WordPress and Woocomerce Thumbnail Nightmare

  • I am probably posting this in the wrong place but I have spent days and days going over forums trying to deal with this wordpress image generating nightmare and I have to get this off my chest.

    I hope that wordpress core devs and Woocommerce Devs and Admins will see it and respond and please explain why why why is it so?

    wordpress is now a total monster when it comes to images.

    In combination WordPress + Woocommerce + Most premium Themes there can often be 10 OR more different image sizes getting auto generated when a post/page/product is created.

    Wordpress has 4 sizes..
    woocommercer adds another 3 sizes
    Most premium themes add several additional sizes of their own

    As an example the Enfold theme by kriesi adds its own 12 additional image sizes.

    I understand why these are added for the Main Featured Image what I do not understand is why all these image sizes are generated regardless of where the original image being recreated is used..

    What I dont understand is why every image in every post type generates every one of those sizes..

    I mean why do we need the woocommmerce sizes generated for images found only within a post or page?

    Why do we need all the post/page/prtfolio etc images sizes for a product image that will only every load in woocommerce page and widgets?

    This is a core problem that is being ignored by both wordpress and woocommerce
    it is complete madness to generate all image sizes for post types when 90% of them will never be used.

    it is just insanity creating all and every image size for all and every post type..

    but the insanity really explodes if you add multiple images into a post/page/product..

    OK its a problem having all the unused unnecessary images but understandable why they are being generated for the MAIN FEATURED IMAGE, the featured image is the one that will be used in widgets, thumbnails, Gallery and other locations etc etc

    BUT Why oh why does wordpress/woocommerce generate all of the extra image sizes for every single other image in a post as well as the main featured image?

    With woocommerce and a theme like Enfold installed for some reason I have 23 total image sizes in my site..

    So we should be able to expect that the worst case scenario is that one of the images (the first image or main featured image will have 23 different sizes created that will be taking up space in the hosting server and that image generation process is going to cause considerable resource ussage on initial post save.

    This is extremely wasteful..
    But it get worse..
    A lot worse
    There is absolutely no need to generate any additional sizes for additional images that are found in the main body of a post or page or product description..

    But by deafault wordpress DOES generate all of those sizes for all images in a post
    so in a post/page or woo product that has 10 total images in the description , the first one we can consider the main image or “featured image”

    we will get 230 total images generated (23 size versions for each of the 10 images) !!!
    WTF GUYS …
    Wordpress Woocommerce Admins Please address this madness.

    additional body images should not have ANY additional sizes generated.
    they will never be called anywhere, they are in the post body so why?

    this is causing so many problems

    If it creates 23 image for the first image only that will be 500 X 23 = 11500
    then there would be 9 more images per post 9×500=4500
    so worst case scenario should be 16000 (if it was restricted to just the first image getting multiplied)
    that is IF the core was making sure NOT to generate those extra images..

    But the reality is that a woocommerce site using a premium theme like Enfold with 500 products in it and 10 images per product will generate 115,000 images!

    that is just pure INSANITY!
    and it really hurts if you bulk add products…
    OR use a plugin like REGENERATE THUMBNAILS!

    When will the ADMINS and DEVS at WordPress and Woocommerce address this crital issue..

    It is a huge and major flaw but nobody seems to really want to deal with it.

    often when there are issues related to images theme developers or wordpress forum admins throw around oh just use the “Regenerate Thumbs” or “Simple Image Sizes” plugins and regenerate your thumbnails. .

    Either they are totally unaware of the implications or they just don’t care if regenerating thumbs with those plugins Takes your server down..

    so if you have that 500 product store with 10 images per product page you just ordered your server to create 125000 images right now so at best case its going to take quite a while to complete but more than likely even on a high end dedicated server you can expect your CPU and memory to hit 100% and crash your server guys, better hope your not on a shared server or you can kiss your account goodbye until you ring and beg your host to unban your account.

    and good luck trying to successfully run asnd download a site backup!
    too many innodes anybody?

    please wordpress admins and devs fix this insanity.
    Every wordpress user should be worried and concerned about this issue and should be demanding that it be addressed.

    surely its not a hard issue to fix!
    first of all make sure that those extra images are only for the designated featured image and NOT every single additional image in every single post type.

    OK, Rant over.. I just hope it gets heard.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Thread Starter gameznet

    (@gameznet)

    no reply or help from wordpress or woocommerce ?

    there are 2 questions I am asking here..

    1) why are all image sizes for all post types being generated instead of just those sizes required for the specific post type being saved ?

