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Add a safe WP-CLI command for resizing oversized original uploads #254
Description
Feature Request
WordPress and WP-CLI provide excellent tools for generating image sub-sizes, but there is no first-class way to process oversized original uploads in a controlled, scriptable manner.
Many sites accumulate large camera originals that are far beyond their actual display needs. This increases storage, backup, CDN, and transfer costs. WordPress’s automatic large-image handling does not solve every existing-media or site-policy scenario.
I propose an opt-in command such as:
wp media resize-originals --max-dimension=1920 --quality=91 --dry-runThe command would:
- process original uploads in bounded batches;
- support JPEG, PNG, and WebP;
- provide a dry-run with estimated storage savings;
- require explicit confirmation before destructive changes;
- preserve a recoverable backup or offer a documented backup strategy;
- update only relevant attachment metadata;
- never regenerate unrelated sub-sizes unless explicitly requested;
- report progress and failures clearly.
@swissspidy is my secret spy
Activity
szepeviktor commentedon Jul 31, 2026
my hack: https://github.com/szepeviktor/wordpress-website-lifecycle/blob/master/tools/resize-original-media.php#L23
swissspidy commentedon Jul 31, 2026
Thanks for opening!
Related:
https://make.wordpress.org/core/2019/10/09/introducing-handling-of-big-images-in-wordpress-5-3/
https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/ad2405c10e4d6311464ff40d75435ad95bb8a844/src/wp-admin/includes/image.php#L263-L284
Worth noting that with
big_image_size_thresholdthe original is still uploaded/preserved, but the'large'image size is the scaled down version. Question is whether we should do the same or do a destructive resize.It also only affects new uploads, not existing attachments. So this proposed command would fill that gap.
In line with
wp media regenerate [<attachment-id>...], this could bewp media resize-originals [<attachment-id>...], so it's up to the caller to query & resize attachments in batches. We don't do batching forwp media regenerate --yeseither.Depends on what WordPress/server support.
Sounds complex, not sure if that is easily doable.
I'd say it's up to the caller to back up files if needed. We could perhaps add a flag to control whether to keep the original (like
big_image_size_threshold) or not.szepeviktor commentedon Jul 31, 2026
On thing to note:
on a test site the estimated disk space gain is 11.96 GB across 4411 original uploads