P: Facebook interface disabled and FB Publish Service Collections will be eventually removed

[JTA12]

Yes, I'm aware that the interface to Facebook is disabled, but WHY have you removed ALL my published catalogues??? As I have published more than 1000 images to Facebook, I'm now completely blind on which image and when!!!! I have no problem to understand the disabling of the direct publishing, despite the fact that it leaves LR sometwhat crippled in the usability, but why did you remove all my history???????

[GoldingD]

Second off, the Facebook Publish Service is not broke, it is discontinued. This due to changes at Facebook. This is old news going back to 2019. Well, actualy it is broke in that it points to a service (at Facebook) that is no longer available.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/facebook-publish-service-error.html

Neither Adobe nor Facebook have any plans on changing any of this. The Facebook Publish Service in Lightroom is basically useless. 

Incidentally, Adobe still includes the non functional Facebook Publishing Service in brand new copies if LrC, go figure. (it nay or may not work for corporate/commercial Facebook accounts)

[GoldingD]

As for Albums missing at Facebook, not a clue.

[Kelsofly]

Thanks for your replies! The only reason I tried to get the publish service working again was because when I contacted Adobe support, the person I spoke to asked me to try using it, and that might get the albums to show up on Facebook. Thanks for confirming my suspicion that it's no longer funcitonal at all.

That in itself isn't a problem, since I no longer use the plugin, but it is worrisome to me that the albums created using it have disappeared, as I would've thought it was just a "conduit" per se, to get the photos to Facebook. I didn't even think it possible that said albums could later disappear when the plugin stopped being supported. If it weren't only the albums made using the plugin that have gone missing, I'd suspect a Facebook issue, but all the other more recent albums I've created through direct export and importing myself are fine. Wondering if anyone else has had this issue.

[patrycjap39359094]

I have the same problem. My 6 albums with over 800 photos and hundreds of likes just disappeared from Facebook 😞 I want to restore them to FB and I have no idea how. Any help would be much appreaciated 😞 Maybe they are hidden somehow on my profile and I'm dumb 😞 

[Kelsofly]

Sorry to hear it happened to you too! I'm hoping we get an answer on this. 

[GoldingD]

More if a issue at FB

see (ref 1)

(ref 1): https://www.techentice.com/facebook-albums-disappeared-how-to-fix-it/

[Kelsofly]

Thanks for the reply. This was one of the initial routes I took and tried all of those fixes, but it isn't a Facebook problem, as it only happened to the albums made using the Lightroom plugin. It mirrors this issue exactly, but of course has occurred subsequent to that fix: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/facebook-plugin-shows-unauthorized.html 

[GoldingD]

If you are trying to use the old Facebook Publishing Service plugin, then that is not going to work. Facebook no longer allows, at least for non commercial FB accounts, the service that LrC and other applications used for that purpose. Thus was brought up above.

If you are bringing up in LrC, in the Publishing Service section, your old Facebook collection, they should still exists, but other than showing what you previously published, it will be if little value. Oh you could create a collection, and use what is in your Facebook Publisihing service to populatre that collection, But then do what?

ahh, see the workaround, perhaps, in:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/facebook-publish-service-error.html

[Kelsofly]

Yes, as I clarified previously, I am not using the publishing service itself any longer. I should have reiterated this. The same error is occurring as the issue I linked to regarding this specific aspect: "Previously published images and albums are no longer visible on Facebook." This shouldn't occur regardless of the fact that the publishing service has been discountinued.

The photos are backed up on multiple hard drives, as they are from several years ago at this point, but they took time and effort to collate into collections and I am attempting to figure out why they have disappeared so this can be fixed, after a great deal of time spent trying every other option I can find.

[GoldingD]

One interesting new issue testing brought up. I long ago eliminated my FB Albums, FB had caused me concern on owner rights, and I was also, at the time, thinking about clearing what I had stored at FB prior to leaving FB (changed my mind on that)., I still do not use Albums, because quite frankly, my Friends are not so interested in looking at hundreds of images when I am sharing, better to just post a few (from say a vacation) and point to my SmugMug account.  I also, disabled the FB  Plugin when it was no longer of value. Now going back to re-enable and look at the FB plugin, Oh I can enable, but I need to add the service back in, and that fails as authenticating at FB fails (due t method)

[Kelsofly]

Yes, I can see what you're saying! If I didn't live across the world from family and use Facebook as one of the main ways to share photos easily with the most people, I probably wouldn't be concerned with the ablums either. I might just bite the bullet and upload a few of the photo higlights again as it doesn't seem like these albums are coming back. This is why I always ensure I have plenty of backups, after all. I appreciate your time looking into it. 

