Surprise, new Photobucket design sucks…

Updated on October 1, 2012 By Ken Begg 70 Comments

I’ve written before how every time they revamp a website in a major way (IMDB, Mapquest), the result is always hideously harder to use. Now Photobucket has, of course, done the same thing. Apparently, much like the IMDB, their new design mandate was purely to make the site look prettier. They ‘reduced clutter’ by moving obvious links offscreen, so that it’s harder to get to subfolders and such. Which is a pain in the ass for doing my daily Monster of the Day stuff.

Worse, they’ve apparently made it impossible to drag a thumbnail to my desktop. Under the old design, when I dragged the small album image to the desktop I got a jpeg on the desktop. Now I’m getting a link to the photobucket page containing the large image, which makes it impossible with WordPress to make it a featured image, one of the little images that shows up on our main page to snazz up the blog and review entries.

Luckily, after about 10 or 15 highly frustrating minutes trying to make the new format work, I gave up and found the button that lets you go back to the old version of the site. Hopefully they keep this as an option. The ‘new’ version is gigantically harder to use for my purposes, and in terms of the featured images, apparently won’t work at all, which is moronic.

Ugh.

Pin It

  • Ericb

    I’m trying to understand the logic of this “looks great but is hard to use” philosophy. It would be like selling a car that’s beautiful to look at but a pain to drive.

  • Ken_Begg

    Yeah, I certainly don’t get it. Guess it’s a generational thing. The new IMDB format still sucks, and I’ve had well over a year at this point to get used to it. So my poor reaction is largely based on functionality. The old format (which thankfully you can still use, although you have to sign in every time) is bareboned, but all the info is right there and very clearly laid out.

  • Beckoning Chasm

    I imagine it’s “Architect’s Syndrome.” As the architect doesn’t have to work or live in a particular building, he can design whatever he desires and the heck with functionality.

    Incidentally, you don’t have to sign into IMDB to see the old format. Click on “see full cast and crew” and the old format appears.

  • Ken_Begg

    Man, that’s great! Thanks!

    (I must not be the only one who prefers the old site, since you can still get it.)

  • Try the new Facebook format. Harder to use AND aesthetically unpleasing! PLUS there’s no way to go back to the better format! AND as a special added bonus, users hate the new format! (Honestly, I don’t know what they were thinking when they decided to introduce “Timeline” and then force it down everyone’s throats. I have yet to see the advantage of it. All it does is slow my computer down. Why is that an improvement?)

  • MrTongoRad

    AMG, or AllMusicGuide, or All Music (as it’s now called) has been steadily going downhill for years. It used to be an incredible database, but now is becoming more of a magazine. I wouldn’t mind all of the flash and”community” type stuff if the search engine would just work the way it used to; now it’s too limited.

    Not too long ago you could click on any random song and you’d get a list of every recorded version that they knew about, by every artist- with dates and albums as well. Now you just get only the recordings of that particular artist where you clicked it in the first place. It was awesome if you wanted to search for where a song originated, or were trying to jog your memory of where you heard it before. It’s a shame, because they actually gave up something amazing and useful.

  • Terrahawk

    Site design is an art and right now a lot of artless people are designing sites. It seems that there is a need to cram everything onto the front page. Plus there is drive for more flash than substance. Why, I don’t know.

  • Petoht

    I guess that’s why Firefox is on a 3 month update cycle even though nobody wants it.

  • angenaz

    OMG!! Photobucket staff…you blew it!! Your new updated site is horrible…ugly and user MOST unfriendly. Then when you click to go back to old version the links don’t work. I have been getting complaints from clients all day they can’t access my site to see my new pups. I am a breeder. I am so OUT OF HERE!!! Keep the $25 bucks. AngeNaz

  • Ken_Begg

    Can’t disagree with any of that. Try the old version again; I’ve not had any problems like that. Good luck!

