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Sorry if this has been address before but I have once again today been locked out of a clients hosting account due to wordpress Image issues when importing some products into woocomerce or trying to manage images and image sizes.
Please Please Please can you stop enfold generating all the different image sizes on post creation and make it generate them on the fly when needed instead.
It is not necessary to generate every single possible image size for every single image found within a post/page/product as we are currently in a constant battle with our hosting company over excessive CPU and inodes which are 100 % caused by having so many different image sizes generated.
Can you please fix the issue once and for all by making the theme only generate any additional image sizes IF and WHEN they are first called by the browser in a front end page. We do not need to generate and store portfolio images if we do not have a portfolio. we don’t need shop images if we don’t have a shop etc etc
As an example it is sheer madness when a post has 10 images in the main body.. the only image that would ever actually require multiple sizes is the main featured thumbnail or “Featured Image” but enfold will generate 12 images for each and every single image found within the post. that is 120 images if a post has 10 images in it yet for the most part only 1 size is required for all body images and a few sizes for the featured image.
Generating all those extra images is a complete and total waste of server resources during post creation and a total waste of hosting space because only the featured image is going to be called up as a “thumbnail” or used in any widgets/ etc
Therefore only the first or “featured image” needs several sizes created during post creation. doesnt matter if its a post,page, product this is the same issue for all post types . Images that are not the featured image ie additional images contained in the main body do not need a thumb or any additional image sizes.Every time I get busy working on a website hosted on a shared hosting environment that uses a kriesi theme such as enfold I more than often get locked out with a 503 Service Unavailable error message by the host for excessive CPU and have to contact support and explain whats going on and get them to let me back in.
Not too mention it is a nightmare to backup a site when 98% of the hosting space used is wasted unrequired additional image sizes that create too many problems when it comes to backing up and downloading.
even the site logo and favicons which are used only once at one single set size are having ALL of the 12+ enfold image sizes created for them.Please stop this crazy image generation madness by having only the featured image generated at post creation/updating and then for all other sizes generate those as required on the fly when they are called for only at the specific size required instead of every size and instead of the current wasteful practice of generating every single image at every single size for every post, page, product and all images contained etc
Enfold is also generating all the extra sizes for woocommerce products when it should only create the shop sizes required and posts and pages do not require the shop sizes but again every post type is creating every image size.
You guys keep suggesting to people who are confused about image sizes, blury images or incorrect sized images that we use plugins such as regenerate images and simple image sizes but what your failing to comprehend is that using those plugins causes many a hosting lockout or even an entire server crashing if there are a lot of posts and images because those plugins dont selectively only regenerate the featured image, they regenerate all sizes for all images. The Enfold theme has 12 of its own sizes and telling us to regenerate images is very bad advice to give in this regard. Again the required solution to the problem is quite simply program the theme to only generate the featured image in additional image sizes upon post creation and then to only generate additional sizes IF and WHEN they are called for the first time a post/image is loaded in the browser and NOT to generate all images at all sizes at all times during every page/post/product creation.
This has been the biggest and most ongoing problem I have faced with the enfold theme (actually I love enfold but this problem is real)
is there some reason we cant have an on the fly image creation process instead?
Actually this issue I have tried to deal with since 2013
I found old posts of mine in forums trying to get help with the same exact problem and still there is no solution built into wordpress ,woocomerce or premium themes such as enfold..
its a totally ignored problem.
maybe try adding some on/off options for media in enfold admin would help a bit?For Now while I keep waiting and hoping for wordpress core, woocomerrce and theme devs to wake up and recognise that it is in fact a real harmful and disruptive issue I will have to again resort to trying out external plugins and hacks to solve it.
However if someone here does know of a way to simply fix it please do explain to me what is the best solution keeping in mind that the goal is to speed up post saving time at first creation, REDUCE server loads , reduce CPU ,reduce innodes and REDUCE uploads Directory size so that backup are not also painfully slow to perform and download .For the time being I have decided to try out “stop generating image sizes”: https://wordpress.org/plugins/image-sizes/#description
and use that in combination with photon from jetpack which apparently does attempt to deal with this issue although I really did NOT want to use jetpack as it slows down wordpress a lot and consumes resources in other areas so it is a trade off ..
