WordPress is saving the same image multiple times

No – that’s normal. See Settings->Media.

So what do i do to stop it from saving the images in three different versions?

Try setting the dimensions for all of the images in Settings ->Media so that they are much larger than the images you will be uploading.

tried with dimensions 0 and then 2000 (larger than my images). Didn’t work. It’s still making multiple versions of the same image.

anyone else who can tell me how to disable the multiple version of images I upload?

You will always get multiple images.

1) Thumbnail
2) Medium
3) Large (IF and only if the size of your image is larger than the largest dimensions).
4) Original image.

This is by design.

ah crap.. this way i’ll be reaching my hosting’s limit ??

Your host has a limit on the number of files you can have?

yes.. 50,000.

Get a new host.

That’s … I can see it being done per FOLDER, but not total number of files. That would screw up so many apps!

ETA Wait, are you talking about GoDaddy?

https://community.godaddy.com/godaddy/announcing-a-new-shared-hosting-file-limit-policy/

That’s actually 500,000 files.

I too do not want multiple sizes of images being stored on my server – I have an image-intensive site and I upload the exact size images I’m using.

Would it cause WP database problems if one removes the extra, unwanted, unnecessary images by FTP?

IMHO – The “by design” thing should have an option NOT to have multiple images created because that’s a lot of unnecessary bloat for some of us.

lindafar – Remember WP was designed as a CMS, not just a Gallery, and cannot presume that you’ll only want one image size. By uploading smaller sizes, it allows for more flexibility. Many themes are built with this in mind, and removing it at this date just isn’t going to happen.

Also, with the concept of decisions, not options, it’s easier and more sustainable to have it set so you get three images sizes:

Thumnail
Medium
Original (provided you set your ‘large’ size to the exact size you’re uploading)

The images are compressed, and shouldn’t take up too much room, especially not in today’s era. Back when 10megs was normal for upload space, yeah, that would be a problem.

If you delete the resized images, the DB will be fine, but you may run into issues with themes.

Thanks for letting me know about the potential theme issues. BTW, I don’t have a gallery, just that every post has an image and I have a lot of posts.

Every post I make has an image, too. ?? 600×400 for the front page slider, then it also uses the thumbnail for archives. Sometimes I use the thumbnail or medium sized image inside the post for style.

This is good. This means a browser never has to resize an image and thus draw more load/data off my server. It means I use the right image size in the right place ??

It’s good webdesign.

I have got the same problem as Saqib and Linda and unfortunately I do not think that this can be explained by the three sizes set under Media. Quite a few png-files that I uploaded now exist in 25 different resolutions.
This happened when I imported my blog after I changed host provider. With my previous host my blog only used 12 MB diskspace. After the import this suddenly became over 300 MB diskspace. The size of the MySQL database on both servers is about the same.
If anybody knows why this happens (and how I can change this) I would sure appreciate it.