WordPress Images Not Displaying: Best Ways to Fix It

A picture is worth a thousand words, right?  Well, on your WordPress website, images are worth even more than that. They grab attention, break up text, and help convey your message in a powerful way. But what happens when those images suddenly disappear?

The missing blank space can be a user experience nightmare. Broken images damage your site’s credibility, disrupt user engagement, and can even hurt your SEO. Fortunately, missing images are usually a fixable problem. Whether it’s a plugin conflict, a theme issue, or something else entirely, you can take care of it.

So let’s see what the WordPress experts do to fix the images not displaying.

Why are WordPress Images Not Displaying?

There are several common culprits causing the images to break and not display on the WordPress website. Let’s look at a few:

• Incorrect File Permissions: WordPress needs certain permissions to access and display images. If these permissions are messed up (often during file transfers or server updates), your images might not show.
• Plugin or Theme Conflicts: Sometimes, a plugin or your theme can interfere with how WordPress displays images. This is often due to outdated plugins, compatibility issues, or conflicts between different plugins.
• Broken Image Links: If the actual link (URL) to your image is incorrect or broken, WordPress won’t be able to find it. This can happen if you’ve moved files around on your server or changed your domain name.
• Caching Issues: Your browser or website caching plugins can sometimes hold onto outdated versions of your website, including your images. This means you might be seeing an old version without the correct images.   
• CDN Problems: If you’re using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to serve your images, there might be an issue with the CDN itself that’s preventing the images from loading.
• Image Optimization Gone Wrong: Over-optimization of images can sometimes lead to corrupted files or incorrect display.
• PHP Memory Limits: If your website has a low PHP memory limit, it might struggle to process and display larger images.   
• Hotlink Protection: Some hosting providers have hotlink protection enabled, which prevents other websites from directly linking to your images. This can sometimes cause issues if not configured correctly.

To get a further idea on which of these is causing the image display issue, you will need to troubleshoot the website. Or you can get our WordPress website maintenance package and have us take care of this and other major and minor issues.

WordPress Image Not Displaying in Media Library

When trying to put images in any of the pages or posts, the first step is to upload them in the WordPress media library. But when they are not visible in the library, it can be a little tricky to find the right one.

This issue may be due to incorrect file permissions, database errors, plugin conflicts, theme compatibility, or hidden files. So how do you take care of it? Well, there are a few troubleshooting practices.

• Check Media Library Filters: Make sure you don’t have any filters active in the Media Library that might be hiding your images (e.g., filtering by date, file type, etc.).
• Check Your Uploads Folder: Use an FTP client (like FileZilla) to connect to your website and ensure your images are actually present in the wp-content/uploads folder.
• Verify File Permissions: While you’re connected via FTP, check the file permissions on your uploads folder and the image files themselves. They should generally be set to 755 for folders and 644 for files.
• Deactivate Plugins: Temporarily deactivate your plugins, especially any related to image optimization or file management, to see if that resolves the issue.
• Switch to a Default Theme: Try temporarily switching to a default WordPress theme (like Twenty Twenty-Four) to rule out any theme-related conflicts.
• Check for Database Errors: You can use a plugin like WP-DBManager to check your WordPress database for errors and attempt to repair them.
• Increase Memory Limit: Sometimes, insufficient memory can prevent the Media Library from loading images. You can try increasing your WordPress memory limit in your wp-config.php file.
• Clear Browser Cache: Clear your browser cache and cookies to ensure you’re not seeing an outdated version of the Media Library.

If there are still issues with the images not displaying on the media library, it might be time to seek help from our expert WordPress developers.

WordPress Image Not Displaying in Posts

Even after the image is showing in the media library, there’s an error on the post where you have uploaded it. That’s a clue that narrows down the possibilities. The most common reason behind that is a broken image link.

Also, your current theme might have a bug or incompatibility that prevents images from displaying correctly within posts. Or there’s a caching plugin interfering with image loading.

Plus, the image block itself might be conflicting with the theme or plugins.

Here’s how you can troubleshoot this issue:

• Try to Re-upload the Image: The image link might have gone awry. So the first thing you can do is remove the image and re-upload it. See if that clears the issue.
• Clear Your Website Cache: Clear your website’s cache (if you’re using a caching plugin) and your browser’s cache.
• Deactivate Plugins: As before, try temporarily deactivating your plugins (especially caching or image optimization plugins) to see if that resolves the issue.
• Switch to a Default Theme: Temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme to rule out theme compatibility problems.
• Update WordPress, Theme, and Plugins: Ensure you’re using the latest versions of WordPress, your theme, and all your plugins.
• Check for HTML Errors: Sometimes, errors in your post’s HTML code can interfere with image display. You can use a browser’s “Inspect Element” tool to look for any errors around the image code.
• Test with a New Post: Create a brand new post and insert an image. See if it displays correctly. This can help isolate if the problem is with a specific post or a broader issue.
• Check Your .htaccess File: If you’ve recently made changes to your .htaccess file, it’s possible something in there is interfering with image loading.

If the issue still persists, you can try and redraft the post. That might clear the issue.

Negative Impact of Images Not Showing in WordPress

You’re right to be concerned about images not showing up on your WordPress site. It’s more than just a minor inconvenience – it can have a real negative impact. Here’s why:

• First impressions matter: When visitors encounter missing images, it makes your site look unprofessional and unreliable. It’s like showing up to a business meeting in pajamas!
• Loss of trust: People might assume your site is neglected or even suspect something is wrong, leading them to question the trustworthiness of your content and your brand.
• Poor user experience: Broken images disrupt the flow of reading and make it harder for visitors to understand your content. It may even cause the users to leave your site.
• Impact on the search visibility: A site with broken images signals a poor user experience, potentially hurting your search engine visibility. And you might lose on optimizing the image alt tags.
• Reduced engagement and conversions: Images are crucial for grabbing attention and making your content more engaging. Without them, your site becomes less interesting and less likely to hold visitors’ attention.
• Accessibility issues: People with visual impairments rely on alt text to understand the content of images. If images aren’t displaying correctly, and alt text isn’t properly implemented, your site becomes less accessible.

Addressing the issue promptly is essential to maintain a positive user experience, protect your brand reputation, and achieve your website goals. For this and other similar issues, you can get the services of our WordPress development company.

FAQs on WordPress Images Not Displaying

To Summarize

The blank error boxes where images should be, can be quite frustrating for any user. In WordPress, the reasons behind the disappearing images are often fixable. From plugin conflicts and theme issues to file permissions and broken links, there is a targeted action for every issue.

Remember to check those image URLs, clear your cache, and deactivate plugins to pinpoint the source of the problem. And don’t forget to update your WordPress core as well as the theme and plugins.

If the issues still persist, consult with our WordPress professionals today!