[GoldingD]

Have you considered subscribing to a photo sharing service like SmugMug? They are built fir the purpose. I would avoid any similar products from companies that are primarily about social sharing as they do not see publishing photos in a photographers view.

Instagram for example, owned by Facebook, same issues, I would not recommend Instagram.

[Kelsofly]

I haven't looked into that particular one, but I will check it out. Thank you! 

[GoldingD]

And the workaround in:

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-classic/kb/facebook-publish-service-error.html

That document is a bit dated so I have no idea if the workaround still works, Would take a lot of time.

[Kelsofly]

Thank you! This is what I do for my photos now as the publishing service started acting up a long time ago before it was discontinued, and it does take a bit more time.

[LukeHoward]

Same problem, although likely it is a Facebook issue rather than Adobe one. I have long accepted that export to Facebook from Lightroom no longer works, but to have the actual albums on Facebook – containing many hundreds of photos – is extremely disappointing. This appears to have happened in the last couple of months.

[Kelsofly]

Sorry to hear this also happened to you. It's definitely a real shame, and I am now going to be much more careful about what I post knowing it can be lost. I suppose I knew nothing was 100% secure, but didn't expect it on this scale. 

[Nick_J]

I have just discovered the same problem as well. I had uploaded dozens of meticulously curated albums to Facebook years ago through Lightroom, covering hundreds of photos. They all seem to have disappeared from Facebook :(. I can't see the albums, I can't see the photos and I can't even see the posts on my timeline either. Something has gone seriously wrong.

Did you try contacting Facebook Support? I just logged a ticket with them, for what it's worth.

Has anyone heard anything from Adobe? I'm guessing they'd have an avenue to discuss with Facebook as well?

[LukeHoward]

Companies such as Facebook where the user is the ‘product’ rarely have a useful support channel, so I hadn’t even bothered trying. Adobe might be a bit better but, I imagine they will also struggle with the distinction between the export to Facebook functionality no longer being supported, and the albums spontaneously disappearing.

[patrycjap39359094]

I wrote to Adobe, they said to contact Facebook.
I filed like 20 tickets to Facebook with no response at all.

[Nick_J]

Why am I not surprised? I've yet to have a good experience with Adobe support, after paying for and using Adobe products for all these years. I'm sure it's something they'd be able to sort out in no time with Facebook - like the way a connector was retired or something needed to have some other flag to let old posts still be available.

[Nick_J]

I've tried Adobe Support tonight as well - basically was told "sorry, we don't support the Facebook integration anymore, go talk to Facebook". Facebook aren't replying, and I pushed the point with the Adobe Support agent and they assured me they will be raising it with their higher ups.

[Kelsofly]

I had the same issue with Adobe where they weren't able to assist, and was told to post here for help. Facebook hasn't responded to my two attempts to raise the issue, which of course isn't surprising, so I haven't bothered trying any more. The fact that it only happened to the albums I uploaded using the Lightroom plugin and no other albums really says to me that it's Adobe related and not just a Facebook issue. Fingers crossed we get somewhere at some point. It's a lot of photos to have to reorganize! 

[iamstephieee]

Hi all. I also just realized today that all of my Lightroom to Facebook photos and albums are missing. Like everybody else, I'm bummed to have lost the FB copies of all of my photos and their comments and everything else. But I also had been using the photo descriptions/comments to keep track of my daughter's milestones, likes, and dislikes, since she was born. Some of those milestones--first step, first tooth, first word aren't recorded anywhere else. I realize it was silly of me now, but I honestly thought FB would be a more stable repository than a physical baby book that could get lost. All this to say, if anyone manages to find a solution to this, please please update. My husband and i are devastated to have lost so much of our daughter's history. 

[Nick_J]

I'm so sorry to hear that @iamstephieee. I don't understand why Adobe won't do anything about this. It looks like the same thing happened back in 2017, and they jumped in and sorted it out pretty quick. You really don't expect to lose years worth of data on a platform like Facebook because of a product direction change that Adobe have made.

Have you tried getting in touch with Adobe Support? They weren't really helpful for those of us that have tried, but at least if there are more tickets getting logged about it they end up doing something.