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Best answer

WordPress error: Failed to create a media in Instagram for Business

effectivesite
Userlevel 1
Badge

I’m having trouble figuring out how to post a featured image url from a new wordpress post to instagram.

This page showing a zapier zap template makes me think it’s possible:

https://zapier.com/apps/instagram-for-business/integrations/wordpress/183338/share-new-wordpress-posts-on-instagram

 

When I go to use the template though, under the action of posting to instagram, there’s a require field for “Photo” which has no value pre-populated and is required.

 

I’ve tried the values of:

  • Featured Media
  • Links WP Featuredmedia Href:…

But when tested they both give the error:

“Failed to create a media in Instagram for Business”

 

 

What wordpress field value should I be using for the Photo field in the instagram action?

icon

Best answer by ken.a 24 April 2023, 19:07

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This post has been closed for comments. Please create a new post if you need help or have a question about this topic.

13 replies

ken.a
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi there @effectivesite,

Before we dig deeper into this, could you please share a detailed screenshot of how your Zap is configured? Please don’t include/blur out any personal information in the screenshot.

Thanks! 😊

effectivesite
Userlevel 1
Badge

Found the solution here:

If there’s a simpler way, please let me know. If not then you should really update the page below since it’s missleading.

https://zapier.com/apps/instagram-for-business/integrations/wordpress/183338/share-new-wordpress-posts-on-instagram

effectivesite
Userlevel 1
Badge

Hi there @effectivesite,

Before we dig deeper into this, could you please share a detailed screenshot of how your Zap is configured? Please don’t include/blur out any personal information in the screenshot.

Thanks! 😊

 

The zap I was using is set up by the help doc page:

https://zapier.com/apps/instagram-for-business/integrations/wordpress/183338/share-new-wordpress-posts-on-instagram

So it looks exactly like that. If you click that zap to test it out you’ll see there’s no value added for the photo field. I tested the 2 possible available values which were described, but neither of those are right.

ken.a
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi @effectivesite,

Glad to know you were able to get it sorted! 

Unfortunately, there isn’t a simpler way to achieve this since the “New Post in WordPress” trigger doesn’t support direct links to images. We do have an open feature request to support this feature. That said, I have added your email address to the open feature request. That does a few things:

  • Bring this to the attention of the integration developers
  • Help track interest in this feature being implemented
  • Allows us to notify you via email if this feature becomes available in the future

While I don't have an ETA on when this feature might be implemented, we will notify you via email if it is!

I apologize we don’t have this feature at the moment. Let me know how I can assist you further. Always happy to lend a hand. 🤗

effectivesite
Userlevel 1
Badge

I have added your email address to the open feature request

 

That’s great. Thank you very much for your response Ken. That feature would be great and I’m glad there was a way to get it sorted in the meantime. Trying to get Zapier handling as much as possible :)

Cheers!

Brem
Userlevel 4
Badge +6

Hi @effectivesite 

You’re welcome! We’ll notify you once the feature request is supported.

AceTrainerK

Hi @ken.a and @Brem 

 

I am stumbling upon this thread two months later. If i am reading this correctly, then what is the point of the “Share new Wordpress posts on Instagram” template? Why is it offered? It is the reason I signed up for Zapier, literally, and after hours of trying to get this to work, I find this thread that says it’s not even possible? 

ken.a
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi there @AceTrainerK,

I totally get where you're coming from and I understand that it can be a bit frustrating. Currently, the "New Post" trigger doesn't directly provide the URL of the image. However, we do have a workaround that's been shared as the Best Answer in this Community post:

In the meantime, I've noted your interest in having the "New Post" trigger in WordPress return the image URL directly, without needing a workaround. While I can't provide a specific timeline for when this feature might be implemented, rest assured that we'll keep you updated via email once it has been implemented.

Also, if you'd like some assistance in setting up the workaround, please don't hesitate to let me know. I'm here to help and would be more than happy to guide you through the process.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

 

effectivesite
Userlevel 1
Badge

Hi @AceTrainerK,

Thought I’d share my setup for this since while it takes a few extra steps, it works well.

I’m pulling both the image from a new wordpress post and the heading/excerpt and including that in the instagram post. The two issues with that were that the image couldn’t be pulled directly as this thread described, and that when the headline and excerpt were pulled it was including html in the output. To fix this I did the flow below, then the instagram/social post.

 

The first Action pulls the image with:

  • app: Webhooks by Zapier
  • event: Custom Request
  • Method: Get
  • URL: Links WP Featuredmedia Href

The next two pull the title, then excerpt and remove html:

  • app: Formatter by Zapier
  • event: Text
  • transform: Convert HTML to Markdown
  • input: Title / Excerpt (one per event)

One other note is that everytime Zapier was checking for new posts, it’s pulling the text and data from the last 100 posts every single time and that’s every 2 minutes which is over a mb of data each time. If you set up this type of zap individually for each social network then it can be pulling literally GBs of data per day and is a terribly inefficient method, so I ended up migrating all of the social posting to a single zap because then it’s only pulling all 100 posts a single time every 2 minutes instead of every 2 minutes x number of networks posting to. 

 

I’ve been using this for the social profiles of the site https://pricebuildings.com and have a zap set to post to all the social profiles when a new wordpress post comes up. So far so good.

 

Hope that helps.

Peter

P

I just found this thread after trying and failing (and to my surprise succeding) testing different methods. 

 

First I found one that worked but it is grabbing the latest? image on the wp post. If the post has has an image different than the featured image, then it grabs that one. Annoying!  so nevermind it. 

Then I found this thread to get the actual featured image. I just tested it and it worked! (thank you Peter!)  now my question is that I have a free account, and webhooks which does the magic shows as premium app. I only tested my zap.

The feature image should be - must be - the main “item” to share from WP to IG, or from anywhere to IG, as you can’t post in IG without an image precisely. 

I really hope this is added soon because it makes Zapier much valuable than what already is (at least for us content creators). 

Thank you! 

SamB
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Thanks for reaching out here @ProgVan! So pleased that you found the information shared in this thread helpful. 

Ah yes, the Webhooks by Zapier app is premium app and only available on a paid Zapier plan. There isn’t a way to use it in live Zaps while on a free plan unfortunately. I’ve gone ahead added your vote for that feature request to be implemented. Can’t make any promises around when/if it would be implemented by but we’ll definitely be in touch with you over email to let you know if it is!

Also want to give a shoutout to @effectivesite for sharing details of their setup here. Thanks so much for doing that, it’s greatly appreciated! 🤗

P

oh well, the test worked so I guess it won’t as a “live” zap. 

Thansk anyway, the feature MUST be a priority for the IG action to work, hope it is fixed soon. 

Thanks!

SamB
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +11

Sorry about that@ProgVan. Adding you too the list of interested folks does help to increase it’s priority but I can’t give any sort of estimate as to when or if that feature would definitely be added unfortunately. 

I’ve just noticed that there’s another topic for this that’s already tracking interest in that same feature request:


So I’m going to close this one out so we can keep track of everything in one place. For anyone that’s also interested in this feature request, please reach out on that other thread to have your vote added for it as well.

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