Photopass Problems -- anyone else?

[Hunnybee]

Hello! We were in WDW for 1 week Oct. 19 - Oct. 26. We had pre-purchased PhotoPass +. While there, we of course had as many pictures taken through Photo Pass as possible. My DH had them all uploaded together the last park day of our trip at a PhotoPass shop. When we got home, I found out that MANY pictures were missing -- including family ones in front of the castle, our tradition.

Now, shame on me for not going every day to have them loaded on to our account and checking them. Frankly, I didn't have the time - I have learned my lesson and will make time if we choose to do Photopass again. And, we have never had this many missing before. 1 or two, maybe. More often than not, the pics were just missing the "magic" in the magic shots -- easily fixed by calling customer support.

This time, we were missing at least 5 whole "sessions" -- not just one or two pics from each. So, I called the customer support and waited on hold for ONE HOUR. I really wanted these pics or I would have hung up! I need to say though that once I got to a person, he went out of his way to help me. He spent 1 hour on the phone with me, searching everything he could. He was able to find one session. Another session was over-exposed, so that was why it hadn't shown -- but we were still missing 3 sessions, not to mention some sessions that were missing photos.

Has anyone else had this many problems? I'm just frustrated with this whole thing. And, he recommended I call back before I order the CD to see if any more have shown up. Which, I will do that -- but I'm not looking forward to another long wait time. I have to make sure I have enough time to devote to this.

I just wondered if anyone knew what was going on. We have NEVER had this many issues before. I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth it.

 

[AJ Crowley]

Hello! We were in WDW for 1 week Oct. 19 - Oct. 26. We had pre-purchased PhotoPass +. While there, we of course had as many pictures taken through Photo Pass as possible. My DH had them all uploaded together the last park day of our trip at a PhotoPass shop. When we got home, I found out that MANY pictures were missing -- including family ones in front of the castle, our tradition.

Now, shame on me for not going every day to have them loaded on to our account and checking them. Frankly, I didn't have the time - I have learned my lesson and will make time if we choose to do Photopass again. And, we have never had this many missing before. 1 or two, maybe. More often than not, the pics were just missing the "magic" in the magic shots -- easily fixed by calling customer support.

This time, we were missing at least 5 whole "sessions" -- not just one or two pics from each. So, I called the customer support and waited on hold for ONE HOUR. I really wanted these pics or I would have hung up! I need to say though that once I got to a person, he went out of his way to help me. He spent 1 hour on the phone with me, searching everything he could. He was able to find one session. Another session was over-exposed, so that was why it hadn't shown -- but we were still missing 3 sessions, not to mention some sessions that were missing photos.

Has anyone else had this many problems? I'm just frustrated with this whole thing. And, he recommended I call back before I order the CD to see if any more have shown up. Which, I will do that -- but I'm not looking forward to another long wait time. I have to make sure I have enough time to devote to this.

I just wondered if anyone knew what was going on. We have NEVER had this many issues before. I'm beginning to wonder if it's worth it.

Sorry for the questions, but I'm new to the PhotoPass+. We have one for our trip coming up. What do you out mean having them uploaded each day? Don't you just hand the photographer your card, or am I missing something?

 

[Hunnybee]

I'm probably not using the correct terminology. Yes, you just hand them your card when you get your picture taken. They will scan that card after the picture and it (theoretically) goes on to your card. It stays on that card (and any other cards you use throughout your trip) until you "upload" the pictures -- whether at a Camera Shop in a park or once you are home typing in the card numbers. We have always done it at a park before we go home -- less chance of losing the cards, etc. I'm thinking next time I may have the Photo Shop CMs upload them each day. Then, if I'm missing pictures I really wanted, I could go back and have them taken again. It's a lot more hassle -- time-wise -- but I would get the pictures I really wanted. At that point though, I'm wondering if it's just cheaper to take our own pictures -- I can see it on my camera immediately.

