Getting Pinterest titles and descriptions back

[hoodsmom]

I was so bummed (really, really annoyed actually) when Pinterest changed its API so that titles and descriptions don't show on my individual boards. I have tons of process notes, graphics instructions and origami diagrams that I uploaded from my own computer with custom notes and needless to say, it's not easy to tell from the image alone what the pin is about. Same would apply for anyone pinning recipes. Pinterest acknowledged the concerns of those of us who complained but it didn't sound like they cared.

Some folks at Reddit figured out two ways to get around this and I've tested both and they work (at least for now) - which is great news b/c I was about to go looking for an alternative.

• 
  You can view your board without logging in. (I thought you'd need one of the browser extensions that allows you to browse Pinterest without logging in but in the top right corner of the site under the ellipsis, there's a "turn off requests to log in" option - I haven't tested to see whether the setting sticks, though) and then you simply type your pinterest address (pinterest.com/username) into your url bar and dismiss the login screen. One Reddit user says she opens an incognito tab or window to do the browsing so she doesn't have to log out of Pinterest which she normally stays logged in at. If you're just browsing your own pins (not uploading or organizing or searching only your pins or searching secret boards) this works pretty well, especially if you're browsing a board with only a few pins.

• 
  You can invite a dummy account to share (collaborate with you on) the boards you want titles and descriptions on. I used one of my spare email addresses that I use for primarily catching spam and set up a dummy Pinterest account. Then I shared a board with the dummy account. My guess is that Pinterest (if they have any brains at all) will not eliminate titles and descriptions from shared boards because if two people are collaborating on a board, how would one person know what the other person pinned without a title or description? The disadvantage is that you have to share each board you want titles and descriptions on individually, so there's a little more work up front. OTOH, once you invite the dummy account to one board, it shows up as a person to invite in your real account, you can invite the dummy with one click per main account board. The invites show in the dummy's Pinterest account, which can quickly be accepted. If the main board has subsections, all of them are shared once you share the main board. The sharing technique works on secret boards.

 

[AZK]

This is good information to have! I'm not a heavy Pinterest user, but I did notice that all my descriptions and titles had disappeared.

 

[faerywings]

I noticed that too and was hoping that they would fix it. Thank you for sharing the "fixes" for what they are worth.

 

[bcgal00]

I tried the logging out and then typing in my pinterest page and yes, I could then see titles....whew...what a relief.

 

[marijke]

thank you for sharing ...

 

[hoodsmom]

I think Pinterest is doing some weird things to their site today. The good news is that they might be putting titles and descriptions back. The bad news is that those are showing up inconsistently (even on my shared board) and sometimes titles and descriptions are disappearing after a page refresh. And when I enter things in the "note" field (which seems to be what description is called if you pin from the web instead of your computer) sometimes the entry doesn't stay. Cross fingers and things will settle down in a few days or weeks.