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Troubleshooting NextGEN Gallery Pagination and Image Loading Issues

30 threads Sep 16, 2025

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NextGEN Gallery is a powerful tool for displaying images on your WordPress site, but a common issue users encounter involves pagination and images not loading correctly on second or subsequent pages. This guide will help you understand why this happens and walk you through the most effective solutions.

Understanding the Problem

The core issue typically manifests in one of two ways:

  • Clicking on page "2" (or beyond) in a paginated gallery results in a blank page or no images.
  • After navigating to a second page and then back, the first page's images also disappear.

This problem is almost always caused by a conflict between NextGEN Gallery's AJAX pagination system and another feature on your site that also tries to handle images asynchronously.

Most Common Cause: Lazy Loading Conflicts

The overwhelming majority of pagination issues stem from other plugins or services implementing lazy loading. Lazy loading is a technique that delays the loading of images until they are needed (e.g., when they scroll into the viewport). However, it often interferes with NextGEN's method of dynamically loading the next page of images via AJAX.

Step-by-Step Troubleshooting Guide

1. Identify and Disable Conflicting Lazy Loading

This is the first and most critical step. Check these common sources:

  • Jetpack: Navigate to Jetpack → Settings → Performance and disable "Lazy loading for images".
  • WP Rocket: In your WP Rocket settings, find the lazy loading option and disable it.
  • Other Optimization/Caching Plugins: Plugins like W3 Total Cache, Asset Cleanup Pro, or others often include lazy loading features. Temporarily disable them or find their lazy loading setting to turn it off.
  • Theme Features: Some themes have built-in lazy loading. Check your theme's options or temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme (like Twenty Twenty-One) to see if the problem persists.
  • CDN Services: Content Delivery Networks like Cloudflare can sometimes have features that affect image loading. Check your CDN's settings for any optimizations that might be causing a conflict.

2. Disable NextGEN's AJAX Pagination (Workaround)

If disabling other lazy loading features doesn't resolve the issue, you can work around it by turning off AJAX pagination within NextGEN itself. This will make the gallery navigate to a new page when clicking pagination links instead of loading content dynamically, which is more compatible but less seamless.

To do this, go to NextGEN Gallery -> Gallery Settings -> [Your Display Type (e.g., Basic Thumbnails)] and set AJAX Pagination to "No".

3. Check for Plugin or Theme Conflicts

A general WordPress troubleshooting step is to rule out conflicts. Temporarily deactivate all plugins except NextGEN Gallery. If the pagination works, reactivate your plugins one by one to identify the culprit. Also, test with a default WordPress theme to rule out a theme-specific conflict.

4. Clear Caches

After making any changes, clear all relevant caches:

  • Your WordPress caching plugin's cache
  • Your browser cache
  • Your CDN cache (if applicable)

5. Maximum Image Count Setting

In one instance, a user found that their gallery was limited to displaying only 504 images across 21 pages. This is controlled by a default setting. If you have a very large gallery and images are not appearing at all, navigate to NextGEN Gallery -> Other Options -> Miscellaneous and increase the value for Maximum Image Count.

When to Consider Other Causes

While lazy loading conflicts are the prime suspect, the sample threads revealed a few other less common scenarios:

  • Specific Version Bugs: One thread indicated a bug was introduced in a specific update (v3.24) and was resolved in a later version (v3.25/3.26). Always ensure you are running the latest version of the plugin. If a new update causes problems, you can temporarily roll back to a previous version from the Advanced section of the plugin's page.
  • JavaScript Errors: A conflict might break the JavaScript required for pagination. Check your browser's console (F12) for any errors when clicking pagination links.

By methodically working through these steps, most pagination and image loading issues with NextGEN Gallery can be resolved, allowing your galleries to display correctly across all pages.

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