Missing product images hurt sales. This guide covers the common causes on WooCommerce stores hosted with SmartXHosting.
No image fallback showing • Images uploaded but broken on storefront • Regenerate thumbnails • File permissions • Image optimisation plugin conflicts • CDN and mixed content • FAQ
Product shows placeholder instead of real image. Causes:
Admin preview OK; storefront shows broken image icon. Causes:
Install “Regenerate Thumbnails” plugin:
For 10,000+ images, batches can take 30–60 minutes. Run off-peak.
WordPress writes to wp-content/uploads/. Wrong ownership silently blocks writes:
chown -R www-data:www-data wp-content/uploads (adjust user)Plugins like Smush, ShortPixel, Imagify can misfire:
Test by disabling the optimisation plugin temporarily.
If using Cloudflare or a CDN:
WooCommerce hosting with NVMe-fast media
SmartXHosting NVMe SSD storage serves images fast without CDN needed in most cases. Optional Cloudflare integration for global delivery.
See WooCommerce plansQ: WebP support?
A: WordPress 5.8+ supports WebP. ShortPixel and other plugins convert existing JPEG/PNG to WebP automatically.
Q: Max upload size?
A: SmartXHosting defaults to 16 MB. Adjustable in Plesk › PHP Settings.
Q: Image URLs 404 after migration?
A: Old domain in URLs. Run Better Search Replace plugin to update URLs across database.
Q: Gallery images not showing?
A: Theme dependency. Some themes show only main image unless WooCommerce gallery hooks are active.
Q: Can I bulk-replace images?
A: Via CSV import (update image URL column) or Media Library + plugin for in-place replacement.
Q: Cache plugin serving stale image URLs?
A: Purge cache after image upload. Most cache plugins have “Purge on media upload” option.
Q: How do I track missing images across catalogue?
A: Broken Link Checker plugin scans and reports missing media.