However I currently do not know of what else I can do to solve this extremely annoying problem of too many images killing server space, inodes and crashing servers during post creation.Hi,
Thanks for the update.
It would be awesome if we can generate images on the fly or when the page load but that’s not possible with WordPress. However, there is a way to remove the predefined image sizes or thumbnails by using the remove_image_size function. This will prevent the creation of multiple versions of the source image. Example of the function can be found in the following thread.
// https://kriesi.at/support/topic/responsive-content-images-retina-screens/#post-1077293
This will eliminate all thumbnails but do note that this will cause the site to always use the full size or the source image instead of the smaller versions.
Best regards,
Ismaelok fair enough ..still extremely wasteful but I get it when it comes to the main image.
I also realise I can just set all the image sizes I dont want generated to 0 x 0 now, which is fine and gets me out of some of the excesssive images issue..The real main problem however is that it is generating all images sizes for EVERY image in a post and not just the primary image.
I have been importing products into woocomerce and some of them can have 10 images in the post so just saving one product with that many images can eat a shared servers CPU up because it is generating 15 image sizes for 10 images = 150 images..
importing 500 products is an impossibility with that happening. regenerating thumbnails also spikes a server until the process completes and with image heavy products and posts it is impossible to use because it chews up 100% CPU until the process completes which on hostgator shared servers just gets booted..I do want additional images for the first image, I do want to use the right size images for widgets, thumbnails etc…
However we only need the various thumbnails for the first primary image that is going to be used in thumbnail and widget locations however wordpress does this activity for each and every image in a post not just the primary image.I only want to stop all images being generated for the additional 2nd, 3rd, 4th images etc
how can we stop that wasteful behaviour?I had a similar issue though without the CPU problems… (I have WP Engine, and they are amazing, zero regrets switching to them).
I was able to reduce the storage used on my site by 50%.
Good luck!
Robhow does switching hosts fix the issue ?
this wasteful activity is occurring by default on all images and post types and not only puts additional strain on the server but bloats the hosting space making backups take longer to complete if you are able to run a backup successfully at all, and due to too many innodes (too many files) 3rd party backup services such as I use provided by managewp simply fail because the uploads directory exceeds capacity of those backup services.
Moving hosting services so that the hosting account can better accommodate the problem instead of asking for core and theme devs to please understand this behaviour is hurting smaller hosting accounts and is just wasteful behaviour that can only lead to more trouble and support issues than are necessary seems better than just spending more money or larger hosting and larger backup plans.Too many images being generated causes many performance problems on top of the obvious annoying issue of wasted hosting space and painful backing up and over time the issue gets worse as more images are constantly added into the equation so you will have to constantly upgrade hosting and backup plans as it gets more bloated.
The problem will become very evident if you ever need to move your site and have to transfer a massive uploads directory so you decide to reduce it in size and discover you have 20x versions of every image found in every post type you have made in the past 5 years or more (nightmare)..
I think the only answer is for theme developers whos themes add additional image sizes to wordpress to put some controls into the theme settings regarding their additiaonl image sizes and rather than have all images being generated for all post types it would be better to have by default NO images generated at all other than the featured “thumbnail” and any sizes that specific post type requires and any other image sizes are only generated depending on if they are needed in that Specific Post Type..
EG: woocommerce product page only generates the woocommerce image sizes required and does NOT generate portfolio sizes (for instance)
AND a portfolio post type only generates the Portfolio size images and does not generate woocommerce size images… etc etc
AND there needs to be prevention to only create those sizes for the first featured image NOT for image 2,3,4,5,6,7 etcAnd for other sizes let the user have some control in the theme settings area to simply switch them on and off
so they are more aware of the image sizes taking up space or not.
additional control allowing us to not only switch a specific size off but also to delete all previously generated images of that specific size would be helpful also. eg if I have NO portfolio pages, let me delete all portfolio image sizes that have previoously been generated without having to use third party plugins that will generate EVERY THUMBNAIL at EVERY SIZE and crash a server.Again though there are 3 important questions here that first need to be answered
1) why are all image sizes for all post types being generated instead of just those sizes required for the specific post type ?
