Forum Discussion

kgeriksson's avatar
kgeriksson
On our wavelength
4 years ago

Can’t access pictures on Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp

Hi,

All of a sudden (since 3G/4G stopped working in my area) I can no longer download photos from Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp via Virgin wifi on my phone or laptop. Other apps and sites work fine - I can stream BBC iPlayer, YouTube etc. There is no problem with the speed either. 
What could the problem be and how can I fix it? 
K

  • ravenstar68's avatar
    ravenstar68
    4 years ago

    It might be worth running a tracert to cdn node to see if they can get there.

    Using chrome on the laptop right click on one of the image placeholders and select "Copy image address." open notepad and paste it in there, you'll see something like this:

    https://scontent.fgla3-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-0/s600x600/214867168_10220414916549710_5066565597755746003_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=b9115d&_nc_eui2=AeFgKCzY6--Q3aNrdoolWcSXDK3UutKRi3QMrdS60pGLdHAp2xTG_7bDU1ehC3CxGXY&_nc_ohc=iz8CtellRv4AX92OW4g&_nc_ht=scontent.fgla3-1.fna&tp=7&oh=f69b143a1735f084151e0c4fdf133bc5&oe=60E9947A

    I've coloured the bit we need for the tracert in green.

    Open a command window and type in the command:

    tracert -4 scontent.fgla3-1.fna.fbcdn.net

    Note: The -4 switch is unnecessary for you, it just forces the tracert to go over IPv4, leaving it in won't hurt though.  You shouldn't see a long trace as CDN nodes are usually placed on the users own ISP network by the various companies.

    tracert -4 scontent.fgla3-1.fna.fbcdn.net

Tracing route to scontent.fgla3-1.fna.fbcdn.net [86.189.107.148]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     1 ms     1 ms    <1 ms  BTHUB [192.168.1.254]
  2    10 ms     4 ms     4 ms  172.16.19.151
  3     9 ms     8 ms     8 ms  81.130.106.16
  4     8 ms     9 ms     8 ms  81.130.106.17
  5     8 ms     8 ms     8 ms  86.189.107.148

    Give it a try and let us know what you get.

    sophist 

    I'm on a BT network here, so can you do a tracert for comparison?

    Tim

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    4 years ago

    Why has 3g and 4g stopped working? That would only be temporary due to engineering work. 

    If your local coverage has dropped back to 2g that has very limited bandwidth and only very low resolution pictures will get through. 

    • kgeriksson's avatar
      kgeriksson
      On our wavelength
      4 years ago

      Yes that’s an O2 issue in my area. Which means I can’t get the access to apps via cellular data. So when I’m away from my house and using cell data these apps work fine. When I’m on virgin broadband, they don’t.

      • jbrennand's avatar
        jbrennand
        Very Insightful Person
        4 years ago
        Access to many of those sites is restricted if you have "childsafe" activated on your account.

        Log on to the account and click the "My Apps" tab, and navigate to childsafe and if its on - switch it off and try again
  • japitts's avatar
    japitts
    Very Insightful Person
    4 years ago

    Are you using a Virgin Mobile connection to do this? Or a Virgin Broadband connection?

    You've posted in the broadband section of the forum, but referred to 3G/4G which are mobile technologies. WiFi is just a connection from your device to a router, and that could easily be a homehub (broadband) or hotspot (mobile device)

    • kgeriksson's avatar
      kgeriksson
      On our wavelength
      4 years ago

      I’m using Virgin Media broadband and Wifi. 
      the 3G/4G issue is a separate thing (with O2) and localised to my area (a cellular dark spot in London..!) but means the cell can’t make up for what seems to be an issue with the broadband. In other words, when I’m on 3G away from my house I have no problem getting the pictures/apps to work.

  • kgeriksson's avatar
    kgeriksson
    On our wavelength
    4 years ago

    Hi forum team at Virgin - it’s been months now and I still have the same problem. Any news? Thanks 

    • duosonic's avatar
      duosonic
      On our wavelength
      4 years ago

      Dear VM

      pleeeeeeeese! It is 5 months that I have flagged this issue. 5 months!!! 

