This image was hotlinked” in FluentCRM emails since an update – images hosted on my own website
Hi everyone!
I’ve been experiencing a strange issue with images in my FluentCRM emails since an update around May or June.
The images I use in my emails are hosted on my own website — the same website where FluentCRM is installed.
Since that update, I consistently see the “Stop! This image was hotlinked” placeholder instead of the actual images when creating or previewing emails directly in FluentCRM.
What makes it even stranger is that the exact same email displays differently depending on the email provider.
For example:
– In Gmail, the images display correctly.
– In another mailbox I use, hosted by SFR, the images are replaced by the “This image was hotlinked” placeholder.
So I’m not trying to display images hosted on someone else’s website: these are my own images, hosted on my own website, and used in emails sent through FluentCRM.
I understand this may be related to hotlink protection on my server, but since the issue started after a FluentCRM update and also appears directly within FluentCRM, I’m wondering if something may have changed in the way images are retrieved or displayed.
Has anyone experienced the same issue?
And is there a recommended configuration to make sure images used in FluentCRM emails are always displayed correctly?
Thanks a lot for your help!
Claire
Hi Claire Négrier, are you seeing this when sharing links "to" your community, or links"from" your community?
To your community means the source has enabled hotlink protection on their server to stop people stealing images and using their server resources.
If you are seeing it when sharing your links elsewhere, then your server has hotlink protection enabled.
A quick search will give you more information, but it common for website to enable the hotlink protection.
Hi David !
Thanks for your reply! I realize my original post wasn't clear enough — sorry about that. 😊
I'm actually talking about images displayed in emails sent through FluentCRM, not links shared in the community.
The images are hosted on my own website, and I sometimes already see the “This image was hotlinked” placeholder when creating/previewing the email in FluentCRM.
What makes it even stranger is that the result depends on the email provider: the same email displays the images correctly in Gmail, while on another mailbox I use (hosted by SFR), the images are replaced by the “This image was hotlinked” placeholder.
So these are my own website images, used in my own FluentCRM emails, but apparently they are being treated as hotlinked images depending on how they are retrieved.
Could this still be caused by hotlink protection on my server? And if so, is there a recommended configuration to make sure images used in FluentCRM emails are always allowed?
Thanks for helping me clarify this!
I'm gonna edit my original post to make the issue clearer.
Claire Négrier yes, this sounds exactly like hotlink protection is enabled on my server. I would suggest you contact your host Support, they should be able to explain what is happening and how to fix the issue 👍
David Churchill Ok David ! thanks!
Unfortunatly... I'll need to change my hosting provider I guess...
Claire Négrier no, not necessarily, if you have access to cPanel as part of your hosting, it can usually be configured there.
David Churchill and Shahjahan Jewel If I say so it's because I know they won't change anything ;-). It's a very little hosting business... who doesn't offer much services...
But I may try to ask ;-)
Claire Négrier Switch to a better hosting company. You may try https://xcloud.host/ we run this community on xcloud.
Your host is blocking the requests. So contact with your host to resolve that.