FastMail webmail not displaying some images in newsletters

evfrson · 13 Feb 2022, 08:28 PM

I subscribe to a newsletter (from Monocle) and most of the time all images are displayed.

Sometimes however (happened again this morning) an image isn't displayed and just shows a small blue box with a question mark inside it.

The same newsletter displays correctly in iCloud mail and Gmail.

Anyone any idea why this is happening, had same problem etc ?

BritTim · 13 Feb 2022, 10:19 PM

I assume you are experiencing this while accessing Fastmail through the browser. Such symptoms sometimes occur when there is temporary network instability. Try right clicking over the failed image display, and selecting "open image in new tab" If the image is displayable when you do this, it pretty much confirms that it is caused by network instability. If so, it is very annoying, but best just to live with unless the occurrence is very frequent. It is the kind of behaviour that is very frustrating to try to get diagnosed and resolved.

evfrson · 13 Feb 2022, 10:43 PM

Yes accessing Fastmail through the browser (Safari and Chrome).

Tried opening image in new tab and got the message -

E: remote returned 404 Not Found

I believe FastMail proxy the images so maybe there is an issue with that process.

BritTim · 13 Feb 2022, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by evfrson

Yes accessing Fastmail through the browser (Safari and Chrome).

Tried opening image in new tab and got the message -

E: remote returned 404 Not Found

I believe FastMail proxy the images so maybe there is an issue with that process.

That would be my probable diagnosis also. It is probably time for a support ticket. You can include a link to this thread in your ticket.

evfrson · 13 Feb 2022, 11:41 PM

Just raised a ticket.
I will let you know what the problem is/was.

evfrson · 14 Feb 2022, 01:48 AM

Just an update.
Got an email from my bank where no images were displayed so I don't know if this is the start of a bigger problem.
With the bank email getting the following error when I try to open image in a new tab :

E: remote returned 500 Internal Response: Cannot create SSL connection: SSL connect attempt failed error:1416F086:SSL routines:tls_process_server_certificate:certificate verify failed

Terry · 15 Feb 2022, 07:00 AM

Have to got show images ticked in your Fastmail portal, its in settings

evfrson · 15 Feb 2022, 07:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terry

Have to got show images ticked in your Fastmail portal, its in settings

Yes.
The problem is some images are being displayed but not others.
Fastmail are currently looking at the problem.

n5bb · 16 Feb 2022, 04:45 AM

I have occasionally seen the same issue. This morning I received an email with an image which displays properly in Gmail but not in Fastmail. All I see is the image placeholder box. I will file a support request on this one later today.

Bill

evfrson · 16 Feb 2022, 05:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by n5bb

I have occasionally seen the same issue. This morning I received an email with an image which displays properly in Gmail but not in Fastmail. All I see is the image placeholder box. I will file a support request on this one later today.

Bill

I'm glad it's not just me. I got another message today with the same issue again. It seems to be getting more common and a bit annoying.
I have heard nothing back from my ticket with Fastmail so far.

evfrson · 26 Feb 2022, 08:06 PM

Got a reply from Fastmail:

Thank you for reaching out. I am one of the senior agents here at Fastmail and will be assisting you with this issue.

We proxy images/attachments in the email through a different domain for security reasons and to protect customer privacy. You can read about this here:

https://fastmail.blog/2014/09/16/bet...mage-proxying/

While this works well in vast majority of the cases, there are some rare instances where the images fail to load. And the issue you are seeing is related to that.

For the emails from "Monocle", it appears they are initially restricting access from our proxy for some reason. However, I can see that, if I try to reload the images a couple of times, the connections go through and the images are then loading. I have attached a screenshot for your reference.

As for the email from Barclaycard, their server SSL certificate chain is broken, so we refuse to connect. You can see that their SSL chain shows incomplete here:

https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/anal...barclays.co.uk

This is something the admin of the server will need to fix. If you can forward the above information to their support, they should be able to do the needful.

evfrson · 4 Jul 2022, 08:52 PM

Reopened my support ticket with Fastmail regarding this issue (images not being displayed in some emails) because the problem is affecting more emails and is becoming a pain in the backside.

hadaso · 4 Jul 2022, 09:33 PM

I get lots of email from our Moodle system. almost all of them notifications about new posts in forms. Usually they contain external images that are not displayed. Choosing to display them display some but not all of the images. The reason is that some of the image url's require a usr to be logged in, and Fastmail's image proxy is not logged in to our Moodle system, so it cannot retrieve the images. Other images are shown: those are images that are hosted where no authentication of the user is required. For me it is not a big issue (i can just follow the link and read the post in the Moodle forum, though that changes its status to "read', which is why i sometimes refrain from doing it. Reading notifications has the advantage that email can be marked "unread", unlike forum posts).

