WordPress Featured Image not updating? FAQs and Quick Fixes!

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WordPress Featured Image not updating. Help!

The WordPress featured image not updating is a WordPress bug that can be troublesome, especially if you are dealing with WordPress template errors. The easiest and most common way to fix your WordPress Featured Image not updating is:

1- Remove the image from your WordPress Media library.

2- Change the image name on your computer.

3- Finally upload the same but renamed image again.

I’m not sure why this works, but I come across this same issue from time to time and it works every time.

Here are some additional solutions you should try if your WordPress Featured image is not updating.

WordPress Featured Image not updating, remove image.

To begin, removing the featured image from a post/page before updating may help you figure out what theme you’re using. If the prominent image is removed, you’ll be able to pick another one.

WordPress Featured Image not updating, theme or plugin issue.

Themes.

If you followed the preceding steps and they didn’t work, the next step is to change themes.

If you don’t have any other theme, use the default one.

Then try updating the featured image once more.

Plugins.

If that doesn’t work, it could be a plugin issue.

Try uninstalling all of your plugins and try uploading the Featured Image again. There could also be a plugin conflict at play as well.

WordPress Featured Image not updating, check your cache.

If the image does not change on the front end, it’s possible that you have a cache problem.

The approach to fixing it will be determined by whether or not you are using any caching plugins, as well as which one.

Simply clearing the browser cache can also sometimes solve the problem.

If you WordPress featured image is not updating or your WordPress blog has bugs related to WordPress featured images, then continue reading for solutions to fix the problem.

WordPress Featured Image not updating and related issues and fixes.

A WordPress Featured Image is a post feature that gives you the ability to highlight a single image on your WordPress post by using WordPress featured images.

WordPress Featured Images can be used as thumbnail images, images for posts, and WordPress sliders.

In some cases the automatic update of the WordPress featured image does not work on your website.

This can be a problem, especially if you have several posts that have been added to your website with different types of media files for content including pictures, videos, and audio files.

The following can also help you fix the WordPress featured image not updating problem if the above fixes didn’t.

Excluding featured images from page caching.

Excluding featured images from page caching is a common way to solve the problems with WordPress featured images not updating on your website including on your homepage or on search pages of your site.

However, for this you are going to need to be familiar with your WordPress “back-end” in order to try it.

You can exclude featured images from page caching by doing the following:

Log in to your website’s back-end. Click on Settings > Reading. Scroll down to “Front page displays” section, click on the link “change”.

Uncheck all three options under “Exclude these pages from Page cache”.

Click Save Changes.

The WordPress featured image not updating problem should now be resolved on your website.

WordPress featured image “back-end” cache clearing.

Clearing the featured images cache is another way to solve the issue with WordPress featured images not updating on your website.

Again, for you to do this, you are going to need to be familiar with your WordPress website’s “back-end” in order to try it.

Here’s how to clear the featured image cache:

Log in to your website’s back-end and click on Settings > Media. Click on the section, “Attachment URLs”.

For each of your media files presented on this page, click on the button with three dots and select Delete from disk.

Repeat these steps for all attachments listed on this page.

Refresh your browser and check to see if your WordPress featured images are working correctly now.

WordPress Featured image not updating? Update WordPress.

Updating your WordPress version is a mandatory step that can help you solve the problem with WordPress featured images not updating on your blog or website.

If you’re running an old version of a CMS, then chances are that some of the bugs have already been fixed in newer versions and by updating to the latest release of WordPress you will be able to fix the problems with your WordPress featured images not updating automatically.

WordPress Featured Images not displaying on video thumbnails.

The problem with WordPress featured images not displaying on your Video thumbnails may be because they are turned off in the media settings.

The thumbnail directory contains directories with names that contain “-” characters. WordPress uses the first thumbnail image that it finds, ignoring any other images in the directory.

WordPress video thumbnails problems can be fixed by doing the following:

Go to Settings > Media. Click on the button with three dots and select “Create Thumbnail”. The problem with WordPress featured images not updating on your website should be resolved now.

If the problem with WordPress featured images not displaying on your homepage persists, then you will need to update this thumbnail by following the steps mentioned above again and replacing all of the “-” characters in each directory’s name with some other character that is not a dash.

Other known limitations of WordPress Featured Image Thumbnails.

There are some known limitations of using WordPress featured images. These include, but are not limited to:

You cannot use a retina-ready image as a thumbnail on a regular resolution display. The image will be downsized and the WordPress featured image text overlay will appear pixelated on a regular size monitor.

You cannot use a retina-ready image as a thumbnail on a mobile device. The image will be downsized and the WordPress featured image text overlay won’t be displayed correctly because it will appear pixelated.

People will still see your WordPress featured images thumbnail in browsers that don’t support retina display or mobile devices.

But it’s best to use a proper alternate text for your images so people who are using older-than-retina non-mobile devices can get an idea of what this image is supposed to be.

WordPress Featured Image not updating, conclusion.

Most related issues with WordPress featured images not updating on your website should be fixed by now.

WordPress features great tools for you to optimize your site’s user experience, including Media Library and Featured Image Thumbnails.

As long as you know how these tools work, then there shouldn’t be any problems with WordPress featured image not displaying or updating.

You can use WordPress featured images to create a cohesive experience that will keep your readers engaged and make them come back for more. So it’s not only key that you use them, but to know how to fix them if things go wrong!

The best way to fix your WordPress featured image not updating issues is to follow the fixes from the post above and simply apply them!

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