Difficulty Viewing Images on scotlandspeople.gov.uk

[DavidWW]

I’ve just recently had the occasional problem viewing images. This may be connected with the recent addition of the 1871 census data, or it may just be coincidence.

So far, I’ve reliably found the solution.

What happens is that when you click the “View” button, the standard screen comes up but there’s no image on the screen.

Solutions found so far?……….

Wait a few seconds and try again, and, 7 or 8 times out of ten, the image appears as normal and only 5 credits have been deducted. If that doesn’t work, go into you Viewed Images list where you should find the image listed and click on it, and in most of the remaining instances the images appears OK.

If this still doesn’t work, then it may be another aspect of the need to clear the www history by clicking on “Tools” in InterNet Explorer, then “InterNet Options”, then the “General” tab if this isn’t the default screen, then click on “Clear History” and “Delete Cookies”…….. that’s the procedure in v6, … it will be slightly different in versions other than v6, and I have no idea of the menu structure in other browsers, but the basic principle is the same.

You will probably find that you need to exit scotlandspeople.gov.uk then re-enter because you have deleted cookies. There is a small chance that deleting cookies may affect access to other web sites. If this concerns you, then just clear the history.

Davie

[AndrewP]

I have also received a blank grey screen where I was expecting to see an 1871 census page. The quickest route to making the image appear was to hit the F5 key to refresh the page. That worked fine (as did closing the image and re-clicking on the button to view that image - button now marked as paid for).

I cannot vouch for whether this is unique to the 1871 census images, or if it can be any image viewed on the Scotlands People site. I am using the ActiveX viewer method.

All the best,

Andrew Paterson

[DavidWW]

I have also received a blank grey screen where I was expecting to see an 1871 census page. The quickest route to making the image appear was to hit the F5 key to refresh the page. That worked fine (as did closing the image and re-clicking on the button to view that image - button now marked as paid for).

I cannot vouch for whether this is unique to the 1871 census images, or if it can be any image viewed on the Scotlands People site. I am using the ActiveX viewer method.

All the best,

Andrew Paterson

Andrew

Should have made this clear that it was all BMD images, not 1871 images.

Davie

[JustJean]

Hi Guys

I had the same blank grey screen happen last night. After waiting a decent interval I closed it and followed the procedure you just described by going to previously viewed images and clicked on it there and up it popped with no problem. This is the same identical problem I had and described a few weeks ago which may still be in the computer dept thread somewhere. There is no loss of credits.... just a stumbling block to seeing the image on the first click.

Jean

[StewL]

Davie and all

I have had the same problem you mentioned with viewing images. It was an intermittent problem, in that the first time, I thought it was a computer/system error as it would come up with an error message and disconnect me. Then it was intermittent in that it didnt happen with all images.
Last group there were no problems and images were viewed normally (All were Barton brickwall ).

As was said, when I reconnected there they were in my viewed images files. I should also say that this was before 1871 census came online.

[JayPee]

I had similar problems yesterday afternoon (around 4pm Toronto time, or about 9pm GMT). My guess is it was caused by the heavy load on the SP servers. Later that night (after midnight Toronto time, or about 5am GMT) there was no problem. Response time was excellent, presumably because all the Scots were asleep -- except for those hard-core genealogists

- JayPee

[sporran]

Hello everyone,


I saw this problem a few times yesterday: "The image does not exist". A second attempt to download the image always worked for me. The reply from SP is that extra web servers were added for the 1871 census launch, and one of them appears to be misbehaving. The second attempt almost always uses a different server. SP say that the increase in performance given by this "rogue" server currently outweigh the problems, so they will keep it online and look at fixing it on Monday.


Regards,

John