2) Why are additional images in the body of a post having all additional image sizes generated when they wont ever be called for ?and the big one : Can the theme settings provide us with control over this behaviour?
Hi,
The real main problem however is that it is generating all images sizes for EVERY image in a post and not just the primary image.
That’s how WordPress handles images. It’s going to generate the predefined thumbnails for every images uploaded to the site. The only way to stop it is by removing the thumbnails. Now, I understand what you’re saying about the CPU consumption but it should only happen once or while the image upload is processing and only in the back end. It shouldn’t be happening in the front end after the images have been uploaded.
@goldengate415: Thanks for the confirmation.Best regards,
IsmaelHi Ismael,
I understand your thinking it shouldn’t spike CPU and if it does then it should only be when saving the post for the first time once and for the most part that is true, however if you are creating many posts then a host sees spikes and gets upset .
Then they block the account until you contact them so it causes issues and they dont care that it is wordpress default behaviour causing the cpu spikes.The fact is that default wordpress has only 4 image sizes so default wordpress with only 4 image sizes doesn’t cause enough impact for it to cause too much pain, Enfold however kicks that up to 12+ image sizes “tripling” the impact of this problem and some of those added image sizes are HUGE,
This alone can be the kiss of death on shared hosting and gets worse when creating many new posts or importing bulk posts.When themes add additional image sizes without considering the problem that the default core behaviour is too generate all images sizes for all images uploaded it makes a bad behaviour much worse.
I use enfold for client sites and this “too many images” issue is a constant cause of problems so I am asking for it to be addressed and considered as a real issue by Enfold Dev and in fact all theme devs. and rather than just saying it is a core wordpress behaviour and resorting to child themes and hacks and third party plugins perhaps as theme developers try to mitigate the issue as it currently stands to best of the themes ability with some controls and then also go to wordpress devs/support directly as popular theme developers and express to them why this behaviour is a bad core behaviour and push for them to address it as you guys have more weight than some unknown user.
Currently when people are asking about issues to do with images the common suggestions and replies are to use a child theme and make some change to either the image sizes by editing theme functions or adding css and then use the regenerate thumbs plugin or simple image sizes plugin to regenerate images which will in 90% of cases flatline a shared hosting account even on beefed up servers because those plugins go over all images in a post and generate all sizes at once which is if the issue was saving single posts causes CPU spikes then regenerating all images will definitely crash the server.
So in some cases the solutions offered make the problem worse by generating a massive load of new never to be used images thaat just consume even more hosting space and even further complicate future backups from completing.If a theme is adding additional image sizes can it not somehow switch OFF the additional sizes that are optional or not necessary for default post types in the settings area and then have switches to turn on additional post types if they are going to be used by the user rather than recommending child themes and functions hacking and adding third party plugins ?
Why not take at least some responsibility as a theme and disable the uncommon unused and obscure sizes with some simple toggles within the theme settings area so that they are switched off by default and the user has to switch them on IF they are going to use those additional sizes.
for instance Enfold adds sizes for portfolio, if I am not a photography site I probably wont have a portfolio section and I am likely to never use portfolio image sizes so I don’t need the portfolio size images generated . Instead of generating them all by default when a post is created why not have them disabled by default and add a checkbox in theme settings to switch that size on if I intend to use the portfolio post types and want them on or have it off until I actually create a portfolio post type. Thus reducing/mitigating the potential issue somewhat. Same If I don’t have woocommerce installed – don’t have the shop sizes auto generated from images in a standard page or post.
