Replace External Images – Import External Images

After a migration, many images still load from somewhere else: Wix, Blogger, Squarespace, Medium, an old domain or a CDN you are about to switch off. As long as they do, your site depends on servers you don't control. If those images disappear, your posts show broken images. Replace External Images lets you import external images into WordPress in one go. It shows you where your website still loads images from other servers (hotlinked images), downloads them into your WordPress Media Library and replaces the external URLs with local ones. You don't have to open and re-save a single post. New in 2.1: the overview One scan shows every external image on your website in one place – not only in posts and pages:

• posts, pages, WooCommerce products and all other content types
• Elementor layouts and ACF fields
• widgets, logo and theme settings, additional CSS, menus and category descriptions

For every place you see which server the images come from and what you can do: ✓ import right away, 🔒 with the add-on or Pro, or ✋ change by hand – with a button that takes you straight to the place. Import all now imports everything marked ✓ in one go. The scan only reads and changes nothing. It runs in short steps, so it also works on slow hosting and big websites, and the overview stays up to date after imports and edits. Not sure yet whether your site is affected? Our free online check for external images looks at a WordPress site from the outside – no installation needed. Made for existing content Most tools only import images when you save a post. With a thousand old posts that doesn't help. Here you select your posts or pages in the list – or simply click Import all – and every entry is processed in one run. You follow each step in the live log. Features

• Overview – one scan finds external images everywhere on your website and sorts them by place, area and server (see above).
• Bulk import – select posts or pages in the list and process them at once, or use Import all in the notice above the list.
• Single import – one click in the editor sidebar for the post you are working on.
• See what is external – the lists show how many external images were found, the editor shows the number for the current entry.
• Live progress – counters for imported, reused and failed images and a filterable activity list.
• Clear reasons – blocked sources (for example HTTP 403 or "not an image") are skipped and explained. Nothing broken is saved.
• No duplicates – images imported before are reused, and different images with the same file name are kept apart.
• Featured images – an external featured image is replaced with the local copy. Entries without a featured image get the first imported image (can be turned off).
• Clean alt texts – alt texts that only contain a web address (or "Image from https://…") are emptied during import, real descriptions stay (can be turned off).
• Elementor & ACF – the free version shows external images in Elementor layouts and ACF fields and leaves them untouched, so the layout can't break. Pro or the Elementor & ACF add-on imports them, also right from the Elementor editor.
• Import history – every import with the entries changed, the images added and the full log for each image. Copy the log with one click, e.g. for support.
• Gutenberg and Classic Editor.
• Translated into German, French, Spanish and Italian.

Typical situations

• You moved from Wix, Blogger, Squarespace or Medium.
• You pasted content from Google Docs, Notion or another website.
• Your pages are built with Elementor and still load images from the old site.
• An old domain or CDN is about to be switched off.
• You want fewer requests to third-party servers and full control over your images.

Free and Pro Posts and pages are included in the free version, including bulk import, import history and all features above. Pro adds:

• WooCommerce products and all custom post types
• Elementor & ACF – everything the add-on below does
• Undo – revert any import with one click: content and featured images are restored, images added by the import are removed again
• Pro Unlimited: any number of sites and WP-CLI commands (wp replexim scan, import, runs, undo) for large migrations

One-time payment, no subscription, lifetime updates, 14-day money-back guarantee. See Pro Elementor & ACF add-on for the free version (one-time payment): imports external images from Elementor layouts (image, image box, gallery, carousel, testimonial, backgrounds, text editor, HTML), ACF fields (text, text area, WYSIWYG, URL) and inline background images. The layout stays as it is. Already included in Pro. See the add-on Privacy Images are always downloaded directly from your server to the image source – nothing passes through our servers. On activation the plugin asks whether you want to share non-sensitive usage data via Freemius (e.g. WordPress, PHP and plugin version, site address, admin email) to help us improve the plugin and inform you about updates. This is optional: if you skip it, nothing is sent and the plugin works fully. Details: Privacy policy Documentation: Help & documentation

1. In your dashboard go to Plugins → Add New Plugin and search for "Replace External Images".
2. Click Install Now, then Activate.

After the activation, External Images → Overview shows a first estimate. Click Scan website now to see every external image on your site and import them from there. To import images from many posts at once:

1. Go to Posts or Pages.
2. Click Import all in the notice above the list – or select entries, choose Replace External Images under Bulk actions and click Apply.
3. Follow the live progress until the import is complete.

For a single post, open it in the editor and click Import external images in the Replace External Images box in the sidebar.

