COPY IMAGE of a “.PNG” into Gmail

Hi Harry.

I'm sure there is a technical reason behind this, but I'm not a very technical person.

 

I just tested your scenario, using W7 and FF.  I get the same result.

 

One work around for this would be, instead of just saving as a draft (and not being able to copy that image and paste it into a new message), send yourself the message.  Now you can copy and paste the image into a new message.

 

At least, that's how it worked for me when I tested.

 

When you send yourself the image (instead of letting Gmail save as a draft), you can assign a label - at the bottom right of the compose screen, click the 3 dots - select "Label".  That way, images you want to preserve to use later will be neatly stored under that label.

 

Let me know if this helps.  Again, as I mentioned, there is probably some technical explanation for this behavior but I don't know what it would be.  :o)

PS:  Another option would be to save the image into a folder on your computer.  I do this all the time with screenshots and other images I "copy".  I have several folders on my computer exactly for this purpose.

Thanks, Ronna, for taking the time to respond.

I tried what you suggested over the last couple days, time permitting (!), and ...

unfortunately, the results were unpredictable.

I did 20 COPY IMAGE of a ".png" cartoons, and pasted them, one at a time,

into Gmail.

Then I emailed it to myself, called it "Original" on Subject line.

Upon opening it immediately, it had all 20 inline.

Then I did a COPY and PASTE into a new email msg.  Checked, and all 20 were there in the COPY and saved it into a Draft  with "COPIED" on Subject Line (In my activities, I cannot send immediately, but need to wait for more info to come, which may be a day later or so).

I waited a day, then opened both - ORIGINAL as well as COPIED..

Results were unpredictable..  One email may be missing, as an example, #4 while the COPIED had it, but the COPIED may be missing #7, which the ORIGINAL had.

Then I tried to repeat the experiment again, with a new ORIGINAL and COPIED,

but I sent the COPIED to myself, rather than save in a Draft ... just to see if I could get different results.

Waited another day or so ...

Same results as to unpredictability of which ones show up and which ones disappear, replaced by the infamous "IMG.PNG" (I think) in its place.

Well, thanks again for your time.  This is enough to make me yank out what's left of my hair!

AND no, I don't get a discount at the barber shop either!!!

So, I'm curious to know - has this worked in the past?  In otherwords, have you recently noticed this behavior has changed?

 

I didn't know you were trying to copy/paste multiple images per message. 

 

I think for your particular work flow, I would not use drafts as a way to "keep" these images.  At least not leave them as a draft but rather send them immediately to yourself.  that's a lot of time and effort involved to simply lose everything.

 

I'm curious to know why you don't save those images on your computer instead?  Copy the image and then paste into something like Paint and save the image on your hard drive? 

 

This is why I'm asking if this a change in behavior from what you have been doing previously.

 

Thanks.

Part of what I do is gather jokes, trivia questions, current events, cartoons, inline photos of animals and travel attractions which usually come with also descriptions, etc., in one email, and then send them to shut-ins and others that are basically home-bound.  It helps them in cheering up their spirits, and give them a little something to do or look forward to, or share with others.  I gather them from various sources, including friends' emails that help contribute. 

These are broken down into about 4 different emails, some of which have the same inline photos / cartoons (some recipients do not want the jokes, etc., and just prefer inline photos with possible descriptions.

All of these various input come in at different times throughout the day, and since I'm not sitting at my desk all the time, I have to somehow SAVE what I have and then come back later to add more, etc.  This could happen 2-5 times throughout the day.

To save on my computer, massage it with Paint and SAVE - it's beyond practical as I really do not have time to save, and then have to Insert into Gmail ...  plus, how do I coordinate those photos that have verbage? 

I tried your suggestion of SENDING it to myself, rather than save it as a Draft.  I still lose an image  (.png)here or there.  About 99% of ".jpg" are good, whereas it's the ".png" that gets lost occasionally.

NO - there has been no change in environment or what I've been doing.  It's just that I finally decided to ask for help, in trying to figure out what's happening and see if anybody out there can help.

