Always start here — it takes 30 seconds and eliminates the most common false alarm. Your browser caches web pages and their resources aggressively. If images were temporarily broken and then fixed, your browser may still be serving the old broken version from cache.

Hard refresh the page:

• Windows/Linux: Ctrl + Shift + R
• Mac: Cmd + Shift + R

Clear your full browser cache:

• Chrome: Settings → Privacy and Security → Clear browsing data → Cached images and files
• Firefox: Settings → Privacy & Security → Clear Data → Cached Web Content
• Safari: Preferences → Advanced → Enable Develop menu → Develop → Empty Caches

Test in a private/incognito window — This bypasses cache entirely and gives you a clean view of your site.

Test in a completely different browser — If images show in one browser but not another, it's definitively a browser cache or extension issue.

WordPress image files need specific permissions to be readable by the web server. If permissions are set too restrictively — often after a manual FTP upload, a server migration, or a security hardening operation — the server will refuse to serve the images.

Correct permission values for WordPress media:

How to fix via FTP (FileZilla):

1. Connect to your server via FTP
2. Navigate to /wp-content/uploads/
3. Right-click the uploads folder → File Permissions
4. Set to 755 and check "Recurse into subdirectories"
5. Select "Apply to directories only" → click OK
6. Right-click the uploads folder again → File Permissions
7. Set to 644 and check "Recurse into subdirectories"
8. Select "Apply to files only" → click OK

How to fix via SSH:

# Fix folder permissions
find /path/to/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/ -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

# Fix file permissions
find /path/to/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/ -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

This is the most common cause of all images suddenly breaking at once — especially after moving to a new domain, switching from HTTP to HTTPS, moving from a subfolder to the root, or migrating to a new server.

WordPress stores the full absolute URL of every image in the database. If your domain or URL structure changes, every single image URL becomes wrong.

How to identify this problem:

Right-click a broken image on your site and select "Open image in new tab". If the URL shows your old domain, old HTTP address, or wrong path — this is your problem.

How to fix it with Better Search Replace:

1. Install and activate the Better Search Replace plugin
2. Go to Tools → Better Search Replace
3. In "Search for" enter your old URL (e.g., http://olddomain.com)
4. In "Replace with" enter your new URL (e.g., https://newdomain.com)
5. Select all database tables
6. Run a dry run first to preview changes
7. Uncheck "Run as dry run?" and click Run Search/Replace

Common URL replacements to run:

WordPress doesn't just store the original uploaded image — it automatically generates multiple resized versions (thumbnails) at specific dimensions defined by your theme and plugins. These are used for featured image boxes, gallery grids, archive pages, and more.

If these thumbnail files are missing or were never properly generated — which happens after theme switches, plugin changes, migrations, or PHP memory issues during upload — you'll see broken images wherever those specific sizes are expected.

How to regenerate thumbnails:

1. Install and activate the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin (free)
2. Go to Tools → Regenerate Thumbnails
3. Click "Regenerate Thumbnails For All X Attachments"
4. Wait for the process to complete — this can take several minutes on sites with large media libraries
5. Refresh your site when done

Alternative: Use WP-CLI (for advanced users)

wp media regenerate --yes

When to use this fix:

• Featured images appear broken on the blog index but display fine when you open the individual post
• Gallery thumbnails are broken but full-size images work
• Images broke after switching themes (new theme uses different thumbnail dimensions)
• Images broke after adding a new plugin that registers custom image sizes

A corrupted or misconfigured .htaccess file can block the web server from serving image files — particularly if it contains overly aggressive security rules or broken rewrite conditions.

Check for hotlink protection rules:

Open your .htaccess file via FTP and look for a block like this:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^$ RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} !^http(s)?://(www\.)?yourdomain.com [NC]
RewriteRule \.(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|webp)$ - [NC,F,L]

This is a hotlink protection rule that blocks other sites from embedding your images. If it's misconfigured — for example, if your domain in the rule doesn't match your actual domain exactly — it can accidentally block your own site from displaying images.

Check that the domain in the rule matches your current live domain exactly, including www vs. non-www and http vs. https.

Reset the .htaccess file:

1. Rename it to .htaccess_old via FTP
2. Go to Settings → Permalinks in WordPress and click Save Changes
3. WordPress will generate a fresh, clean .htaccess file

If images are breaking specifically during or after upload — thumbnails aren't generated, or uploaded images appear corrupted or blank — PHP memory and upload configuration are likely to blame.

PHP memory limit:

When you upload an image, WordPress uses PHP's GD or Imagick library to process and resize it into multiple thumbnail sizes. This requires significant memory. If PHP runs out of memory mid-process, thumbnails won't be created.

Fix — add this to wp-config.php:

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );

Upload file size and post size limits:

If large images fail to upload entirely, add to .htaccess:

php_value upload_max_filesize 64M
php_value post_max_size 64M
php_value max_execution_time 300
php_value max_input_time 300

Or add to php.ini:

upload_max_filesize = 64M
post_max_size = 64M
max_execution_time = 300

Check GD or Imagick is installed:

WordPress requires either the GD library or Imagick to process images. Check via Tools → Site Health → Info → Media Handling. If both show as unavailable, contact your hosting provider to enable one.

If your site uses a CDN (Cloudflare, BunnyCDN, KeyCDN) or a caching plugin (WP Rocket, W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache) — these can occasionally serve stale or incorrect image URLs.

Test by bypassing your CDN:

Add ?nocache=1 to the end of a page URL and see if images display. If they do, your CDN or cache has stale data.

Clear your CDN cache:

• Cloudflare: Log in → select domain → Caching → Configuration → Purge Everything
• WP Rocket: Dashboard → WP Rocket → Clear Cache
• W3 Total Cache: Performance → Dashboard → Empty All Caches
• WP Super Cache: Settings → WP Super Cache → Delete Cache

Check CDN URL settings:

If your CDN rewrites image URLs to point to its own domain (e.g., cdn.yourdomain.com/wp-content/uploads/image.jpg), make sure:

1. The CDN zone is active and correctly configured
2. The CDN URL in your plugin settings matches your actual CDN domain
3. SSL is properly configured on your CDN domain if your site uses HTTPS