      Thankyou

      • ModTeam's avatar
        ModTeam
        Moderator
        4 years ago

        Hi,

        We apologise for inconvenience caused with this issue and our Support Team are looking into this. In the meantime, please keep updating this thread and refer to Message 83  and paste your traceroute on this thread (omitting your personal IP address) as they will be checking back on this thread.

         

        Thanks,

        The ModTeam

  • sumasubv's avatar
    sumasubv
    Joining in
    3 years ago

    I've the same problem on my Wifi as well. Unable to see any pictures or videos on Instagram or Facebook on Laptops or mobile phones.

    Can someone please guide me the latest solution on this one?

    • Adduxi's avatar
      Adduxi
      Very Insightful Person
      3 years ago

      Read message 99 for the “solution” Invest in your own Mesh system. 

    • Matthew_ML's avatar
      Matthew_ML
      Forum Team
      3 years ago

      Hey sumasubv, thank you for reaching out today and a warm welcome to our community. I am so sorry to see you cannot view any images or download them.

      Please can you let me know is just on WIFI, how is it on mobile data? 

      Also have you deleted and redownloaded the apps, or do you access these sites through their website? 

      I've had a look on our forum and there are great tips and advice here on this issue, it might be worth a quick look at what our amazing members have said here.

      How long has this also been happening for? 

      Please do let me know, thanks. 

  • gunslinger238's avatar
    gunslinger238
    On our wavelength
    3 years ago

    Just to let you know this is still a problem that needs an answer. YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp media and Google Play Store - none of them are working on my WiFi.

    Yes I can confirm it is just an issue on my WiFi - yes it works fine on mobile network and on other Virgin Media networks.

    No it is not an issue with my phone - it affects all Android devices on my network.

    No, a Hub reboot doesn't work, and no I don't have Childsafe turned on. I have been through all of this with your various technical support teams.

    Please can someone just grip this problem and sort it out. I'm paying for a partial internet service when I could easily switch to BT.

    • dubmill's avatar
      dubmill
      Joining in
      3 years ago

      For your information, I had a similar problem and wrote about it on this forum. I could not load images and videos on Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp (all Meta services). And I could also not download anything from Google Play Store. I could however load videos on YouTube.

      I gave up following or updating the topic as no clearcut answers were provided, and I resigned myself to not being able to use my Virgin Media connection to load images and videos on Meta services, or to download from Google Play Store.

      However, all the above recently started working again for me. This followed scheduled Virgin Media engineering work in my area on 12 October. Following the engineering work, I noticed that my IP address is now different. I assume this is why the above websites and services have started working again for me.

      So it appears that there may be no fix for your problem unless your IP address changes.

      • bkwt's avatar
        bkwt
        Tuning in
        3 years ago

        I've had the same problem for about two years now. No one at Virgin will accept the fact that it is an IP address issue. They don't seem interested in fixing our problem.

        I can confirm that whenever VM are doing some engineering work in my area, Facebook and Instagram are working fine again until the work is done. Then, I'm back with a partial internet service.

    • gunslinger238's avatar
      gunslinger238
      On our wavelength
      3 years ago

      Update - I had a Virgin Media engineer come out today and change the router. Problem is sorted.

      If you read back through this thread, you'll see this answer has been around for ages. Hopefully, this can be fed back into the system so that when others ring Virgin about this problem, a change of router is offered as the solution, rather than forcing customers into a battle of attrition to get the solution they need.

      I imagine you're all given crib sheets or something similar. If this solution is added to it, it'll save you, and us, from asking/answering questions about pinhole resets or updating our phone software.

      This is the solution, it's written down here, please learn from this and save yourselves a headache.