Among my friends, I've asked this question and it seems that some have experienced this problem.  None do as much inline photos, etc., like I am doing. 

Thanks for your help anyway....  I've come to the conclusion that this seemingly cannot be resolved; solution is to avoid ANY ".png" files or limit them as much as possible, which I really am reluctant to do.

Hi Harry - thanks for the explanations - and KUDOS to you for this project!!

I tried to play around with copy/pasting into Google Drive, Sheets, etc. but that didn't work at all.

I see your issue about not being at your desk all day and wanting to be able to save these anyway.

 

I haven't tested it myself (trying to find 20+ PNG images to copy inline and test is a bit beyond "my pay grade" (ha! I'm a volunteer!).  Wondering outloud - if you created another account and email it to that account rather than yourself might produce a different result?  actually you might try this with a non Google account, too, to see if that makes a difference.

I'm sorry I really don't have any other workarounds for you - but at least sending them instead of saving as draft seems to reduce the number of lost pictures!

Let me know what happens if you test my "wondering outloud" theory.

Thanks for your thoughts and appreciate the time you took to help me. 

One of my Recipients, well aware of some of my problems, gave me this suggestion to get a website that is 'big' on images with ".png".  It's not my cup of tea, but here it is:  https://www.reddit.com/r/conservativecartoons/

I checked out the first 5 or 6, and if you just do a COPY IMAGE on the image, then Paste it into your Gmail, you will get a good example of a ".png", though it seems smaller than the original, but you can enlarge it if you wish.  For test purposes, I just did some copying, pasting, then the Sending to myself as well as saving in a Draft.  Good luck if you really want to go thru this exercise.

I DID try sending it to one of my alternative emails:  Yahoo and Hotmail, and it didn't seem to improve!

You can't believe how long I've struggled with this issue before finally giving up and asking for help!!!

----

As an aside, I enjoy helping others also.  I taught ESL for a few years as a volunteer, one-on-one, and lessons specifically tailored towards the needs of that one person.

I also set up training classes on Windows, emails, websurfing, safety concerns, etc. at our Senior Center and after a couple years, when it was running smoothly, left it.  I guess I get bored with 'same ole, same ole' after a while.  Does NOT mean I am an expert by any means or know 'everything' - just trying to help seniors, who ... for the most part, wanted to learn email primarily to get photos from their kids and grandkids..  this was a while before the iPhone, as you might guess.

And finally, I kinda volunteer to help teach others on playing bridge.  And my wife is very busy with volunteer knitting, for troops, hospitals, or to sell at the Senior Center which goes to get Seniors with Life Alert.  Together, we also gather comics, pens, personal items to ship to the military overseas as well as items for homeless - and 'bug' our friends to contribute

Currently, I guess I spend about 2-3 hours Daily doing these emails to maybe about 35 people, mostly seniors and shutins.  I don't mind, but it's frustrating when things don't work and I have no idea WHY!  I give it the name "Dailies"   - and it seems to take longer 'cuz of these problems, which are aggravating.

Anyway, that's my 'story' and I'm sticking to it. Hope I didn't bore you with a bit about myself.

Thanks again for all your help; I really do appreciate other volunteers and them also spending time to help others.

Wow, Harry!  You are a very busy person!  And kudos to you for helping so many people!!

 

Again, I'm sorry I don't have a better work-around for your issue, though.  I think emailing them to yourself is probably the "best" way to avoid losing most of the PNGs you copy and paste.

 

I would say if/when you ARE at your desktop computer, you might want to save those images in Paint and store them on your computer.  That would hopefully lessen the # of images you might end up "losing."

 

The only "volunteering" I do these days is here in the Gmail Help Forum and the  Google Accounts Help Forum.  I do check in on my elderly dad once a day - prepare all his meals, manage his meds and doctors appointments, and help him with his "internet/computer" issues.  He can create situations on his computer that I would find next to impossible to duplicate so I seem to have to "fix" things for him several times a week!