Tumblr

Most people on Tumblr run more than one blog. Connecting once brings across every blog you administer as its own channel, each with its own name and avatar, so the side project doesn’t share a queue with the main blog — or get posted to by mistake.

​

Connect Tumblr

Group blogs you only contribute to are left out, because Tumblr refuses posts to them from an application.

​

What you can post

Posts publish live to the blog, not to its drafts or its queue.

​

The title

A Tumblr post has no title field of its own. Set one in Ocoya and it publishes as a heading above the body, which is what Tumblr’s own editor does with a title. It’s genuinely optional — unlike DEV.to or WordPress, leaving it empty publishes a post that simply starts with your text, which is how most Tumblr posts read anyway.

​

Tags come from your hashtags

On Tumblr, a hashtag typed into the body of a post is just text. The tags that get a post found live in a separate field. So Ocoya lifts the hashtags out of your caption and files them as real tags. Write #packaging in the caption and it becomes the tag packaging, where Tumblr’s search can reach it. Your caption is published exactly as you wrote it, hashtags included. Two details worth knowing:

• Twenty tags maximum. Tumblr accepts more, but only indexes the first twenty for search — past that they’re decoration you can’t find your own post by.
• Multi-word tags survive. Tumblr allows them, and #behind-the-scenes becomes behind the scenes rather than three separate tags.

​

Tumblr’s limits

The body limit is Ocoya’s guard rail rather than Tumblr’s — Tumblr publishes no cap, so this is the point where a post fails in the editor instead of at publish time. Tumblr also limits how much you publish per day: 250 posts and 250 image uploads per account. Those are far above normal scheduling, but they’re per calendar day and they’re Tumblr’s, not ours.

​

Images go to Tumblr, not to a link

Images are uploaded into Tumblr itself rather than linked from Ocoya. A post keeps its pictures even after you replace or delete the creative in Ocoya, and reblogs work off Tumblr’s own copy.

​

How the channel is named

A channel takes the blog’s title — the name shown above its posts. A blog you’ve never retitled still carries Tumblr’s default Untitled, which names nothing in a list of channels, so Ocoya shows the blog’s handle instead, as @yourblog. Renaming a blog’s handle on Tumblr makes it a new channel next time you connect, because the handle is how Ocoya addresses the blog. The old channel stops working — disconnect it and schedule to the new one.

​

Staying connected

Tumblr’s access expires after about 40 minutes, which sounds alarming and isn’t: Ocoya renews it automatically before each publish, so a channel you post to regularly stays connected indefinitely. A channel left completely idle for a long stretch can eventually lapse, because the renewal happens when you publish. If that happens, reconnect it — see Reconnect a channel.

​

Common problems

“Tumblr posts require text or an image.” The post is empty. A title alone, or media alone, is enough — but something has to be there. “Tumblr images cannot exceed 20 MB.” or “Tumblr GIFs cannot exceed 10 MB.” One file is over Tumblr’s size limit. Compress it or swap it out. “This Tumblr account has no blog you can publish to.” The account administers no blog — only contributes to group blogs. Create a blog on Tumblr and reconnect. “Tumblr was connected without posting access.” The authorization was approved without permission to publish. Reconnect and approve posting. “Tumblr is rate limiting this account. Try again later.” You’ve hit one of Tumblr’s daily caps, or scheduled a burst too close together. Space the posts out. “Connection to your profile has expired. Please reconnect.” Renewal failed and the channel needs authorizing again. See Reconnect a channel.

​

Related