    2) Why are additional images in the body of a post having all additional image sizes generated when they wont ever be called for ? (only the first post image ever appears in other locations)

    I hope someone can explain this .. and what the solution to the problem is..

    I think it is a core flaw, and needs to be fixed in the core so I am hoping wordpress devs can address this please as it is a very real and critical issue.

    Plugin Support John Coy a11n

    (@johndcoy)

    Automattic Happiness Engineer

    hi @gameznet

    Images are managed by the active theme. Here is a support page for theme authors to allow their customers to control product images and thumbnails:

    https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/image-sizes-theme-developers/

    The only image options for WooCommerce, if used by the active theme, can be found under Appearance > Customize > WooCommerce > Product Images. You can also regenerate image thumbnails in WooCommerce under WooCommerce > Status > Tools > Regenrate Thumbnails.

    Beyond that, you’ll want to contact the theme author for support.

    Thread Starter gameznet

    (@gameznet)

    this is only partially correct or possibly old information that is no longer correct.
    I can verify after much testing that WordPress does by default generate multiple copies of images (the 3 default sizes) from any post or page with the default themes provided also and no additional plugins installed.
    themes do add additional image sizes but they are not changing the behaviour of wordpress and going to a theme developer about the issue will have them send you back to wordpress as the core behaviours are the issues.

    Even when an image address is specified from a different directory in the sites own server such as when the same image is added to multiple pages and posts i find that each and every post that uses that image has then generated its own versions in the uploads folder and if you then delete unused images such as with a plugin it deletes those images and leaves a broken image rather than just using the image URL that was originally added to the post in the first place.

    In any case I am a user so giving me instructions for a theme developer to learn how to setup image handling correctly is mute … the issue is something that wordpress devs need to clear up and fix in the core and then make clear to theme devs directly so they commonly know what problems they can create if they mess with how the core handles images not make users tell theme devs what they are doing wrongly.

    I logged in to be able to add my own “hear hear!” to this post. The image handling in WP is one of the most wasteful things about it.

    The OP nailed it – we get thumbnails in every size for every image, whether we need them or not. WooCommerce decides that every image uploaded is a product (because WC is just that self-centered, I guess). Theme authors generate multiple sizes as well, just in case that author pic you uploaded needs to be used in ten different settings.

    My hosting provider counts each file as part of their hosting package. Generating tons of unnecessary, unused thumbnails costs me money, bogs down the server, makes backups take longer, and is generally a ridiculous approach in this day of multiple images per post.

    We should be able to have classes of images: featured (need appropriate thumbnails for theme), single-use (one thumbnail for the media library), and product (appropriate thumbnails for WooCommerce). How hard would this be? I mean, put three checkboxes under the image for the three choices, and generate thumbnails as needed.

    And finally, as long as I’m typing, marking this “Resolved” is bogus. Unless there’s a feature I’ve missed in the latest versions of WordPress, this is not “resolved.” It is merely “ignored.”

    It seems obvious that the answer would be to store the original image only, then generate other sizes automatically AS NEEDED, rather than in anticipation of their use.

    For example, I upload an image file. WordPress does nothing with it at first except store it. If I uploaded it for use as a featured image, then WordPress and the theme, working together, generate the one file needed for that use. If I later use it for a different purpose, or in a different grid or block, then WordPress and the theme generate the thumbnail needed for that purpose.

    And WooCommerce? It needs to back off. I post 500 images for stories to the one image I post of a product. I’m not Amazon, I’m a news site with a small store appendage.

    As a programmer, I can easily envision the code needed for all this. The problem, of course, is that WordPress would have to initiate the feature, then the theme authors would have to add it to their code. But again, if WordPress checked for the feature in the theme code when working with images, that would quickly incentivize theme authors to add it.

    I am diligent to keep my server usage as low as possible, since we post multiple stories a day, with images. It is EXTREMELY frustrating to have WordPress undo my work by cluttering my server with unused images.

    This is NOT resolved, and should be added to the WordPress development roadmap.

    Moderator Steven Stern (sterndata)

    (@sterndata)

    Volunteer Forum Moderator

    This sub-forum is for woocommerce support. What you have here are some suggestions for refactoring the way WP itself handles images. If you want to effect changes in WP like this, the best way is to write these posts on your own blog and/or social media that will be seen by the WP community. If you gain some traction with it, then put in a ticket on core.trac.www.ads-software.com.

    As the topic is inappropriate for a support forum, I’m closing the topic.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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