conditional returns result, but doesn't

Question

EE 2.5.3 MSM 2.1.4

9 site MSM install where this code is on site 9 calling content from site 1. All content is pulled correctly except this field.

I have the following conditional which is returning the html inside the conditional correctly.

{if press-image}
<p class="press-image">

    {!--
    <img src="{press-image}" alt=" " height="120" width="160" class="pretty-box"/>
    --}

    {exp:ce_img:single src="{press-image}" height="120" width="160" class="pretty-box"}
</p>
{/if}

However, the source for the image is returning blank. This happens regardless of whether I'm using CE Image or not. I've also tried placing {press-image} by itself in the template and it returns nothing.

I'm not sure why the conditional would work but not output the field that is checking. Any ideas on why this would be happening?

***UPDATE*****

More code as per lisa's request in the comments

{exp:channel:entries channel="press" site="default_site" disable="member_data|category_fields" category_group_id="2" limit="5" paginate="bottom"}
<article>
    <!-- Blog Post -->
    <section class="blog-post">
        <!-- Blog Post Title -->

        {if press-image}
        <p class="press-image">

            {!--
            <img src="{press-image}" alt=" " height="120" width="160" class="pretty-box"/>
            --}

            {exp:ce_img:single src="{press-image}" height="120" width="160" class="pretty-box"}
        </p>
        {/if}

        <header>
            <h3><a href="/media/{url_title}">{title}</a></h3>
        </header>

more code here
</article>
{/exp:channel:entries}

Also tried the following in the middle of the channel:entries tag but not in a conditional and it output nothing.

{press-image}{path}/{filename}.{extension}{/press-image}

**UPDATE 2******/ Have now created a new test template that contains only the following code - problem persists.

<div id="blog">
    <!-- Begin Blog Post -->   
    {exp:channel:entries channel="press" site="default_site" disable="member_data|category_fields" category_group_id="2" limit="5" paginate="bottom"}
    <article>
        <!-- Blog Post -->
        <section class="blog-post">
            <!-- Blog Post Title -->

            <p class="press-image">
            press   

                <img src="{press-image}" alt=" " height="120" width="160" class="pretty-box"/>


                {exp:ce_img:single src="{press-image}" height="120" width="160" class="pretty-box"}

                {press-image}{path}/{filename}.{extension}{/press-image}

            image
            </p>

            <header>
                <h3><a href="/media/{url_title}">{title}</a></h3>
            </header>
            <!-- Blog Post Date -->
            <div class="date">{entry_date format="%M  %d%S %Y"} <br /><a href="/media/{url_title}" style="font-size:110%;">Read More&hellip;</a></div>

        </section>
    </article>
    {/exp:channel:entries}
<div>

Below is the source code on the front end of the site.

<section class="blog-post">
            <!-- Blog Post Title -->

            <p class="press-image">
            press

                <img src="" height="120" width="160" class="pretty-box">






            image
            </p>

            <header>
                <h3><a href="/media/some-url-title">Entry Title Here</a></h3>
            </header>
            <!-- Blog Post Date -->
            <div class="date">Jun  30th 2013 <br><a href="/media/some-url-title" style="font-size:110%;">Read More…</a></div>

        </section>

**UPDATE 3****

I have now put the following code on both the site1 site and the site that is causing trouble. In site1 the image url is output, in the trouble site nothing is output

{if logged_in}
    a{press-image}b
{/if}

Answer 1

Ok, so this is kind of cool and baffling. I'll just write through the troubleshooting I did. Check out the template additions. I couldn't get the variable to output either, so I tried throwing in some searches since search: is supposed to work with the MSM now

So the first channel entries tag pulls the entry but will not pull the variable out. Crazy. The second entries tag won't pull anything since press-image has stuff.

I threw in some conditionals with very obvious "answers" - and it does output the content for when the variable isn't empty - but it won't output your actual content. See this:

 {if press-image != ""}PRESS IMAGE IS NOT EMPTY DARNIT!{/if}
{if press-image == ""}PRESS IMAGE IS EMPTY Y'GOOFY GAL{/if}

Output this:

PRESS IMAGE IS NOT EMPTY DARNIT!

The only thing I can think of here, since press-article works, is some conflict between the MSM and the File Manager - since this is a file field. I searched and found this bug:

https://support.ellislab.com/bugs/detail/17510

but that says it's fixed. I'm not sure in what version it was fixed, so you might try those code mods they recommend?

My template test code:

    {exp:channel:entries search:press-image="not IS_EMPTY" channel="press" site="default_site" disable="member_data|category_fields" limit="5" paginate="bottom"}
<h1>title: {title}, id: {entry_id},  channel short name: {channel_short_name}</h1>

    a{press-image}b
{if press-image != ""}PRESS IMAGE IS NOT EMPTY DARNIT!{/if}
{if press-image == ""}PRESS IMAGE IS EMPTY Y'GOOFY GAL{/if}


{/exp:channel:entries}

<hr />

{exp:channel:entries search:press-image="IS_EMPTY" channel="press" site="default_site" disable="member_data|category_fields" limit="5" paginate="bottom"}
<h1>title: {title}, id: {entry_id},  channel short name: {channel_short_name}</h1>

    a{press-image}b



{/exp:channel:entries}