Media Library–Image seems to upload but does not show up (gray box)

Hi, do not be discouraged!

WPBeginner claims this is one of the most “common issues.”
Because this is a new site, there could be permissions issues that need to be tweaked.
If the instructions on this block post are too overwhelming, you can often contact your host for help.
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-image-upload-issue-in-wordpress/

I would first want to check, How large are the images you are uploading? While WordPress can upload and use large images, if they are too large, they can tax your system and not display the thumbnail. I would rule this out first. Are you familiar with seeing what the image size (space it uses on a computer, not the view) is? Try an image that’s under 1M, 100k or so would be best.
If it’s still not showing up, try the WPBeginner post.

If none of the above helps, please respond here

Hi Kim–thank you so much for your post! I think you may be onto something with the file size. I was trying to use a pic I took in portrait mode on my iPhone and it was 2.1MB! I reduced it to 888KB but the upload still failed; there’s actually text on the upload window that says the max upload size is 256MB–that seems really low and would require the photo quality to be pretty poor, it seems? It also says the recommended dimensions are 430x110pixels. I tried saving my pic with these dimensions, but it won’t let me–if I type in 430 for one dimension, it automatically changes the other dimension (I guess to keep the correct aspect ratio). Any ideas?

Actually I just found this blog post–I’ll try the things mentioned here! https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/speed-wordpress-save-images-optimized-web/

I’m glad you found a resource.
The number you threw out there did not sound right… 256MB is really large… were you thinking K?

The image size has a lot to do with what you are going to use the images for, so size may vary. If it’s a staff image in the corner of a bio, maybe 600×300 is fine, if it’s the hero or banner image of a website it would have to be much larger. And remember, many people are on High Definition screen which would load a larger image to display smaller (I don’t think those are the correct terms).

Did the 2.1MB image too large? While that’s too large to display, I’ve never seen one that size cause a gray box, unless your system is very slow.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Kim White.

Yes–I get a gray box with the 2.1MB pic, also with an 888KB pic. And yes you’re right, I was thinking of KB when I said I thought 256MB was too small ??

I installed/activated the Optimal plugin, which is one the WP article suggested, but it doesn’t seem to have helped. I was testing that out as an automated solution for optimizing my images for web. I’m not sure if there’s something else I need to do for that to work, or if I should just try a different plugin. Sounds like the most proper way would be for me to figure out how to manually optimize images for each purpose (like you said–header image, bio image, etc). I just kinda thought (mainly, I guess!) that WP would automatically resize these as appropriate when I uploaded.