Start off with light and fast in mind and add those heavier additional images only if they are needed and will actuality be used.
this would help mitigate the problem somewhat..
also if it is default wordpress behaviour exisits but is a bad behaviour then building a theme around that behaviour is compounding an existing bad behaviour, wouldn’t it carry more weight if popular theme devs such as kriesi aproached and worked with wordpress devs to address the potential for these problems instead of ignoring the issues. Perhaps wordpress core devs arent aware of if being a big issue because they only have 4 image sizes and any unwanted behaviour is not so bad in default themes that only use those sizes .. So theme devs that add sizes would be the best people to address the issue to the core devs aren’t they?I cannot be the only wordpress user that sees how wasteful and disruptive it is to generate EVERY image size for EVERY image that gets uploaded.
Hi,
Thanks for the update.
Then they block the account until you contact them
You should probably move to a different host then. They should know how WordPress handles images. Are you uploading images on a regular basis?
Enfold however kicks that up to 12+
A default theme doesn’t offer new elements or shortcodes, so it doesn’t really need that many thumbnails. The theme on the other hand has to generate thumbnails for a slider, color section, masonry, portfolio items etc. I’m sure you get the point.
rather than recommending child themes and functions hacking and adding third party plugins
Using the child theme to override existing functions is not “hacky” nor using a third party plugin. That’s how WordPress works. Why would you develop something from scratch if there is an available tool out there that can do the same thing?
for instance Enfold adds sizes for portfolio, if I am not a photography site I probably wont have a portfolio section and I am likely to never use portfolio image sizes so I don’t need the portfolio size images generated
We provided you with a filter that can do just that. You can also use a third party plugin if you don’t want to get into coding or use a snippet in the functions.php file.
Best regards,
IsmaelThis is a serious issue for Enfold them for large sites like ours who have several hundred blog post each with multiple images. The amount of space taken up by the images on our system is almost up to 10GB.
You need to rethink how you create images for Enfold. Perhaps a better approach is to use few standard sizes and ratios across all media elements.
Hi Jay,
Thanks for the feedback, but all the images are needed for the theme to function as it should. If you don’t need some image sizes then you use the filter which Ismael referred to earlier in this thread.
Best regards,
RikardYes…I realize that.
This is because your layout team has decided to have several different ratio and image sizes. Perhaps it is time to standardize the layout on one or two ratios. This will allow you to consolidate images between magazine, portfolio, feature images and other displays. This will allow you to balance size, speed by cropping image on the fly (Overflow: hidden or something similar).
So what happens when you come out with a new layout element? Another image size? This is not a good long term strategy to follow. You need to make more efficient use of resources if you want to support large blog and website like ours.
Hi,
Thank you for following up. This may not be realized anytime soon because of how the theme or WordPress handle images in general. Usually, newly added elements utilize existing thumbnails, so we don’t have to generate or register another image size.
You can always disable some of the thumbnails if necessary because WordPress will automatically load the original version of the image if the specified thumbnail is not found. Please check the following thread.
// https://perishablepress.com/disable-wordpress-generated-images/#disable-other
// https://kriesi.at/support/topic/disable-creation-of-multiple-file-resoltuions-on-media-upload/#post-1172543Best regards,
IsmaelHas anything been done about this issue? I have an old Photography website which is now over 2GB. I wouldn’t care about the images and the amount of them BUT it is annoying that I could build the exact same website with Elementor and the site would take up a LOT less room on the server. Like everyone, I am limited by server space (if it’s a decent host). The site is so old, I don’t have the time to know / remember what I use and don’t use.
Is there a quick fix for deleting all these images that are not in use?Hi,
One of the users kindly modified one of our snippet and use it to delete other thumbnails from the server which he thought was not necessary for a site that he was working on. Please check these threads.
// https://kriesi.at/support/topic/responsive-content-images-retina-screens/#post-1077293
// https://kriesi.at/support/topic/disable-creation-of-multiple-file-resoltuions-on-media-upload/#post-1172543Please make sure to create a site backup (database, files etc) after adding the code and before regenerating the thumbnails.
If you have more questions about the theme, please feel free to open a new thread.
Thank you for your patience.
Best regards,
Ismael
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