Elon Musk's X is fixing a bug that deleted photos, links shared on Twitter before 2014

A Twitter glitch has been removing a number of tweets and links that were posted before 2014. X (formerly Twitter) has undergone a radical overhaul, but not everyone is happy with the changes.

Now, the latest change on the Elon Musk-led platform is affecting photos that were shared before 2014. Reportedly, these photos aren't showing up on the microblogging website.

Elon Musk's X is still struggling

According to a report by The Verge, all links and images posted using the platform's built-in URL shortener have been wiped out. This issue was originally spotted by X user Tom Coates.

Notably, Coates shared the search results for his posts from before 2014 that do not show images and links. So, either the images aren't showing or the hyperlink has been removed. While the tweet hasn't been deleted, its content with the image or link isn't visible.

For instance, Coates shared a link to a post of his grandparents on their wedding day, which is supposed to include a "cool picture." However, the image is missing from the post. Apparently, this tweet was posted on December 17, 2013.

However, a famous tweet by former US President Barack Obama that was shared in 2012 still has an image. The folks at 91mobiles believe this one might have been restored. Interestingly, X boss Elon Musk did not give any explanation why this is happening.

The Verge suggests the aforesaid glitch affects posts before 2014 due to some changes Twitter made in 2016. The change reportedly involves adding "expanded URL enrichment" to show previews for linked websites and native attachments that didn't count against Twitter's 140-character limit. The metadata for these additions "began emerging" in December 2014.

Details about the bug are still scarce

In a statement via its support account, X said it "fixed the bug, and the issue will be fully resolved in the coming days." Regrettably, the company did not divulge details about the cause of the bug.

Much to the relief of X users, the platform said it hasn't lost the underlying images or data. To recap, photos and links on Twitter also broke for a short period in March due to API changes.

The company was recently accused of slowing down links to a number of competitors including Threads and other websites. Musk, who has been complaining about X's infrastructure for a while now, has laid off many site reliability engineers in a bid to reduce costs.

Nevertheless, the 52-year-old business magnate recently confirmed that X will pay premium subscribers with at least 15 million impressions in 3 months.