Orphan Thumbnails & Thumbnail-less Images

You might want to check the file/directory permissions and also the ownership of the thumbnails on the server. I’ve tested the current version of Media Library Folders and it is removing the thumbnails when files are moved.

Running the reset plugin would not help since it does not delete any files or folders.

It may help to turn on WordPress debugging to see if there are any errors recorded during the moving of images. Edit the wp-config.php file and change

define(‘WP_DEBUG’, false);

to

define(‘WP_DEBUG’, true);
define(‘WP_DEBUG_LOG’, true);
define(‘WP_DEBUG_DISPLAY’, false);
@ini_set(‘display_errors’, 0);

(Be sure to change this back when you are done.)

Now different kinds of messages, some will not be related to Media Library Folders, will be written to a debug.log file in the wp-content folder. If you discover any errors, you can send a copy of the debug.log file to me at [email protected] and mention it is for the “Orphan Thumbnails & Thumbnail-less Images” support thread.

Thanks for the reply.

I think I have worked out what fails.

If I have six images called:

100.jpg
100a.jpg
101.jpg
101a.jpg
102.jpg
102a.jpg

(where 101a.jpg is a high-resolution version of 101.jpg) and I try to move those six images from the Uploads/date folder to a custom folder, all the ones WITHOUT the “a” on the end of the name – 100.jpg, 101.jpg and 102.jpg – will move correctly, while 100a.jpg, 101a.jpg and 102a.jpg all fail with File Not Found errors.

If I ONLY move the 100a.jpg, 101a.jpg and 102a.jpg files then they move correctly, and I can then move their 100.jpg, 101.jpg and 102.jpg counterparts separately.

But combine all six into one move operation and it reliably fails on every “a” version.

Also, it seems I have to move the “a” versions first and then the non-“a” ones, or the same errors occur.

This appears to be totally repeatable, with no way to recover other than to delete and re-upload the failed files.

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

To avoid confusion and copying of the wrong files, give the low resolution images a unique name such as ‘100a.jpg’ and the high resolution images a slightly different name ‘100b.jpg’

Thanks, but they do have different names.

100.jpg is the low-res version,
100a.kpg is the high-res version.

It seems WordPress Media Library Folders is unable to tell them apart.

This was the naming convention in the 2,000 HTML pages and 30,000 images I am importing, so relinking everything is going to be… tricky. ??

That is right. Your naming convention is not precise enough since MLF has to deal with any number of thumbnails generated by WordPress. In your case MLP will see the 100a images as thumbnails of the 100 images.

Thank you, that is very interesting.

Is there any documentation of how to name files so that this doesn’t happen in future? I didn’t see anything in the FAQs.

I ask because I have files named:

kingsandqueens11.jpg
kingsandqueens12.jpg
kingsandqueens13.jpg

which I thought would be OK, but they mess up if I try to move any/all of them. I can only move them by uploading them one at a time and then moving each file before upoading the next one.

Thanks.

As long as the file name are unique and not one file name a subset of an existing file name in the same folder, you should be alright. And why upload and then move files when you could just upload them directly to their final destination folder.

Ah, that’s because I am using the Import External Attachments plugin which copies all the external images in a post into the root Media Library, from where I move them to the appropriate folder.

For new posts with new media images, I will certainly do what you suggest.