  • kevin

    I always use photobucket on my phone to link pictures to other sites and have always used the “full website” not the mobile version or the app which don’t allow you to copy the IMG links to pictures. After they changed the original site I cant get the links to the pictures, I clicked the link to go back to the original site which took like 15 tries to make work and finally after reverting to the original the next time I went to photobucket it went back to this new bullsh*t..and now the link WILL NOT let me go back..this is pissing me off. All I want to do is get an IMG link and it is impossible to do with the new website payout..why do they always have to f*ck with something when it works just fine. Ever hear of the saying “if it aint broke dont fix it”.

  • BLA

    They ruined my slideshow. I had it set up so I could share the link, and it;d go right into a nice presentation with a black background and captions. That’s all gone. Morons.

  • Darrell

    The new format won’t let me do anything and I can’t seem to go back to the original format …. help please

  • Ken_Begg

    Sorry, dude, I can’t remember where the link was that allowed you to access the old format. Maybe you have to be checked into your account. You could contact Photobucket and ask; hopefully that option wasn’t a limited time thing.

    I do know that when I sent them my irate response to the new format, that the *eventual* reply I got (probably because they received so many similar complaints) was pretty patronizing. It was all “we realize it may take a while for you to get use to the new format.” In other words, the problem was with me, and other customers, not with their pointless new revamp.

  • blue

    When you sign in (if you are able—try to stop a page mid-loading), the link to switch back should be on the top right just under your photobucket username “Switch back to old photobucket” in blue. They require your telling them why—again, I had to stop loading the page to answer—but you can still get it to go back as of 12/22/12.

  • iHateNewPhotobucket

    My BIGGEST COMPLAINTS about the new Photobucket design are this:
    #1 – It use to display the entire pic, but now it only shows a CROPPED PORTION. You have to click EACH PIC and go to a NEW PAGE just to see it. – I use the site to display my photography and have over 200 shots. People aren’t going to click 200+ images plus 200 more times for the back button! It’s too much effort so no one will look at it anymore.
    #2 – In addition to only showing a portion of each pic, they put these POINTLESS frames around them. “Oh, how pretty! I knew my photography was missing something!”
    #3 – My pages use to display SIX pics per row (of the ENTIRE PIC) and now it only displays FOUR per row. And if you open the stupid albums tab, it reduces to only THREE pics per row! What a complete waste of space! – Again, I have over 200 pics. No one wants to do that much scrolling! Not to mention, that someone who’s not familiar with PB might not even notice the hidden tab to see that I have more albums.
    #4 – It use to show each entire picture AND put 6 per row AND still be able to display the albums tab. I’m BAFFLED and PISSED that someone decided this “new look” is somehow better!
    — The rest of my Pro account is now wasted money. And this new Photobucket Plus option? Yeah right! They’ll never get another dime from me! In fact, I already found a new site that still knows what users want and they display my pics in a way that visitors can easily enjoy. In fact, it actually gives you OPTIONS as to how YOU want your pics to be displayed! And my PB page now has “text pics” that tells people where I’ve moved.
    — If you’d like to know this new site I found… In case it’s considered spam, I won’t name the site in this post because I typed too much to get it deleted, but I’ll try to post again and put it in a reply.

  • DisqusThis

    i freaking hate the new photobucket, and it looks like we are forced to use the new design as of today. i use it for my ebay and forum selling and it worked perfectly up until the change. Now you cant choose what size you want to upload, and each picture has a totally different html/img code so i have to copy and paste each link in my auction individually. im on the hunt for a new service but nothing compares to the old photobucket

  • Bob.

    I have just found I have the same problem and e-mailed Photobucket, this can’t be right! I can’t code multiple pics, I thought I was being thick, am I?
    I need to list before 21:00,hrs. here in UK. So desperate for a solution.
    Bob.

  • DisqusThis

    just got a response from the support team. they had a glitch and will fix the ” switch back to the original” link soon.

  • EJD

    Thanks for the update! What a stressful night/morning!!

