Some Images Broke When Switching Hosts

I switched from WordPress.com to Bluehost hosting a few years ago (you might remember my post about the process of transferring the site). I spot checked some posts, looked at the main pages, and though everything was good. Nope. Some images broke, and I didn’t know until I accidentally previewed one when looking at stats.

I’m not entirely sure what’s causing the issue, but, essentially, the post shows one of those “image not working” types symbols on the page instead of the image itself. Which is a big bummer on quote pages, let me tell you.

At first glance, I was afraid that I’d have to find and upload all those images again (Noooo!). Happily, that’s not the case. The image is still there – the connection just got broken somehow.

How to Fix Images Broken by WordPress Export/Import

1. Open the post the picture is used in.

You can use the classic or current editor. I’m pretty sure either will work (I think I’ve done it in both now) – you just need to be able to edit where the image is added to the post body.

I am showing the images for the classic editor, but for the new one, you can go straight to “Replace” in the image block editing options (so the process is similar).

2. Click on the image box where the picture should be.

You’ll know you clicked on the right thing when the image editing bar pops up. Side note: it’s a bit harder to click on the image box when you have a caption because the caption’s usually bigger at this point. It may take a few tries to get the right thing.

3. Click the edit option.

AKA the pencil in the image editing bar.

That should take you to a popup where you can see the basic information about the image. The biggest difference is that the image preview you normally get won’t show.

4. Click “replace.” Twice.

First, you’ll need to click the “Replace” button that shows under where the image preview should be. It’s right next to “Edit Original” (see the image above).

That should take you to the media center and show the image you used before selected already. All you need to do is click the “Replace” button on that page.

That will take you back to the post, and you should now be able to see the image there.

5. Save / publish changes.

And that’s it! The image should appear correctly on the site again. Save it and move on.

Why This Method?

Yes, it’ll still be a lot of work (going through all your posts to find the broken images is work by itself), but at least you don’t have to find or recreate any images!

That, by the way, is the reason I recommend this way instead of trying to insert the image again from the Media Library. For some reason, the image I wanted wouldn’t show up in a Media Library search, but when I use this replace method, it’s there. C’est la vie.