Why Tumblr shows stale data
Tumblr bakes the preview card into the post at creation time. No refresh cycle, no TTL. A link post from months ago still shows the OG data it originally fetched.
Fixing it
Delete the post and create a new one:
- Delete the link post
- Paste the same URL as a new link post
- Tumblr re-crawls and builds a fresh preview
There is no other way to update a link post’s preview.
The reblog problem
Reblogs are the real headache on Tumblr. Each reblog copies the preview data from the original post. Updating or recreating the source post does nothing to existing reblogs.
If a link post with bad OG data has been widely reblogged:
- You can delete and recreate your original post with correct data
- Existing reblogs by other users keep the old data permanently
- New reblogs of your corrected post will show the updated preview
Prevention
- Test your OG tags before creating the link post – there’s no undo once reblogs start
- Finalize title, description, and image before the link hits Tumblr
- Use our preview tool to check how your URL appears across platforms before publishing