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Understanding Imagify's Image Resizing: Limits, Workarounds, and Common Issues

26 threads Sep 9, 2025 Plugin → Imagify image optimization – optimize images | compress images | convert webp | convert avif

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Many WordPress users turn to the 'Imagify Image Optimization – Optimize Images | Compress Images | Convert WebP | Convert AVIF' plugin to handle their image compression and conversion needs. A frequent topic of discussion and confusion revolves around its image resizing capabilities. Based on community support threads, this article clarifies what the plugin can and cannot do regarding resizing and addresses common problems users encounter.

The Core Function: Resizing Large Uploads

The primary resizing feature in Imagify is designed to prevent excessively large images from being stored on your server. You can find this option in the plugin's settings under Resize larger images. When enabled, you define a maximum width (in pixels). Any image uploaded that is wider than this value will be resized down to your specified maximum.

The Most Common Limitation: The "Largest Thumbnail" Rule

A significant point of confusion arises from a key restriction on this setting. The plugin will not</allow you to set a maximum resize width that is smaller than your theme's or other plugins' largest registered thumbnail size.

Why does this happen? WordPress generates multiple thumbnails (e.g., 'medium', 'large', 'woocommerce_single') for every uploaded image. If Imagify were to resize the original image to a size smaller than the largest required thumbnail, it would break the functionality of any feature that needs that large thumbnail, causing display issues on your site.

For example, if your theme registers a thumbnail size of 2048px wide, Imagify's resize setting will not allow you to set a value below 2048px. Threads 7, 11, and 23 highlight users struggling with this exact behavior, often expecting to set a value like 870px or 1200px but being blocked by a larger registered thumbnail size.

Solution: How to Lower the Resize Limit

If you need to resize images to a dimension smaller than your largest thumbnail, you must first deregister that large thumbnail size. The Imagify team provides a helper plugin and a guide for this specific purpose. The general process involves:

  1. Identifying the specific, large thumbnail sizes you want to remove by checking the list in your Imagify settings.
  2. Using a code snippet, often placed in your theme's functions.php file or a custom plugin, to deregister those sizes using WordPress's remove_image_size() function.

Once the large thumbnail size is removed, you can return to Imagify's settings and lower the Resize larger images value to your desired width.

What Imagify Resizing Does NOT Do

It's crucial to understand the scope of the plugin's functionality to set correct expectations. Based on the sample threads, Imagify does not handle the following:

  • Custom PHP-Generated Images: It cannot optimize or create WebP versions of images generated on-the-fly by custom PHP code or functions from other plugins/themes (e.g., Timber's |resize filter) that fall outside the standard WordPress thumbnail system. (Threads 1, 2, 8, 24).
  • Adaptive/Srcset Delivery: The plugin optimizes the images in your media library but does not create or manage responsive srcset attributes to serve differently sized images based on the user's device. This is a common reason for Google's "Properly size images" warning, which Imagify alone cannot fix. (Threads 3, 4, 25).
  • Custom Size Creation: It only optimizes images that are registered as standard WordPress thumbnails. It will not create entirely new, custom image sizes outside of those. (Thread 6).
  • External Visitor Uploads: You cannot control the minimum dimensions of images uploaded by site visitors through front-end forms. You can only set a maximum resize width for images that are processed. (Thread 21).

Troubleshooting Other Common Resize Issues

  • Resizing Not Working: If you've set a resize width but images are not being resized (Thread 14), it's a sign of a deeper conflict. The cause could be another plugin interfering, custom code, or a server configuration issue that requires more technical investigation.
  • EXIF Data Loss: When resizing large images, EXIF data may be stripped (Thread 12). A fix was implemented for sites using the Imagick PHP library, but this issue may persist for sites using the GD library.
  • Cache Resources Exhausted Error: If you receive an error like "cache resources exhausted" during manual resizing (Thread 16), the problem is likely related to your server's ImageMagick configuration or available memory, not the plugin itself. Switching the image processing library to GD (often via a helper plugin) can resolve this.
  • Original Images: The original, unscaled image uploaded to WordPress is not deleted after Imagify or WordPress creates a scaled version (Thread 5). It remains on your server, which contributes to disk usage.

By understanding these capabilities and limitations, you can better configure Imagify to work within your site's ecosystem and determine when you need additional solutions for tasks like responsive image delivery.

Related Support Threads Support