So any site that requires some kind of session to fulfil an http request cannot work with Fastmail's image proxying. This could be solved for instance if there was an option to override the image proxying per message, or per sender.

evfrson · 4 Jul 2022, 09:40 PM

Quote:

So any site that requires some kind of session to fulfil an http request cannot work with Fastmail's image proxying. This could be solved for instance if there was an option to override the image proxying per message, or per sender.

Yes agreed - I have asked Fastmail if it could be possible to whitelist known/safe senders to allow bypassing of the proxy. I await their response.

Terry · 25 Sep 2023, 07:46 PM

It was July 22 so I hope so

13 Feb 2022, 08:28 PM	#1
evfrson Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2015 Posts: 162	FastMail webmail not displaying some images in newsletters I subscribe to a newsletter (from Monocle) and most of the time all images are displayed. Sometimes however (happened again this morning) an image isn't displayed and just shows a small blue box with a question mark inside it. The same newsletter displays correctly in iCloud mail and Gmail. Anyone any idea why this is happening, had same problem etc ?

13 Feb 2022, 10:43 PM	#3
evfrson Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2015 Posts: 162	Yes accessing Fastmail through the browser (Safari and Chrome). Tried opening image in new tab and got the message - E: remote returned 404 Not Found I believe FastMail proxy the images so maybe there is an issue with that process. Last edited by evfrson : 13 Feb 2022 at 10:49 PM.

25 Sep 2023, 07:46 PM	#15
Terry The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: VK4 Posts: 3,029	It was July 22 so I hope so Last edited by Terry : 26 Sep 2023 at 03:21 PM.

13 Feb 2022, 10:19 PM	#2
BritTim The "e" in e-mail Join Date: May 2003 Location: mostly in Thailand Posts: 3,095	I assume you are experiencing this while accessing Fastmail through the browser. Such symptoms sometimes occur when there is temporary network instability. Try right clicking over the failed image display, and selecting "open image in new tab" If the image is displayable when you do this, it pretty much confirms that it is caused by network instability. If so, it is very annoying, but best just to live with unless the occurrence is very frequent. It is the kind of behaviour that is very frustrating to try to get diagnosed and resolved.

13 Feb 2022, 11:41 PM	#5
evfrson Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2015 Posts: 162	Just raised a ticket. I will let you know what the problem is/was.

14 Feb 2022, 01:48 AM	#6
evfrson Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2015 Posts: 162	Just an update. Got an email from my bank where no images were displayed so I don't know if this is the start of a bigger problem. With the bank email getting the following error when I try to open image in a new tab : E: remote returned 500 Internal Response: Cannot create SSL connection: SSL connect attempt failed error:1416F086:SSL routines:tls_process_server_certificate:certificate verify failed

15 Feb 2022, 07:00 AM	#7
Terry The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: VK4 Posts: 3,029	Have to got show images ticked in your Fastmail portal, its in settings

16 Feb 2022, 04:45 AM	#9
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,929	I have occasionally seen the same issue. This morning I received an email with an image which displays properly in Gmail but not in Fastmail. All I see is the image placeholder box. I will file a support request on this one later today. Bill

26 Feb 2022, 08:06 PM	#11
evfrson Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2015 Posts: 162	Got a reply from Fastmail: Thank you for reaching out. I am one of the senior agents here at Fastmail and will be assisting you with this issue. We proxy images/attachments in the email through a different domain for security reasons and to protect customer privacy. You can read about this here: https://fastmail.blog/2014/09/16/bet...mage-proxying/ While this works well in vast majority of the cases, there are some rare instances where the images fail to load. And the issue you are seeing is related to that. For the emails from "Monocle", it appears they are initially restricting access from our proxy for some reason. However, I can see that, if I try to reload the images a couple of times, the connections go through and the images are then loading. I have attached a screenshot for your reference. As for the email from Barclaycard, their server SSL certificate chain is broken, so we refuse to connect. You can see that their SSL chain shows incomplete here: https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/anal...barclays.co.uk This is something the admin of the server will need to fix. If you can forward the above information to their support, they should be able to do the needful.

4 Jul 2022, 08:52 PM	#12
evfrson Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2015 Posts: 162	Reopened my support ticket with Fastmail regarding this issue (images not being displayed in some emails) because the problem is affecting more emails and is becoming a pain in the backside.

4 Jul 2022, 09:33 PM	#13
hadaso The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Holon, Israel. Posts: 4,857	I get lots of email from our Moodle system. almost all of them notifications about new posts in forms. Usually they contain external images that are not displayed. Choosing to display them display some but not all of the images. The reason is that some of the image url's require a usr to be logged in, and Fastmail's image proxy is not logged in to our Moodle system, so it cannot retrieve the images. Other images are shown: those are images that are hosted where no authentication of the user is required. For me it is not a big issue (i can just follow the link and read the post in the Moodle forum, though that changes its status to "read', which is why i sometimes refrain from doing it. Reading notifications has the advantage that email can be marked "unread", unlike forum posts). So any site that requires some kind of session to fulfil an http request cannot work with Fastmail's image proxying. This could be solved for instance if there was an option to override the image proxying per message, or per sender.