custom skins dont show up and are "invalid"

Every time i open mcpe, i see that my charactar on the main menu doesnt show up, and the space where steve/alex/custom would show up is blank.
So i would go in and try to select a skin, and the Steve and Alex work just fine, but trying to use a custom skin is a pain. I think this issue was covered before but is still a problem for me, as when i select the skin and the pop up to choose the model type appears it is also blank and often cut in half, and my character still invisible. If i try to actually play it tells me my skins are invalid or corrupt.