Unable to download stock photo - "please check your internet conection".

**Jonopen** · 02 December 2016, 01:22 PM

(Xara Photo & Graphic Designer v12.3)

Anyone had this message when trying to download and insert a stock photo from the content catalogue?

My internet connection is fine - I'm on the same pc posting this and the content catalogue itself is showing the thumbnails to select ok.

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**Mark321** · 02 December 2016, 07:04 PM

Originally Posted by Jonopen

(Xara Photo & Graphic Designer v12.3)

Anyone had this message when trying to download and insert a stock photo from the content catalogue?

My internet connection is fine - I'm on the same pc posting this and the content catalogue itself is showing the thumbnails to select ok.

Jonopen,
I used to have problems with Xara Designer Pro X10. It would only contact the internet if I turned on the wifi only right BEFORE I started the Xara software. I have no idea why it would only work this way and not let me turn on the wifi AFTER I had already started Xara. It was strange but I learned to live with that quirky nature of the software. Maybe yours works that same way.

Hope this helps,
Mark

**Jonopen** · 03 December 2016, 06:04 AM

Thanks for your suggestion Mark I'll give that a try later today, although XPGD is not having trouble connecting in general. It happily manually checks for program updates without complaint.

**handrawn** · 03 December 2016, 08:37 AM

'unable to download.... ....please check your internet conection' is a default notice - does not necessarily mean there is an internet connection problem as such, but that the program cannot connect to the xara servers for this particular operation - that could be an issue on your computer [catalogue routine timing out / blocked by firewall for example] - or it might just be on their servers

**Jonopen** · 03 December 2016, 11:02 AM

Thanks handrawn for the info.

I've since found a comprehensive trouble shooting help 'wizard' (I think that's what they used to be called) within the Xara support section:

http://support.xara.com/index.php?/T...er/Step/View/5

I've now been through all their suggestions, some of which are quite long winded and more technical than I would have like to have gone into, like performing a 'Clean boot', but alas I still can't download stock photos. I can however now download Xara content from the content catalogue, just not the photos.

The last step is to create a log file, which I have done and will send off to technical support.

**Mark321** · 03 December 2016, 02:25 PM

Jonopen,

I don't always use the built in Xara "stock photos" thingy. The reason why is I get MORE photo choices to choose from if I just go to Pixabay and get the photos myself. Sometimes I have unusual requests that gets me little or no choices at all through Xara. So, I often do this myself without Xara and it lets me have more photos.

**Jonopen** · 03 December 2016, 04:43 PM

Hi Mark321, going directly to Pixabay was something I tried first when checking my internet connection. Like you, performing a general search for example for 'fish', does seem find more photos.

To be honest I don't actually need any stock photos just at the moment, it's more of a point of principal that it should work but doesn't (for me at least). I'll post the outcome here.

**Jonopen** · 16 December 2016, 01:55 PM

Update: I gave up on this problem!

The last info I had from Xara support said: "There is error code 800c0008 which means something is interrupting the connection but we can't say what exactly it is". Fair enough!

As I don't have this issue downloading anything anywhere else on my PC system I'll just live with it. I can download stock photos directly from Pixabay and thankfully the rest of the content catalogue downloads ok.

**angelize** · 16 December 2016, 05:06 PM

I'm able to import stock photos and images from the content catalogue with out problem. I don't know if it's now fixed or if it may be some thing that just doesn't effect every user.

As for the fact that you get way more images by going to pixabay its self rather than downloading from the CC, I have asked Xara about this before and this is a limitation imposed by pixabay. Their API is designed to limit the number of search responses you can get via a 3rd party app, Xara can not change this. Pixabay wants you to go to their site so you can view the advertising that pays the bills

**Jonopen** · 16 December 2016, 09:49 PM

I've been thinking about this, and have worked out that my problem only started when I upgraded to Photo & Graphic Designer 365. I can't remember if the previous version (11) had the option to download stock photos or not, but I definitely could at the time using Web Designer 365 Pro, which now also suffers the same problem following the upgrade. The strange thing is I can search and see the results as thumbnails, I just can't download anything.

Interesting about the limiter imposed by Pixabay. It's very effective in my case