How To Restore Missing Original Backup Images

If you’re having trouble creating missing WebP images, re-optimizing images to a different compression level (Normal, Aggressive, or Ultra), or restoring your images to original, it is most often because your original backup images are missing.

InformationIf you have the Backup original images option enabled in your Imagify settings at the time images are optimized, then backups will be saved. If some or all of your backups are missing, it’s possible that either this option was not enabled when you originally optimized your images, or that the backups were lost at some point (this can sometimes happen during website transfers or if your site has ever been restored from a backup).

If your original backup images are missing for some reason, you can restore them manually using locally saved copies of your original images using an FTP program or your hosting account’s File Manager utility. If you don’t have saved copies of your originals, then a workaround is to download the highest resolution versions of the images from your Media Library uploads folder to use.

Note on Using Optimized Images Instead of Original BackupsIf your goal is to restore images to original or re-optimize to a lower compression level, then the above workaround using already-optimized copies will not work. Optimized copies can be used to create WebP versions (though image quality can sometimes be affected), but it is not possible to create an original copy from an optimized version of the image.

Locations of Imagify Backup Folders

Imagify uses separate backup folders for Media Library images and for images in other locations specified in the Custom Folders section of your Imagify plugin settings page.

Imagify Backup Location For Media Library Original Images:
[wordpress-root]/wp-content/uploads/backup/[yyyy]/[mm]/

Imagify Backup Location For “Custom Folder” Original Images:
[wordpress-root]/imagify-backup/

How To Manually Restore the Original Backup Images

The images must be uploaded using the exact same file name as when they were originally uploaded and to the correct subfolder corresponding to the image for which it is a backup.

Given the following example image located in the Media Library:
[wordpress-root]/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/image1.jpg

The backup image should be located in the following “Backup” folder:
[wordpress-root]/wp-content/uploads/backup/2020/08/image1.jpg

Given the following example image located in a custom folder location:
[wordpress-root]/wp-content/uploads/customfolder/image1.jpg

The backup image should be located in:
[wordpress-root]/imagify-backup/wp-content/uploads/customfolder/image1.jpg

Once the original images are in their proper backup folder locations and named exactly as they were when first uploaded and optimized, you should be able to generate your WebP images, restore images to original, or re-optimize your images to a different compression level.

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