  • Susa

    Could you please tell me what new site you chose?

  • Bob

    Link back to original Photobucket now works. Thanks everyon ewho mailed Photobucket and posted here.
    Bob.

  • Ken_Begg

    Call me cynical, but I’m sure this was a trial balloon. Since they presumably pay a zillion dollars for these redesigns, it must cause a bit of angina when a significant portion of your client base hates the new product and wants to stick with the old one. (And I am a *paying* customer, I have the Pro account so I don’t have to worry about bandwidth restrictions, etc.)

    So they have a ‘glitch’ and remove your ability to get back to the old site–which, again, they must HATE that many people (maybe quite a few) prefer to stick with–and only when they are avalanched with complaints do they find there’s been a ‘glitch’ which they fix.

  • Ericb

    Two words, New Coke

  • iHateNewPhotobucket

    It’s called – SlickPic – Of all the popular sites, they do it RIGHT.

  • Susa

    Thank you. I will check it out.

  • Sara

    The option to switch back is now gone
    :(

  • Sal

    They have completely ruined the site, all functionality has been removed or hidden away

  • Denise LaFrance

    I wrote this to Photobucket. Now searching for more efficient photo-editing site that has features of former Photobucket site.

    Any suggestions?
    “Photobucket Admin:If Photobucket does not restore the option to maintain editing capacity in the former version of the site, I am sorry to inform you I shall commence to seek an alternative, superior photo-editing website to consult.

    Your recent “improvements” are anything BUT.

    Your new photo-editing set-up

    -freezes my computer, requiring a re-boot.

    -Lacks the better options of the former set-up for my purpose (fine tuning of intricate technicalities for my paintings,larger icons to discern if or it not option is suitable,(now, new icons makes editing-process slower),List of editing-options & selection within options, (ie: Effects, Soft,List of soft effects to choose from, ie: Default, list of default options within category from which to select, Instant general “fix” instant-button in main editing category (located in same section as ‘crop, color, focus etc…that is MISSING). saving my photo to same size as that size in which I uploaded, album arranged in manner which I had previously organized for easy access and easy navigation, familiar selection of options.I am a busy person and have not TIME or desire to re-learn your entire website. There was not one thing the matter with your old format. Why FORCE a permanent change on users who don’t wish to partake in the new site-design? It is not fair, logial or desirable. Your site is going to go the way of MySpace when they forced unwanted changes on their users.People left the site in search of a better one…which I am on the verge of doing.)

    Very disappointed. I opted to play along and press button to *TRY* the new site to be a good sport, as I was prompted to (try) only now to discover there’s no reverting back to former, superior format of your better, classic version!

    Essentially, you’ve rendered your website useless to me now. This is now the 2nd *forced* change of site-format has inflicted on its users.

    (If there was an “extremely dissatisfied” button -option to press, that is the one I’d have selected rather than merely “dissatisfied”.

    Not even sure if this feedback will result in any weighing of site-modifications or if it will fall on blind eyes with intent to merely placate dissatisfied members (?)

    Does my feedback really serve any purpose?

    The old format was fantastic.

    Now, with this forced-option of me having to re-learn your entire, modified (to a lesser-value) website and editing-format …that versus the option of me searching online for an entire, easier-to-use, more functional and useful photo-editing website…I conclude,if the option to revert back to our old format remains unavailable,there is not one thing inspiring me to stay here. Might as well learn a better, more convenient and useful picture editing site altogether.

    Shame because the company “Photobucket” I always associated with Quality and professional-standards.

    Sincerely,

    An unhappy Photobucket-user (who previously & frequently promoted the quality of your website),

    Denise LaFrance, Toronto.

    PS If logic sinks in and your site-designers decide to permit users the CHOICE to revert to former site-design permanently, let me know SOON or I shall search elsewhere.

    Changing something that is in working order is not always a wise decision.

    Remember: My Space and what happened to that site. It’s user-numbers are going downhill fast.