2.1.1

• Overview: example addresses in your texts (for example "background-image: url(https://old-domain.com/…)" in a tutorial or code block) no longer count as external images – only real style attributes and stylesheets do
• Overview: new texts no longer appear in English when an older language pack from translate.wordpress.org is installed – the translations bundled with the plugin are loaded first

2.1.0

• New overview of all external images (External Images → Overview): right after the activation it shows a first estimate, and with one click it scans the whole website – posts, pages, all content types, Elementor layouts, ACF fields, widgets, theme settings, additional CSS, menus and category descriptions
• Every place is listed with the server the images come from and what you can do: ✓ import right away, 🔒 add-on or Pro, ✋ change by hand – with a button that takes you straight to the place
• "Import all now" imports every image marked ✓ in one go; the overview stays up to date after imports and edits
• The scan runs in short steps, so it also works on slow hosting and big websites
• Finds images of lazy-load plugins (data-src and similar) and images in reusable blocks and block theme templates
• After an import, external image sizes in srcset are removed, so browsers no longer load them from the old server
• Updated translations (German, French, Spanish, Italian)

2.0.2

• Faster: several entries are now imported at the same time – in our test more than a third faster than 2.0.1 (33 images in several posts: 10.4 s instead of 16.5 s)
• Fewer revisions: a post is saved once per import step instead of once per image
• Cleaner alt texts: alt texts that only contain a web address (or "Image from https://…") are emptied during import, real descriptions stay. On by default, can be turned off in the settings
• Clearer reasons in the log: "Not found at the source (HTTP 404)", "Server error at the source" and "Blocked by the source"
• New "Add-ons" page with the Elementor & ACF add-on: imports images from Elementor layouts, ACF fields and inline backgrounds (already included in Pro)
• Pages built with Elementor and images in ACF fields: the free version now tells you clearly that these images are imported by Pro or the Elementor & ACF add-on – instead of adding images to your media library that would not show up on the page
• Elementor editor: the page settings show how many images a page loads from other websites (with Pro or the Elementor & ACF add-on: import them right there and return to the editor)
• Safer: two windows importing the same post no longer overwrite each other's changes, edits saved during an import are kept, downloads larger than 25 MB are skipped, image addresses with "&" are handled correctly, and addresses that only start like your domain are no longer mistaken for your own site
• Undo (Pro) also notices later changes to the featured image, page builder data and custom fields, and keeps images that are still used in galleries, page builder layouts or custom fields
• License key can now be entered under Settings and on the Help & Support page
• After your first successful imports, the plugin asks once whether you would like to rate it – you can dismiss it for good
• Updated translations (German, French, Spanish, Italian)

2.0.1

• Requires WordPress 6.2 or later
• Code quality: all database queries use prepared statements with identifier placeholders; fixes from the Plugin Check report
• Security: downloaded files are checked before they are saved – only real images (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, AVIF, BMP, TIFF) are accepted, and the file extension always matches the detected image type
• Security: starting an import now requires the permission to upload files (Authors, Editors, Administrators)
• Security: the import history only shows entries the current user may edit; Authors only see their own imports
• Security: hardened the bundled Freemius SDK (sanitized add-on info, no HTTP fallback after TLS errors, capability check for clone resolution)

2.0.0

• NEW: Pages are included in the free version, including bulk import
• NEW: Redesigned import screen with live progress, counters and a filterable activity list
• NEW: "Import all" button and number of external images in the post and page lists; number for the current entry in the editor
• NEW: Own menu "External Images" with import history, help and settings
• NEW: Import history with the full log for every image (kept for 90 days, adjustable to 30–365 days)
• NEW: "Copy log" button on the import screen and in the history
• NEW: Setting to turn off the automatic featured image
• NEW: Translations for German, French, Spanish and Italian; regional variants use the main language
• NEW: Clear reasons for failed images, e.g. "Blocked by the source (HTTP 403)" or "Not an image"
• NEW (Pro): WooCommerce products and all custom post types, undo an import with one click
• NEW (Pro Unlimited): WP-CLI commands wp replexim scan|import|runs|undo
• FIX: An external featured image is replaced with the imported local copy
• FIX: Different images with the same file name are no longer mixed up
• FIX: Images imported before from the same URL are reused instead of downloaded again
• FIX: Backslashes in post content (e.g. in block attributes) are no longer removed
• FIX: The bulk import counts the images of all selected posts correctly
• Images from your own site are no longer listed as external
• Security: imports check that the current user may edit the specific post; downloads use the WordPress HTTP API
• Tested with WordPress 7.1

1.2.0

• Improved prefix consistency across AJAX, JS globals, script handles, and importer internals
• Hardened nonce and request sanitization in admin and AJAX flows
• Improved download handling and clearer logging for blocked sources (e.g. HTTP 403 responses)
• Improved post-type aware back navigation after single and bulk imports

1.1.0

• NEW: Bulk import for external images across multiple posts

1.0.0

• Initial public release