin, the update shouldn’t affect it unless the standard within Instagram changed. What the plugin just uses API for permission and retrieves data and images. Just what I said, this been happening even before and to other 3rd party plugins that are trying to connect to Instagram server.

Let’s check the site one at a time :slight_smile:

  1. First, I can’t access the first one, I’m currently blocked by Wordfence, and it returns 503 which probably the cause of the first issue mentioned by Nabeel

  2. Second, the second site has 14 counts, and base on API requirement it should be 9 or 12

That’s currently displayed as warning on your The Grid. But I changed it to 10, and created grid and it still the same. Is there a way we can disable Security plugins and any other related plugin that could cause 503?

It’s also mentioned the media endpoints are no longer applicable since 2018, which would explain expired media URL.

  1. Please provide access to the 3rd one. And please disable security plugins that may able to block requests as well if there is any. You can enable them back once we’re done investigating.

Thanks!

Thank you @rad - I’ll reset the logins and plugins and let you know when that’s ready for your login.
In the meantime can help me understand why The Grid is saying to update but selecting Update in the Bulk Update Manager gives us a message that there’s no update?

It’s happening for other “The Grid” users too. Can you help us get this sorted out please - this configuration is across all of our X sites!

Hello @Deesign,

The latest available and supported version of The Grid plugin is 2.7.4. You can download it via automatic updates right in your dashboard. To force the update, please go to WP Dashboard > Updates. If you are already using the latest version, this issue could be a conflict with TheGrid plugin and the Instagram API again as it has been an OFF/ON issue for the past few versions with the plugin. We will wait for the creators of the plugin to release another release update to patch this. You can always check out the changelog here:

Hope this helps.

@ruenel @rad

Hi Guys

This is an API issue with The Grid Plugin after Instagram have shut off their Legacy API Platform recently. It seems The Grid (even the recently updated plugin version of 2.7.4) is using The Legacy API Platform.

https://www.instagram.com/developer/

Can you please not “wait” for the creators of the plugin to release another update to patch this. Can you please “reach out” to the creators of the plugin that you have an arrangement with - that we are paying for as Themeco Users via the purchasing of Themeco Products - and determine as a matter of priority when this fix to their plugin is going to occur.

This is impacting EVERY user of X or Pro who is using Instagram feeds via The Grid plugin.

Please advise as soon as possible.

Thanks
Sam

Hello Sam,

Yes, we have reach out to the creators of the plugin. We are just waiting for them to fix the issue and their update release.

Please bear with us. Thanks.

Thanks @ruenel - much appreciated

You are most welcome!

@ruenel,

Eagerly waiting for this update. Do you have any idea when it will become available? Will we be informed via this thread or do we just have to keep checking? Thanks :slight_smile:

Hello @jamievilasini,

We are also waiting from the creators of the plugin. Once it is available, you’ll get notified through Automatic Updates in your WP dashboard.

Regards.

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