    “

  • Denise LaFrance

    Feb. 4, 2013

    Link reverting to classic version of Photobucket is no longer available.

    One major feature that is missing and intolerable is right click and copy image to paste into email to share with friends/clients.

    This site i have been using to fine tune the visuals of paintings I have created so that the photo looks closer to the actual image. The capacity to do this was present on the foemr Photobucket site-format. It no longer is. Also, the degree to which a person chooses to use an ‘effect’ is no longer modifiable. Now, one selects from the options available on the TINY icons and pressed “go”. The effect is then applied AS IS and no option to lessen the effect on the photo. Photo we are editing is uniform size. One cannot modify with close-ups on the picture to see how an effect affects a particular *area* of the photo that’s being edited. Photobucket’s rendered its site useless to me for my purposes.

    Is there a photo-editing site one can please suggest to me to edit with precision minute details?
    Thanks.

    Denise :LaFrance the painter.

    The site, as it is now, may be fine for people who merely want to PLAY with photos on a very basic level; decorating for kicks but for work that requires fine tuning on a more controllable -level,, there must be a more suited site that might be comparable to a souped-up extension of Photoshop.Any site suggestions? Looking rfor something with similar capacity to the former version of Photobucket.

  • Lala11

    the Link to switch back to original photobucket is not there anymore 0.o

  • Giga

    please tell me there’s a way to disable that autoscroll, i can’t find it….

    i’m not scrolling down 1,595 of my photos to find one i want….

  • Ken_Begg

    EXACTLY!!!! Infinite scroll is insane for these purposes. For those stuck still using PhotoBucket, one can only hope they allow people to go back to the page format. I think that complaint might have been so universal that they will do that.

  • Ken_Begg

    Still happy with Imgur, by the way, although I’d like to be able to access the image linking info from ‘albums’ rather than ‘images.’ That will make it awkward to pre-store a lot of pix.

  • Jimbo

    Started using Photobucket a couple of months ago and everything was fine. Then started to get switch over to new messages every time I tried to view or edit an image. Ignored for a while then was offered no choice, switch or no editing, and if you switch you can never go back. Now when I try to view or edit all I get is a gray block and no image. No support because support is only FAQ’s and of no help whatsoever. No email? Is there another image hosting site that actually works?

  • My problem exactly! I have over 1K worth of photos too and the New PB format sucks!

  • I hope PB is listening! Their new format sucks and I will be looking elsewhere very soon! The infinate scoll funtion is the worst when you have a lot of pics in an album. THis new format is a complete waste of my time!
    BT

  • DeniseLaFrance

    CORRECTION…I meant to say the basic version of Pixlr is comparable to *Photoshop).(not “Photobucket” as I mis-stated in my previous post) but Pixlr express IS *identical* to the photo-editor of the old (better) Photobucket

  • Ken_Begg

    Yes, I noted today that because of Infinite Scroll, I not only can’t use PhotoBucket for my purposes here anymore, but can’t find my old unused photos to shift over to Imgur. There is literally pretty much nothing I can do on PhotoBucket at this point. We’ve come to the point where, seriously, you can’t even access your old photos in any sort of manner that isn’t insanely time-wasting and inefficient.

  • don

    I emailed these morons a couple times already and told them the old version worked great and the new one took away alot of features I need and use. I displayed custom upholstery pics with titles and also descriptions of what people were looking at. Now it does not have the feature. I guess they never heard the expression if it is not broke then dont fix it. I have been a happy user for the last couple years and now I am just frustrated and pissed.

  • Mac

    There now forcing the new design look on everyone with no “switch back to the original”. I’ve seen so many people say that they hate the new look.

    When it comes to other photo websites, there not that good. Imageshack doesn’t let you have different album sections and it has virus from time to time. Flicker will take down your photos unless you own them, Tinypic is owned by Photobucket and Slickpic doesn’t support IE7 and that some Internet IE8 browser users have experienced slower speeds.

