# Weibo Picture Store: a browser extension that turns Weibo into a picture host

> Weibo Picture Store is a Chrome and Firefox extension that uploads images to your own Weibo account and hands you the resulting links in four formats, with optional syncing into Weibo albums. It is a pragmatic free image host for people who already have a Weibo account, and its FAQ is unusually honest about the limits of that arrangement.

**Semibold/Weibo-Picture-Store** — 🖼 新浪微博图床 Chrome/Firefox 扩展，支持同步到微相册

- Repository: https://github.com/Semibold/Weibo-Picture-Store
- Website: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pinjkilghdfhnkibhcangnpmcpdpmehk
- Stars: 840 · Forks: 96
- Language: TypeScript
- License: MIT
- Published: 2026-10-20 · Updated: 2026-10-20 · Language: en
- Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/semibold-weibo-picture-store

## The picture host is a social media account

Weibo Picture Store is a browser extension for uploading pictures to Weibo and generating external links to them. It is available from the Chrome Web Store and from the Firefox add-ons site, and the README notes that although Firefox is supported, the documentation still uses Chrome wording throughout.

The approach is worth understanding before anything else. There is no image hosting service involved. The extension uploads to your own Weibo account, and the link it gives you points at that. The FAQ is direct about it: the pictures are uploaded to your Weibo.

That is an ingenious way to get free image hosting, and it has exactly the consequences you would expect. The images live in a social network profile, which means they are subject to the platform's rules and its moderation. The FAQ also notes that Weibo does not support the PNG suffix, so an uploaded PNG comes back with a JPG extension, and that the suffix does not matter for how a browser interprets the file.

For a Chinese developer or blogger who already has a Weibo account and wants somewhere to put a screenshot without registering anywhere else, this is a sensible answer. For anyone who needs a service with predictable retention, deletion and privacy, it is not.

The extension is MIT licensed, the repository is on GitHub under the Semibold organisation, and the current package version is 6.0.3.

## Five ways to get an image in

The feature list covers an unusual number of entry points, and each one exists because of a specific friction in the normal flow.

There is picking an image with a file chooser, dragging an image onto the popup, pasting an image from the clipboard, and a right click context menu entry on an image already in the page. Dragging a folder uploads the image files inside it, which is the fastest route for a batch.

The context menu entry only appears when the extension can actually get at the image, and the same is true for the video frame option. If a page contains an HTML5 video and the native context menu is available, the menu offers to upload the current frame as a JPG image, and the upload then follows the same flow as an image.

When the video sits under another container, or the native context menu has been suppressed by the page, there is a shortcut, Alt+Shift+T, that puts the page into a modified state so the HTML5 video can be captured by the context menu and the native menu becomes usable. The shortcut is listed in the Chrome extensions shortcuts page and can be rebound there. While the page is in that state, other elements on the page cannot be selected with the mouse, and a red and white striped border is drawn around the page to show that the mode is active. Pressing the shortcut again exits it.

The upload history panel lists what you have uploaded, with simple browsing and deleting of the entries.

## Formats, conversion and the quirks that follow

JPEG, PNG and GIF are supported directly. SVG, BMP, WebP and ico are converted to PNG, and the README calls that conversion lossy, which is a fair description of what happens to a raster icon.

An HTML5 video frame is uploaded as a JPG image rather than as a video file.

The format support interacts with the cropping and the link generation in ways the FAQ spells out, and these are the details that decide whether the extension does what you expect.

Cropping applies to JPEG images. A cropped PNG loses its transparency channel, and a cropped GIF becomes a static image, with no animation. Custom crop formats need to be supported by Weibo itself, otherwise the generated address cannot be opened. That last point is a design constraint rather than a bug: the extension cannot invent a crop Weibo will not serve.

The GIF behaviour appears twice in the FAQ. Pasting a GIF becomes a static image, because when a GIF is copied in a browser or an operating system only one frame reaches the clipboard. The same limitation explains why a pasted GIF cannot be animated.

Paste upload has a related limitation: it only works with a copied image file, so copying a file in the file manager and pasting it has no effect.

## Four link formats and two copy modes

The point of a picture host is the link, and the extension gives you four shapes of it: URL, HTML, UBB and Markdown.

The UBB option is the one that dates the tool, since UBB is the forum markup format that Chinese bulletin board systems use. Its presence tells you the target audience is people posting images in forums and comment boxes, and it means the extension covers the two conventions that matter to them.

On top of the format choice there is a single and multiple copy mode. In single mode you copy the current type of address, and in batch mode the same action copies every address of that type, which is what you want after a folder upload.

You can also choose the protocol for the generated address, with http, https and a relative form offered, and you can set a custom link pattern so the addresses follow a shape you control rather than the default.

Three fixed crop sizes are offered along with a user defined size, so an image can be resized on the way in instead of after.

There is also a watermark option, which the FAQ handles carefully: the watermark is a Weibo feature, so the README points at the official tutorial for enabling it on the account rather than documenting an in extension setting.

## Album syncing and the numbers that will bite you

Beyond the upload itself, the extension can sync uploaded pictures into Weibo albums, and it can manage them from the extension.

