How to Delete WebP Images from Your Website

If you need to delete the WebP images from your website, you have several options. Before we start, it’s helpful to know where to find your WebP images.

WebP images are located in the same folder as their original format counterparts. For example, if the original image is at wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image.jpg, the WebP version will be at wp-content/uploads/2020/02/image.jpg.webp.

Delete WebP Images by Restoring to Original

The easiest way to delete WebP images is by restoring your images to their original versions using the Imagify plugin:

  1. Go to your Media Library in Imagify, and select the option to Restore Original Images. This will automatically delete the WebP versions of those images.
  2. If you want to prevent future WebP images from being generated, you can go to the Imagify settings under the Next-Gen Formats section and toggle WebP generation to “Off.”

Once the Next-Gen format is disabled, you can re-optimize your images without generating new WebP versions.

Delete WebP Images Using an FTP Program

Another method is using an FTP program to delete the WebP versions of your images directly from your server.

  1. Connect to your website’s server via FTP.
  2. Use the search function to look for files ending with .webp. Depending on the FTP program, you can search for .webp or *.webp to return all WebP images.
  3. You can then select and delete these files individually or in bulk. However, be careful not to accidentally delete files that only contain “.webp” in their name or URL but aren’t WebP images.

Delete WebP Images Using SSH/Terminal Command

If you have SSH access to your server, you can use a command to quickly delete all WebP images. Be sure to back up your site before proceeding to avoid any accidental data loss.

Here’s the command to use:

find . -name "*.webp" -type f -delete

This will find and delete all WebP images on your site.