When downloading or uploading some PNG images they are shown as completely white
When downloading graphs from ourworldindata.org in PNG format, they are downloaded as completely white images, but with correct dimensions. Same happens when uploading PNGs to WhatsApp. PNGs from other sites (e.g. Wikimedia Commons) appear to work fine. openSUSE Tumbleweed / Firefox 76.0b5. Cannot reproduce on Firefox 74.0.1.
Safe mode didn't help.
All Replies (3)
Hello,
Try Firefox Safe Mode to see if the problem goes away. Firefox Safe Mode is a troubleshooting mode that temporarily turns off hardware acceleration, resets some settings, and disables add-ons (extensions and themes).
If Firefox is open, you can restart in Firefox Safe Mode from the Help menu:
- Click the menu button
, click Help 
and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled.
If Firefox is not running, you can start Firefox in Safe Mode as follows:
- On Windows: Hold the Shift key when you open the Firefox desktop or Start menu shortcut.
- On Mac: Hold the option key while starting Firefox.
- On Linux: Quit Firefox, go to your Terminal and run firefox -safe-mode
(you may need to specify the Firefox installation path e.g. /usr/lib/firefox)
When the Firefox Safe Mode window appears, select "Start in Safe Mode".
If the issue is not present in Firefox Safe Mode, your problem is probably caused by an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration. Please follow the steps in the Troubleshoot extensions, themes and hardware acceleration issues to solve common Firefox problems article to find the cause.
To exit Firefox Safe Mode, just close Firefox and wait a few seconds before opening Firefox for normal use again.
When you figure out what's causing your issues, please let us know. It might help others with the same problem.
How many layers do these images have and do they have an alpha channel?
Firefox may only show the top layer. This can also be a problem with the alpha channel.
Running in safe mode didn't help, as I noted in the question. Different profile, clearing data, etc. didn't help either.
All PNGs I've tried do have an alpha channel (RGB with Alpha color, 8bit depth, Deflate/Inflate compression, noninterlaced) and I haven't been able to spot a difference between those which do work and others which don't. It's not a problem in rendering only—when I download them (e.g. ourworldindata has a dedicated button to download high-res plots) files are completely blank images which are only several KBs large.