The album view lets you switch between albums, open an album, remove a picture from an album, copy a picture address by right clicking it, delete several selected files at once with Ctrl or Command held down, and see the most recent modification time of a picture.

The limits are stated as numbers, which is the most useful thing in the FAQ. The maximum image size is currently 20 MB. A single album can hold 1000 synced pictures, and once that count is reached the extension creates a new album, and if the albums are full as well it stops syncing pictures. The number of albums is capped at 100, and the answer for that case is to clear out old albums on the Weibo photo site.

The one that matters most for anyone planning to use this as a host is the deletion rule. At present images cannot be deleted. The delete action in the album view operates on the album rather than on the image itself, so removing a picture from an album does not remove the picture from your account.

Combined with the fact that uploads go to a public profile, that is the constraint to weigh. This is a place to put a screenshot you want to link to, not a place to put a picture you need to take down later.

## Credentials, cookies and the Firefox permission gap

The extension can log in to Weibo automatically using an account name and password typed into its options page, and the FAQ addresses the obvious question about that directly.

The answer is that the credentials you type are stored locally and are not uploaded to any server. By default, though, the extension uses the Weibo cookies already present in your browser, and if you are not logged in to Weibo you are prompted to log in.

The multi account question has a careful answer as well. You can use a different account in the extension than the one your browser is logged in to, but it is not recommended, because a browser can only hold one Weibo login state at a time, so using the second account may force the first one out. If you need two accounts at once, the suggestion is to use the browser's multi user mode, which gives each profile its own cookie jar.

The Firefox note is the practical one for anyone on that browser. If the extension cannot fetch Weibo pictures or uploads fail, the fix is to turn on the optional permission in the extension options, and the README includes a screenshot of that setting.

There is also a log export, available from the context menu on the extension icon in the browser toolbar, which is what you want before filing a bug.

## Building the extension and the project tooling

The repository is a TypeScript web extension project with a Gulp build and a Firefox manifest step.

The package scripts show the workflow.

```json
  "scripts": {
    "test": "pnpm run tscheck && pnpm run build && pnpm run webext:lint",
    "tscheck": "tsc --noEmit",
    "build": "tsc --sourceMap false",
    "webext:lint": "pnpm run apply:manifest:firefox && web-ext lint",
    "apply:manifest:firefox": "gulp apply:manifest:firefox",
    "bundle:chrome": "rimraf dist/chrome && pnpm run build && gulp bundle:chrome",
    "bundle:firefox": "rimraf dist/firefox && pnpm run build && gulp bundle:firefox",
  },
```

The type check is a separate script, and the lint step is web-ext lint against a manifest that has been rewritten for Firefox by a Gulp task first. The Chrome and Firefox bundles are produced by separate Gulp targets, each clearing its output directory first, and there is a bundle task that does both.

The package manager is pnpm 8.10.5, and the repository uses Husky with lint-staged and commitlint for commit message conventions, with a commitlint configuration at the root. The Chrome Web Store upload tool is a development dependency, so publishing is scripted rather than manual.

The documentation set in the docs directory covers the concepts behind the extension, custom crop and link formats, how to obtain or generate a CRX file, known issues, and developer documentation on the project structure and the architecture.

There are no GitHub releases to browse, the last push was on 2026-05-22, and the changelog lives in a separate file at the root of the repository.

## Conclusion

Weibo Picture Store is the right tool if you want a zero cost image host with no account to manage, you already use Weibo, and you are comfortable with your pictures living in a social network account rather than in a purpose built service. It is the wrong choice for anything confidential, since the images sit in a public facing profile, and the wrong choice if you need deletion, since the FAQ states that uploaded images cannot be deleted. Verify first that the image formats and the crop sizes you need are supported, that the album you sync into has room under the 1000 image and 100 album limits, and if you use Firefox that you grant the optional permission the extension needs to reach the image API.

## FAQ

### Where do the images uploaded by Weibo Picture Store go?

They are uploaded to your own Weibo account, and the extension returns links to those uploads. The FAQ also notes that images cannot be deleted afterwards, since deleting in the album view affects the album rather than the image.

### Is it safe to enter my Weibo password in the extension options?

The FAQ states that the account name and password you enter are stored locally and are not uploaded to any server. By default the extension uses the Weibo cookies already in your browser instead.

### What are the size and album limits?

The maximum image size is currently 20 MB. A Weibo album can hold up to 1000 synced images before a new album is created, and the number of albums is capped at 100, after which syncing stops.

### Why do my uploads work in Chrome but not in Firefox?

The README says to enable the optional permission in the extension options, which is what allows the extension to fetch Weibo pictures and complete uploads in Firefox.

## Sources

- [Issues](https://github.com/Semibold/Weibo-Picture-Store/issues)
- [License: MIT](https://github.com/Semibold/Weibo-Picture-Store/blob/master/LICENSE)
- [Project website](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/pinjkilghdfhnkibhcangnpmcpdpmehk)
- [README](https://github.com/Semibold/Weibo-Picture-Store/blob/master/README.md)
- [Semibold/Weibo-Picture-Store on GitHub](https://github.com/Semibold/Weibo-Picture-Store)

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Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/semibold-weibo-picture-store