[Plugin: NextGEN Gallery] Cannot Set Featured Image After Installing NextGen

I’ve got the same issue. This is what I’ve tried so far:

1) Since I upgraded NextGEN through WordPress I thought I’d try upgrading from scratch. I deactivated the plugin, deleted the folder from the server, uploaded the new files and re-activated it again. Made no difference.

2) Tried saving the featured image in Firefox, IE and Chrome, I have the same problem in all 3.

3) I’ve deactivated other plugins then re-tested the save featured image link but am still having the same issue.

I can’t think what else to try.

I managed to fix it!

I did a general search on Google about not being able to save images and came across the below thread:

https://premium.wpmudev.org/forums/topic/featured-image-hangs-on-save

A member there suggested to use Google Chrome and load the half-page editor (by pressing Ctrl+Shift+J) and see if any errors appear when trying to save the image. This is what I got:

POST https://www.mysite.com/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php 500 (Internal
Server Error)

I then looked up that error on Google and found a few users talk about updating the server mod security/cpanel settings. So I emailed my host and this is what they said:

“Most likely this is a mod_security issue, yes. graqpping for the IP you opened this ticket from in the Apache error log reveals:

*Error message*

I’ve whitelisted against this URI and rule-id. Please attempt again and let me know if the issue is resolved or persists.”

This fixed the issue, I can now finally set featured images again!

Hope that helps.

Thanks! I’ll pass it on to our dev team.

Quite frankly, this surprises me. The issue that NextGen cannot display the featured images in a post has been around for nearly 2 years…

Google search results on this topic…

Basically it shows up when you click “use as featured image” when creating a post. However on the front-end, the picture will never show.

I am working on a local machine without any security plugins and it’s still not working (as in the last 2 years)… Really a pity, such a great plugin and it would be such a great replacement for the built-in media library, if only it could be used to attach pictures to articles in featured thumbnails…

Titus