      • duosonic's avatar
        duosonic
        On our wavelength
        3 years ago

        Wow

        as you can see I gave up long ago and bought my own router and watched with my head in my hands for the last year all the people going through the same routine - reset, parental lock, turn it off/on etc 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️

        the question is therefore how did you get the new router because in the dozens of hours on the phone and on this forum it was the golden egg I could never get near.

         

  • bkwt's avatar
    bkwt
    Tuning in
    3 years ago

    Update -

    After a two-year battle, I'm happy to announce that someone at VM actually listened and helped! I've just installed my new Hub and the problem is fixed.

    All social media are working properly on all devices.

    As easy as that.

    • Chris_W1's avatar
      Chris_W1
      Forum Team
      3 years ago

      Hi bkwt, thanks for the message and welcome back to the forums. 

      I am glad to hear that this is now resolved. 

      Please let us know if you need anything and have a good day. 

      Kind regards, Chris. 

      • duosonic's avatar
        duosonic
        On our wavelength
        3 years ago

        hi there

        can you let me know how i can also have this service. As you can see i posted many times on this thread and had no luck at all but it has also been a problem for over 2 years for me.

        Thankyou

  • Kerrigoonaz's avatar
    Kerrigoonaz
    On our wavelength
    2 years ago

    I'm having a similar type of issue that started ever since they pushed the most recent firmware out to my router about 2-3 days ago. Webpages load slowly sometimes not at all unless I refresh again. Sometimes the webpages load but Photos or videos take a age to load or load up in very low quality or just don't load at all. YouTube seems to be working fine from my experience, but Twitch constantly buffers unless you refresh a streams a few times and it somehow finds a decent connection. The wife said she's having trouble with TikTok videos not loading and buffering. It's strange behaviour because my speeds seem to be ok when doing speed tests and such.

    • Kath_P's avatar
      Kath_P
      Forum Team
      2 years ago

      Hi Kerrigoonaz, 

      Thanks for your post and apologies to hear you're having issues with your connection. 

      I can see you've already spoken to my colleague and checking things this end, I can see you have an engineer already booked to come and visit you. 

      Please keep your post updated with how the visit goes. 

      Many thanks, 

  • Stickynblue's avatar
    Stickynblue
    Joining in
    2 years ago

    Have been with Virgin Media for just over 2 months now and have had numerous issues from damage to my property caused by the engineer to the installation of an old hub 3 (May 2023) which gave poor signal. In response to my complaints, VM finally came and replaced the old hub 3 with a hub 5. Now I am having the exact same issues with Facebook, Insta as everyone else describes on here.

    I can not believe this is a known fault and has not been fixed in over 2 years since the OP posted this issue. I'm not going to raise another complaint with VM until my first one has been resolved. The complaints procedure is drawn out, disjointed and frustrating and the thought of running another complaint alongside my original one terrifies me.

    The only way I have been able to get Meta services to work properly using VM is via a VPN which isn't ideal. As already mentioned on this thread, you shouldn't have to circumnavigate some block placed on VM issued IP addresses when accessing the web.

    My experience of Virgin Media in these 2 short months has been completely shocking to the point that I miss Sky Broadband (and that's something I never thought I'd be saying). If they had full fiber in my area, I would drop VM in a heartbeat and never look back. Be seeing you in the complaints section VM.

    • Tom_W1's avatar
      Tom_W1
      Forum Team
      2 years ago

      Hi Stickynblue thanks for your post here in the Community although we're sorry to hear of the concerns you've raised with your Hub 5 and Meta services not working through your broadband.

      Do you know if it is just via WiFi this doesn't work or is it the case through ethernet as well?

      Can you please also try a full factory reset to see how you get on too please?

      Many thanks

      • Stickynblue's avatar
        Stickynblue
        Joining in
        2 years ago

        Read this thread from start to finish and tried most of the recommendations. Performed a factory reset with no effect.

        It does affect devices connected on WiFi and my PC which is hooked up by ethernet.

        Meta services will only work correctly when used over a VPN. I don't have licences for all my devices so this is not a fix.