When I click on inline images, they don't open in a lightbox

Briefly describe (1-2 sentences) the Bug you’re experiencing:
Inline images are very small. e.g. on screenshots it’s hard to see what they show. When I click on them, they don’t open in a lightbox.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. create a task
  2. add an inline image into the description
  3. click on inline image
    Expected: image opens in lightbox
    Actual: Nothing happens. Only possible to download the picture.

Browser version: Chrome 109.0.5414.119

Upload screenshots below:

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Hi @Andreas_Bossard,

Looks like you and @Michael_B are running into the same issue (JPG Image Preview Appears Broken). Unfortunately, I’m not able to reproduce it on my end :sweat_smile: Coudl you please send our support team (support@asana.com) a screencast with your dev console open?

It’s super strange. Almost seems intermittent. At one moment we were thinking JPGs were working but PNGs were not. Then we find other PNGs that do preview. So it’s really odd. Maybe task or project driven? Maybe based on size?

On one task we see that the PNG previews if you click on it under the attachments area under description. But if you click on it in the comment threads it doesn’t.

At a loss here.

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@Marie I think we figured it out.

If you paste the image into a comment without text it will preview. All is well.

But… If you paste the image into a comment with text then it doesn’t preview in the comments (but it does if you click it at the top of the task)

So it seems something breaks if you’re including text with the pasted image. Does that help you replicate?

The 2 issues are not the same.

  1. @Michael_B has a problem with attached images in comments, that sometimes can’t be enlarged via lightbox.
  2. @Andreas_Bossard has a problem with inline images in task descriptions, that never can be enlarged via lightbox.

I want to elaborate on issue number 2.
I did a little research and found a task created on January 2nd with an inline image in its description. The image was also added as an attachment automatically. This way I was able to see a larger version of the image because attachments are lightbox-able. A little cumbersome, but possible.
For newer tasks inline images are not added as attachments automatically. But since inline images are not lightbox-able, there’s no way to show screenshots in task descriptions at a useful size which is a massive downgrade. It seems like something changed within the last month or so.

I also read that inline images (a.k.a. the new content editor) will come to comments as well, so the problem will spread there as well.

That’s what the issue is about AFAIK.
I can reproduce it in Chrome and Safari. Co-workers are also able to reproduce it, also in Firefox.

The often mourned about pre-inline-images-behavior of “see attached screen number 3” was also cumbersome but at least we were able to enlarge the image at all. Right now our only option is to download the image and regularly clean our downloads folder afterwards.

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Thank you so much for continue looking into this @Michael_B, but unfortunately, I’m still unable to reproduce the issue. I’ve spoken with some teammates and believe the issue is related to an A/B test we’re running, but I’m waiting on a confirmation. In the meantime, if you can reproduce the issue you’re describing, please DM me a screencast so I can share it with our team (ps: to DM me, simply click on my name and hit Message)

Thanks for answering, Marie.
But what about the actual issue, that the topic title describes and which I provided a little more details for? Can you reproduce that? Is that intended behavior?

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We believe this issue is related to an A/B test we’re running. Here are some options that should help:

  • Cmd (Mac)/Ctrl (Windows) + left click can still open the image in a new tab

  • Right click → Open in new tab can still open the image in a new tab

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Thanks again. Right click works :pray:
(Cmd + left click does not, neither in Chrome nor in Safari.)

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This A/B test is silly. Images are broken, my whole team is annoyed. The Windows version of Asana does not support “open image in new tab.” It has been going on for more than a month. @Michael_B is right - older tasks still work, but around Feb 1 images stopped working as expected. It really is a “massive downgrade” as Michael said.

Yeah, thx Michael :wink:

@Marie would be neat if this topic was not marked as resolved. If it’s an A/B test, it’s broken. If it’s not, it’s even more broken. Marking this as resolved sends the wrong signal to us users who report those issues.

My team has been experiencing the same issues. It’s SUPER frustrating, as we primarily use screenshots to review that tasks are completed correctly. Not being able to enlarge an image in a comment means several extra clicks, in a completely different system, when it used to be only one. Yes, the work around of clicking on an attachment in the description works, but only if there was an attachment to start with (usually sent into the project via email). This really needs to be corrected, as it is greatly affecting the efficiency of our entire team!

Current steps for viewing a task’s inline image attachment:

  1. Click image (selects image), realize hover does the same thing
  2. Click download arrow
  3. New browser tab opens
  4. Browser redirects to download (some browsers auto-close tab)
  5. Go to Downloads directory
  6. Sort by date, since filename is unknown
  7. Open image in separate app or preview somehow
  8. Switch back to Asana to read context.

If history is in any indication, two years from now someone still stumble across this thread trying to understand why it doesn’t work in the intuitive way they’d lke it to. (The only difference is that Asana will have removed this comment you’re now reading.)

The inability for the people in charge to reproduce the issue is a massive red flag.

If the best working theory right now is that an A/B test is to blame, then the person validating the problem needs to be empowered to shut down the test and confirm if the test is indeed to blame. If it turns out that a test is to blame (because it’s intentionally testing breaking established functionality) then the person who dreamed up the test is a bad, bad person. If the test is to blame because it breaks this functionality (but it isn’t specifically testing this functionality) then QA didn’t do their job thoroughly.

Either way, we’re not collectively imagining this - something has changed in our experience that is negatively impacting our workflow. The inability to replicate isn’t a reason to close the ticket, it’s a reason to escalate it.

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If they can’t reproduce, then turning off the test would leave it to us to attempt to reproduce. Either way, we’d know something. Anyone validating a reported bug should have the ability to force themselves into all test variations as a way of attempting to reproduce. If one is attempting to reproduce without iterating through all tests, then it’s an invalid attempt to reproduce.

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I think there’s a more constructive way to go about this than calling people bad. I understand you’re annoyed just as I am. But in the grand scheme of things it’s just that: a minor annoyance.

I’m confident this can and will be fixed. To me this is a communication issue as I stated before. This topic should not have been closed and should not have been mixed with @Michael_B’s issue.

I opened another topic on this issue: Bugs - Asana Community Forum
Hopefully this will get us closer to the issue getting fixed.

Sorry, wrong link, this is the correct on: Inline images can't be enlarged via lightbox

This has been fixed for us. Also for older task descriptions and comments :+1:

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