Option Settings/Advanced/Directory chaining is reverting even when I have valid Jalbum License.

Reverting this option is critical deffect in Jalbum and prevents me to use Jalbum correctly. Please fix this. May be that this automatic option revert is aimed for unregistered version. But it should not occur in valid version.

It causes that external files are not processed at all.

I am testing skins Tiger and Minimal.
Both skins are causing this option to malfunction from unknown reason.

May be that I am facing another Jalbum bug or there is another new option. Jalbum does not work properly with already created album. It does not display images outside Jalbum directory and I do not know how to enable.

Older version of Jalbum works with this album correctly. It does not work in latest version 39.7. It seems to be a new bug.

It seems to have nothing with skin. Latest Jalbum does not display these files in its editor.

I will try to prepare some test album with absolute paths, see attached .TXT file in the first text.

Edited by: jafojtik on 2 Aug 2026, 12:01

I have added JALBUM SAMPLE that demonstrates my current problem with the latest Jalbum version.

This has nothing to do with any skin, basic Jalbum functionality is broken.

I desperatelly need to make working album created with older Jalbum version. I do not know what gets wrong.

But please keep in mind that JALBUM SAMPLE has been artifically created/modified because you do not have M:\ external disk.

Edited by: jafojtik on 2 Aug 2026, 12:12

OK, I will look into this.

But this has nothing to do with directory chaining, so please stop looking at that setting. Directory chaining affects how navigation works between folders (directories) in the finished album, i.e., whether the visitor can go directly from Folder One to Folder Two without having to return to the top level of the album first. It doesn't change anything in the Explore view.

Let me redefine the problem, so that we don't end up chasing phantoms.

It appears that when you have images that are linked (instead of being copies), they're not being shown in the Explore view. Is that right?

In my quick tests, it all works properly. A thumbnail for the linked image file is shown, with a little arrow on the lower left corner of the thumbnail to indicate that it's a link. If the path to the image is incorrect, it shows a big "red X" thumbnail, indicating that the link is broken.

Looking at the albumfiles.txt you attached, it looks like you're linking to images on your M: drive. Does that drive letter actually exist on your PC? I can test only on a Mac - this might be a Windows problem, but I can't test that.

Since you're a longtime jAlbum user, it might be a good idea to do a complete uninstall/reintall of jAlbum. There might be some old files hanging around that are causing problems.

This will take only a few minutes, and you won't lose anything:

https://jalbum.net/forum/thread.jspa?threadID=35746

When I still had a PC, I found that this was a recipe for trouble. Even if you have two versions of jAlbum installed, they're both sharing the same configuration files. But those files aren't the same in all versions, especially if the two versions are very far apart (i.e., current vs. a very old version). Collisions happen. I wouldn't do this. I would completely remove both versions, then install the current version, clean.


Most browsers these days do not want to connect to an insecure site.

First, the ZIP file.... Both Brave and Chrome refuse to grab it, but it works in Firefox. But in any browser, if I right-click the link and ask the browser to copy a "clean" link, then paste that into a new tab, it works. It still complains about the lack of security, but you can get around that.

In any event, these days, http is virtually dead - time to make some changes on your server, or get a normal web host.

Looked at the ZIP file, and there aren't any clues in there about what's happening. The albumfiles.txt contents all look perfectly normal. And since the linked image files are on the C: drive, we know that the drive letter can't be the problem!

I'll have to leave this one to David, unless I have an epiphany of some sort after the second cup of coffee (I'm six hours behind you).