Hi @mapsmarketing
I hope you’re well today!
Smush does not keep optimized images separately. It’s optimizing existing images so you cannot just delete “optimized images” – you would remove images from the site.
If you want to “unoptimize” them (get back to before optimization status) the ways to do this are:
1. If in “Smush -> Bulk Smush” settings you did NOT have the “Compress original images” option enabled and “Backup original images” option was also disabled, you can use this free third party plugin to restore images:
https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/regenerate-thumbnails/
Note: in its settings you would want to uncheck the “Skip regenerating existing…” option and then use “Regenerate thumbnails for ALL attachments” button.
2. If in “Smush -> Bulk Smush” settings you had “Backup original images” option enabled, you can use “Restore Thumbnails” option on the same “Smush -> Bulk Smush” page
3. If you did have “Compress original images” enabled but “Backup Original Images” was disabled – then you can either use the same method as in point 1 above but at the cost of slightly decreased image quality or you would need to restore images from backup.
Kind regards,
Adam