The Customer support person I talked to did say that they seem to have more issues now that all this is connected wirelessly -- the pics are just kind of floating in "the cloud" until end-of-day when they download their camera pictures. But, some of them never materialize.

One tip -- be sure to snap a picture of each card's number using your own camera -- or write the number down and keep it in a safe spot. That way, if the card gets lost, you can still access your pictures by typing in that number.

 

[AmyB2006]

I was missing a few photos, but they "magically" popped up in my account about a week after I got back.

 

[DisGirl819]

We have done PP+ on the last four trips. We never had a problem with missing photos until our October trip. We lost all our photos from Epcot and half our photos from MK. I filled out the online missing photos form, they found the Epcot photos but not the MK ones. I was super disappointed to say the least.

 

[AJ Crowley]

I'm probably not using the correct terminology. Yes, you just hand them your card when you get your picture taken. They will scan that card after the picture and it (theoretically) goes on to your card. It stays on that card (and any other cards you use throughout your trip) until you "upload" the pictures -- whether at a Camera Shop in a park or once you are home typing in the card numbers. We have always done it at a park before we go home -- less chance of losing the cards, etc. I'm thinking next time I may have the Photo Shop CMs upload them each day. Then, if I'm missing pictures I really wanted, I could go back and have them taken again. It's a lot more hassle -- time-wise -- but I would get the pictures I really wanted. At that point though, I'm wondering if it's just cheaper to take our own pictures -- I can see it on my camera immediately.

The Customer support person I talked to did say that they seem to have more issues now that all this is connected wirelessly -- the pics are just kind of floating in "the cloud" until end-of-day when they download their camera pictures. But, some of them never materialize.

One tip -- be sure to snap a picture of each card's number using your own camera -- or write the number down and keep it in a safe spot. That way, if the card gets lost, you can still access your pictures by typing in that number.

I see, thanks for the explanation.

 

[ktlm]

I've done the photopass CD and a photopass book every WDW and DL trip for the last 6 years (which is 1 or 2 a year), with 2 of those being photopass+. I've NEVER had any kind of trouble like I have from our October trip. Their conversion to their new website and system is clearly an IT nightmare for them. You will see posts all over the DIS complaining about missing photos and other issues. Some people on here have been posting that they thought it was because they were using + instead of regular photopass for the first time, but I can assure you it is not. Photopass+ worked exactly the same as regular photopass, just with the addition of you being able to get your ride and meal photos without paying- and we had no issues with it the past 2 times we used it- it is the new website and software for all photopass that is having issues.


First, my photos loaded onto the old website instead of the new which they should not have done, so that had to be sorted out. Then, we had at least 6 or 7 groups of photos missing, along with our entire group's session from ETWB missing. They were able to locate all of those except for 2 sets with us and the castle taken from Main Street (too many photographers in that area to sort through and find them I think) and the ETWB photos (which means everyone in our session lost theirs- and I've seen complaints from 2 other posters that were there different days than us that had the same thing happen). Then, their website starting having issues. I lost a whole weekend three weekends ago because their website was totally glitchy and not working well and then totally crashed for about 3 days. The next weekend, I lost because I could not log in to my account at all- it didn't recognize me. I saw on here that lots of people had the same problem (tip- if this happens to you log into MDE on the Disneyworld website and then click on photopass through MDE- for some reason that works). Also, after the several day website crash, when the website was working again the photpass book software wasn't appearing properly on the screen and you couldn't work with it because it was partially cut off. Lost time trying to sort that out. Next problem, is that every time you start making a photobook and then save it and come back to it later, photos disappear. It is never the same amount of photos- I've had it from 1 to 6, and I can log out and back in without doing anything and the number changes. It claims the photos have been removed from the book because they are inaccessible- but they are always still there and have to be manually put back in. It is always photopass photos too, not the ones I personally uploaded that I took. I spent over half an hour on hold yesterday and got someone very helpful who after messing with it and seeing what I was talking about, put me on hold and went to talk to others about it. FYI- this book issue apparently is happening to lots of people and they are in the process of fixing it. Don't know how long it will take to fix, but they are on it and trying to get it corrected as soon as possible. It has just been one thing after another. To their credit, photopass has given everyone a free 15 day extension on their website- you just have to click and claim it. Also, to their credit because I have had one problem after another and they are still having an ongoing problem they are trying to fix before I can complete my photopass book and my time is running, I was given another 15 days on the phone yesterday. I do believe they are trying to get things fixed- they are just having a total IT disaster right now!

