
To the designer, it works, because there is a “c:picturesimage.jpg” that their browser picks up when displaying the page for them. It might reference “c:picturesimage.jpg”, rather than a proper URL, such as “”. What was once a common mistake was for a website to reference a picture by a path local to the designer’s machine. Similarly, if I had mistyped the reference to that image, perhaps getting the domain, path, or filename wrong, then a red X would result. If that file were removed, or that domain inaccessible, a red X would result.

For example, the image to the right is hosted on a domain different than the primary Ask Leo! domain (): The most common website issue is when images are removed from wherever they are hosted.

You’ll want to check each of those in case they’re getting in the way. If you’re seeing red X’s in place of images on only some sites, it’s more typically either a problem fetching the image, or a website design issue.ĭownload problems can be caused by adblockers, security software, or even filters at your ISP. (Click for larger image.)Īccess Chrome settings using the vertical ellipsis, and then search for “image”. In Google Chrome, for example, there’s a setting specifically for controlling image display. The first step is to check to make sure that’s configured properly. Most browsers allow you to turn off downloading pictures completely as a way to download only the text of a website faster. If you see only red X’s for all pictures on all sites, your browser is probably configured not to display images at all. If you get a red X like this:, or something similar, that’s the browser’s indication it tried to download a picture but was unable to, or was instructed not to. You can use the Inspect tool in some browsers to diagnose why a picture might not be showing. Images can go missing from websites for a variety of reasons including the bad website design, problems connecting to the website, security settings, and more.