  • Darling

    True! I hate the New Editing settings of Photobucket. I like the previous older version and it has many options & choices on how to use it. Now, I cannot even using any add photos anymore like it use too. I cannot create any good scrapbooks work on Photobucket.
    It sucks! Terribly! :((((((

  • Disgruntled

    The new Photobucket degisn is absolute garbage! The old one was so simple to use. Why fix it if it ain’t broke?

  • nereus

    yep one of the biggest blunders of all time ,It stupidly ask me where i want my pics then puts them somewhere else,i try to move them and it skips to my other pics in my existing library…….what a pack of dimwits.
    I’m only a casual user i can’t imagine how frustrating it would be if i had to use “new PB” on a daily basis.

  • F*** the new photobucket

    Photobucket must be educated by youtube since they both fucked up horribly by making something good into something horribly trumaticly abominable

  • Betty

    what a wreck. I cant even sort photos in an album and they turned off the old one already before getting this resolved. Also, in the organizer it cuts off pictures so I cant even see what I am sorting.

  • Travelsinacab.com

    I’m glad it’s not just me that is perplexed by this nonsense. Half of the features are gone – about the only thing it’s good for is to write some text on. No more image layering, colors limited, can’t right click to save when done; it’s a mess. It was perfect prior to this ‘beta’ upgrade. What were they thinking with this!?

  • Who would like to throw up in this new PhotoBUCKET. Dislike it so much. The idea of having to find new hosting sites and mess around with changing my website page links is horrific, IDIOTS

  • Mike Hates Photobucket

    I just tried to delete my photobucket account. You can’t even do that. And I spent 20 minutes trying to find a way to email or call a human to complain about the new UI. No luck. I just logged out and abandoned the account. Now I’m using Imageshack and can’t believe I put up with photobucket for so long.

    Note that I have nothing to do with Imageshack. I’m just a refugee from photobucket who found Imageshack and want to share.

  • fsu20

    this freaking suck ass i hate the new photobucket and i dont have the link to go back to old

  • Ken_Begg

    They got rid of that button. There’s no going back now, because if they allowed it, nearly everyone would.

  • IC31

    I just spent the best part of an hour [I]trying[/I] to go through my main and sub albums in Photobucket. When I say trying – it was incredibly s-l-o-w. Worse, the NEW version I was finally forced onto a few weeks ago has totally scrambled my line up of pictures. For the most part, it really doesn’t make a lot of difference – except I knew approximately where they were Then even worse then that, somehow, I ended up with photos that I had never seen before, including an Asian car wreck complete with sheet bundled body ready for a meat wagon. HUH!!! I finally gave up so not sure how some of my sub albums are now, but if as crummy as the main…. bad news (hope there are no XXX photos in them as I don’t do that crap)

    My first thought is – I’m moving my photo sharing elsewhere, but at this point don’t know where yet. A couple of review sites suggest that Flickr is the best, but the new Photobucket at this point is NOT where I want to be – and possibly never again.

  • Judas

    Uploading 20 pics takes forever. Horrible new version horrible

  • Raziel

    Uploading takes forever and it never loads in the order you want.

  • Ellen

    I cant bear this new version – just uploaded loads and then thought ‘now what’ ??? I much prefer the old version – why wont they listen? You’d think they would know by now wouldnt you ………… bring back the old version I say and that damn switch button has definitely been removed ………. if they cant see what they’ve done, then they are total plonkers!!!!

  • Guest1

    I wouldn’t have a problem with the new design even though it’s a pain to navigate if I could just get a damn link that works. I don’t know what they changed since the mandatory shift but now no image I upload, no matter what I try with creating new folders, saving to desktop and uploading with new file names, or any imaginable form of fixing the error will result in my image giving me an IMG code that doesn’t say my image was moved or deleted. I’ve been having to trouble shoot this process for various ‘reasons’ ever since the shift, and now it seems the ability to get around their bugs is non-existent, and it does not please someone who’s spent the better part of an hour trying to fix something like this to have to take an additional ten minutes to find any way to try to actually communicate a problem instead of just looking at a bunch of closed ‘help’ topics.

