Media handling

The Media handling tab decides where the images and videos of imported posts are stored and how the featured image (post thumbnail) is created.

WordPress Dashboard › RSS Retriever

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Store images locally

Copies all images of the post to your uploads folder and changes the image URLs accordingly. Your pages no longer depend on the source server, images load from your own domain, and sources that block hotlinking still work. Generated AI images are always saved on your server.

The /wp-content/uploads folder must be writable. Make sure you have the right to copy the images: you are responsible for their use.

Convert PNG images to

Do not convert (default), JPEG or WebP, with a Compression quality (default 80). Converts PNG images stored locally. PNG files are large, especially AI-generated ones; WebP typically saves most of the space and page weight.

Add to Media Library

Registers all post images in the WordPress Media Library. Keep it off unless you need it: WordPress then creates several thumbnail sizes for every image, which takes time and disk space.

Store base64-encoded images

Works together with Store images locally. Images embedded in the HTML as base64 data are saved as normal image files.

Media attachments

Some feeds attach media to items with <enclosure>, media:content or media:thumbnail tags.

• Do not insert attachments (default).
• Insert attachments at top of post.
• Insert attachments at bottom of post.

To use an attachment only as the featured image, leave this setting off and choose Create from media attachment under Post thumbnails.

Store videos locally

Copies videos of the post to your uploads folder. Supported formats: mp4, m4v, mov, wmv, avi, mpg, ogv, 3gp, 3g2. Large videos take time to copy.

Use "video" custom field

Embeds the content of the video custom field, a direct link to a video file or an embed code such as an <iframe>:

• Do not embed video (default).
• Embed video at top of post.
• Embed video at bottom of post.

Fill the field with a custom field rule, for example video_url->video.

Post thumbnails

The source of the featured image:

• Do not create
• Create from first post image (default)
• Create from last post image
• Create from random post image
• Create from media attachment
• Create from "thumb" custom field: the URL in the thumb field, filled by a custom field rule or by an image source set to Store in "thumb" custom field on the Media enrichment tab.
• Use alternative source: always use the Alternative thumbnail source.

When the post contains no image but an embedded YouTube video, the poster frame of the video is used.

Use FIFU

The featured image is not downloaded; it is hotlinked from its source and displayed by the Featured Image from URL (FIFU) plugin, which must be installed and active. Saves disk space. Some sites block hotlinking; then the posts show no featured image and you should store images locally instead.

Alternative thumbnail source

A fallback when no image was found for the selected source: an image URL or a placeholder, for example %pixabay[blue sky]% for a random Pixabay photo or %random_image[%post_title%]% for a Google image about the title. Ignored when Post thumbnails is Do not create.

Thumbnail source size

Minimum and maximum width and height of the source image, in pixels. Images outside the range are not used, so tiny icons and tracking pixels do not become featured images. 0 disables a limit. The check uses the PHP getimagesize() function, which downloads the image and can be slow or fail on some servers; use these limits only if you need them.

Post thumbnail is required

If no featured image can be created (no image found, broken or blocked image), the post is not published. Ignored when Post thumbnails is Do not create.