I’m using the Bricks theme on a WordPress site, and it looks like all uploaded images are automatically being converted to WebP. Is that expected behavior?
When I switch to another theme, the images are no longer converted, so it seems like this might be handled by Bricks.
Is there a way to disable this feature?
Hi Dessi,
Welcome to the forum!
There is no such feature in Bricks. Please disable your plugins to see if one of them is the culprit.
Best regards,
timmse
Hi timmse,
I’ve disabled all plugins and the automatic conversion still occurs, only by replacing the Bricks theme with another theme the conversion does not occur; that’s why I’m asking about it on this forum.
Have you checked your server config? Some web hosts offer server-level image optimization that automatically serves WebP versions of images to compatible browsers.
With plugins like ewww.io (image optimization), the plugin sets a server rule and automatically creates WebP versions of images. This rule and the WebP images are not removed when you deactivate the plugin; you need to do this manually in the plugin settings. Other image optimization plugins may operate similarly, so check your plugin’s settings to see if you can disable the server rule for WebP, which serves images in WebP format when the visitor’s browser supports it; otherwise, it serves the original format.
If I recall correctly, ewww.io additionaly offers an option to replace the original format with the newly created WebP version immediately after image upload to safe server-resources. This means the original image is deleted once the WebP version is created (other image optimization plugins may function similarly).
This issue is 100% unrelated to the Bricks theme unless you have added custom code in your Bricks theme’s functions.php file. If you haven’t inserted custom code, I recommend posting in your image optimization plugin’s forum for appropriate help.
That is definitely unusual behavior. If you are using a child theme, I would recommend checking your functions.php file to see if there is any custom code handling image hooks, as Bricks itself doesn’t have a built-in setting for forced WebP conversion.