  • Neco_D

    Photobucket Support – Saying!

    My Question To Them:

    How do I switch to the old editor?

    They Say:

    With the new editor now in place, this is the one we will be using going forward. There is no option to return to the previous editor. You can still find Pixlr’s editor on their website: Pixlr Express Editor Pixlr Advanced Editor (for layering)

    Question:

    Why can’t you switch it back to the Pixlr editor?

    They Say:

    The reason we cannot offer the option for you to return to the previous editor is that we are no longer offering it on our site. Our contract with Pixlr has ended, and we are no longer partnered with them to provide those editing tools for use on Photobucket.

    We will continue to work with the new editing company to provide more features, and hopefully improve the ones that are currently available.

    Thank you
    ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

    That’s There Way Of Saying That They Don’t Give Two Sh*t Of What Anyone Say Or Do!…

  • Charles Nash

    After waiting since around Sept. 2012 the new slideshow is horrible! Why didn’t they leave well enough alone? We waited six months for THIS?
    All my text is lost on all the photos and worse – the stupid selection bar at the bottom crops the bottom 10-percent of the bloody photos! Do these propeller head geek-wads have any concept of art?

  • Charles Nash

    They haven’t listened for a year now it seems. They must know that everyone hates them by now.
    It’s as if they delibertly have pointed the company into the ground so there will be only tiny pieces left after the crash. If I owned the company, heads would have rolled 6 months ago.

  • Charles Nash

    Welcome to Joseph Stalin’s PhotoTub. :) You will do as ordered and like it.

  • Charles Nash

    From my 40 years experience in software/hardware engineering design here is how it seems to work in many cases.

    Companies bring in a new clown to run Marketing and he brings his inept buddies in as “consultants” to shake things up. The software geeks then run off and change things like monkeys with no supervision.

    The marketing clowns don’t have the knowledge to even test or judge the work. They are too busy with smoking cigars in their redwood hot tubs and their “power” sales meetings and booze lunches at the golf course. Nuff said?

  • Charles Nash

    That’s like saying… the reason is, because the reason is.
    Buffoonery in all its glittering glory.

  • Charles Nash

    Yeah PhotoBucket should turn the “B” into an “F” and it would be more descriptive spelling.
    Youtube is stupid too. On youtube using IE-7 they said to upgrade so I went to IE-8. Then it wouldn’t work with Flash-9. So I went to Flash-11 but it only works with Google Chrome or Firefox, not IE.
    Flash-11 is another Adobe security risk like all the other versions in the last 5 years. Bunch of slap-dicks out there.

  • Charles Nash

    Disqus is kind of a cranky POS thing too. I see it hanging up (not just here) on lots of other blogs with endless “bit-twirling” and not putting up the threads. More ‘dork-ware’ by clown-coders.

  • dirtmonkie74

    anyone know how to move multiple pics from the library to albums. really boring moving them one at a time cannot seem to work out how to do it and the organiser button does nothing. turned on easy links this also does nothing. any ideas?

  • autentikk

    absolutely agree

  • Carolyn

    I can’t watch my slideshow in PB it says “There are no images to display as a slideshow” N

  • Rebecca

    I’ve save some important photos there and it was huge disappointed, about 2,000 photos disappeared with unknown reason, I’ve contact the photo bucket team, and it was helpless and they’re haven’t solve my problem. I’m extremely sadness I lose my childhood picture!

  • Ken_Begg

    that’s horrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • C

    What a shock! Who has done this app ‘in’ as in dread and dead?! It SUCKS. Can’t even upload; ultra non user friendly; won’t/can’t use it any more!! Who the heck works on the site anyway? It’s time to say GOODBYE to a once old friend. Adios, photobucket.