 

[DWillowBay]

Just back from a marvelous 12-day Magical Experience! At first there were only 6 pictures in my account, but within a day, all 209 photos were there and I just received the CD yesterday. There were two photos in my collection that were not of our family Though I'm sure they are lovely people, deleted there photos before ordering our CD. Everything looks beautiful! No problems here!

 

[MickeyMinnie1971]

Some of our ride photos were missing from Epcot and HS. I checked the old website and they were on it for some reason. After spending a long time on hold I was able to get them moved to the new website. We were very pleased with PP+ on our previous trip, but this time it just wasn't great. I don't think we will do it again until things improve.

 

[sharky09]

I had one morning's worth of photos not appearing. I filled out the missing photo form and received an email with the photos within a day. So I'm satisfied...I blame it on our Magic bands. Those are the only photos that didn't show up. Everything that used a card showed up.
Perhaps as a suggestion to future PP's, note when you have photos made in case they don't show up...makes filling out the form much easier!

 

[Hunnybee]

I will fill out the online form for missing photos. Worth a try! Thanks for all the ideas!

It sounds like almost everyone is having the same kinds of issues!

Use PhotoPass at your own risk, I guess!

 

[Hunnybee]

What is the old website? I should check both. I have been using mydisneyphotopass.com.

 

[MickeyMinnie1971]

What is the old website? I should check both. I have been using mydisneyphotopass.com.

I think the old website was used until around September. I was told on the phone Saturday that it would be taken down as of yesterday, but it's still up. I hope this link works.

http://www.disneyphotopass.com/default.aspx?fullsite=1

 

[BrookeMQ]

We went end if October. Have many missing pictures. I did the request and they couldn't find them. I have never had problems before.

I also had a lot of problems with the websites. I ordered the cd in the old site. Not knowing of the new site. Afterwards it told me to get started on the new site. So I uploaded my pictures there. But my credit for the cd wouldn't show up. I got help with that but it didn't cover shipping.

 

[fairestoneofall]

we didn't take a lot of photopass pictures. but i had three i wanted to buy. one of them was supposed to expire last night at 11:59, but they took it down early. i went in to pay and it was gone. i've contacted them and am hoping they can recover it.

 

[BuzzBelleMom]

Less than a week out from our trip and I am beginning to worry about my photos. Am about ready to bite my nails.

 

[Hunnybee]

So if I enter my photopass cards ID on the old site, will that mess everything up on the new site? Or can I have them entered on both sites?

 

[BrookeMQ]

Less than a week out from our trip and I am beginning to worry about my photos. Am about ready to bite my nails.

Make sure you have them take a back up with your camera.

 

[BrookeMQ]

So if I enter my photopass cards ID on the old site, will that mess everything up on the new site? Or can I have them entered on both sites?

I entered on both sites. On the old site I was missing the "magic" from the magic shot photos. But thy showed up on new site.

I also had photos missing on old site that were on the new site. All from same card????

The old site also had photos from our trip over a year ago. I thought they expired.

 

[missangelalexis]

Yes, I too had a ton of missing sessions. We were there Oct 5th-12th and I had to reach out about 5-6 times using the missing photos form to recover the photos. Luckily I have a good enough memory where I could identify some of what was missing and all the ones I reached out about were found. But there may have been some I didn't remember that were never recovered. I know there was one session I realized was missing AFTER I received my CD which was a bummer I've heard several complaints about these types of situations lately which is unfortunate. I will say they were very responsive in finding my photos which was a good thing. But it shouldn't even have to come to that when you're expecting the service to be done right.