Reference number: CH000813

Web page doesn't show images, getting red x's, or broken links.

Question:

Web page doesn't show images, getting red x's, or broken links.

Additional information:

This document is for users having issues with displaying pictures on web pages on the Internet. If you're creating a web page and are having troubles making it display images, this document will not resolve your problems; see our HTML help section for additional information and help with HTML and web design.

Answer:

When browsing the Internet, a number of different issues can occur with your browser and/or your Internet connection that may cause some or all of the images or pictures to not appear or be displayed as a broken image as shown in the image to the right.

Below is a listing of some of the different situations that apply to this document as well as the suggestions and/or resolutions to fixing the issue.

Browser shows images; however, some images are missing
or
Browser displays images on every page except one

This is the most common issue you're likely to encounter while on the Internet and is almost always an issue that is being caused by the web page you're visiting and not by your computer.

Often, this issue is caused by one or more of the below reasons.

1. The web page is not pointing to the correct location (URL) of the image.
2. The location or computer hosting the image has moved or removed the image and the web page has not been updated since.
3. The web page or computer hosting the image is getting so many requests that it is unable to fulfill your request and unable to send you the image.
4. Your browser, spyware, or other protection software is blocking images from third-party web pages.

Possible solutions to this issue

See if the image is being hosted on an alternate server; and if on a different server, see if the image can be found on that server. To do this, right-click the image or broken icon and click Properties; In the Properties window the Address or URL of the image should be displayed, copy that link into your address bar and remove the name of the image. For example, if you were to do this on the above image of the example of broken images you would get: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/broken.gif take off the "broken.gif" portion of the URL to get the path of where that image is located. Some websites will then list the directory of files (Computer Hope has this feature disabled) and/or get you to a location to where you attempt to locate the image. This is also a good method of determining if the computer hosting the image is still active.

If you trust the site you're visiting and you have any type of spyware protection installed on your computer, try disabling any spyware programs or other protection programs currently enabled on your computer to verify they are not blocking it.

Try visiting the web page in a few hours/days. If a site is getting visited by a lot of people on that day, it may be experiencing issues causing images to not be displayed or images may be disabled to help prevent other issues.

Try searching for the file name in a popular search engine, such as Google, to see if the image is located elsewhere. The name of the image file can be determined by using the above steps used earlier to find the location of the image. This will not resolve the missing image on the page you were visiting but may allow you to find the image being shown on a different web page.

If you're using Internet Explorer go through each of the steps on our basic Internet Explorer troubleshooting document.

If you're running Microsoft Windows, verify your hosts file is not blocking or redirecting the website you're visiting. Additional information about the Windows lmhosts file and how to edit it can be found on our lmhost file dictionary definition page.

Browser does not display any images on any page

A computer that does not display any images while on the Internet is almost always an issue with the computer you're on and not the web page you're visiting. Often, this issue is due to a configuration issue with the browser.

Note: Before trying any of the below suggestions, make sure you're not encountering an issue with your Internet connection by visiting a web page or section of web page you have never visited. This will help verify that your Internet connection is working and images are not loading. You should not need to do this; however, if you're visiting this Computer Hope page on the same computer and no images are showing on Computer Hope.

Browser configuration

Many web browsers support the ability to disable any images from being displayed to help with load time for users with slower Internet connection. Verify this option is not enabled by following the below steps.

Internet Explorer users

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Click Tools at the top of the Window.
3. Click Internet Options.
4. In the Internet Options window, click the Advanced tab.
5. In the Settings under Multimedia, make sure there is a check in the "Show Pictures" checkbox.
6. Click Ok and close and re-open the browser.

If after following the above steps you continue to have the same issues, follow each of the recommended steps in our basic Internet Explorer troubleshooting section. Often, going through these steps will resolve other misc. issues that can occur that also cause this issue.

Mozilla Firefox users

1. Open Mozilla Firefox.
2. Click Tools at the top of the Window.
3. Click Options.
4. In the Options window, click the Content button.
5. Make sure there is a check in the "Load Images" checkbox.
6. Click Ok and close and re-open the browser.

If after following the above recommendations you continue to have the same symptoms, verify you're not having a problem with your browser by trying to load web pages in a different browser. For example, if you're using Internet Explorer, download Firefox from http://www.getfirefox.com and see if it is also encountering the same issue. If you're also unable to display images in an alternative browser, it's possible your computer or network has a restriction preventing images from being displayed.