Criteria for background images after June 15 2026
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Hi! I got a push & email notification about background image for my blog needing to be updated.
What’s the criteria here after June 15 –
Are blogs under free plans only able to
* choose solid / block colours
* choose from a small selection of images that WordPress has included
* or is this custom background image option only available with a paid plan?The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hey there,
Custom background images are actually a paid feature on WordPress.com. Free plans don’t support uploading your own background images, and even background customization options are quite limited.
The June 15 notice seems to be about changes to older background features rather than introducing new options for free users.
I hope this helps:)
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Hi there @aheadofthenight it appears that the Colourlovers backgrounds that are currently available in the Classic Theme’s Customizer>Colors&Backgrounds may be deprecated in the future.
I don’t have answers to your questions, but you should be able to download your own background image and then upload it to that area of Customizer yourself.
Post back here if you have other questions about this.
Hi @quicksolver231 you mentioned
Custom background images are actually a paid feature on WordPress.com
Could you please link to the reference where you see that this is a paid feature? Thanks.
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Hi @justjennifer,
I found it in this thread:
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@quicksolver231 thanks for sharing the link. That forum post is close to 11 years old. Be aware that forum threads that are older than even 6-8 months may no longer be relevant. Things change here very frequently. You’ll want to check the Support site first.
When you do quote or reference a forum post or Support guide, do please add a direct link to it.
More on the Customizer https://wordpress.com/support/customizer/change-colors-in-the-customizer/
Here’s more on volunteering, in case you haven’t read this yet https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-com-volunteers/
Cheers!
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@aheadofthenight and @quicksolver231 I may have to eat my hat for dinner tonight.
After searching extensively in a very round about way via the Internet Archive, I landed on this current Support Guide
You can personalize your site’s look and feel by giving it a custom background. This guide will show you how to change your site’s background image or add a background image to specific blocks. This feature is available on sites with the WordPress.com Personal, Premium, Business, and Commerce plans. For free sites, upgrade your plan to access this feature. In this guideSetThis guide, as well as this guide on background colors, specifically say this is a feature available on paid plans. Where that leaves existing free websites is something that only staff can answer, so I’ve flagged this thread for staff input.
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Thank you so much for looking into this @quicksolver231 @justjennifer!
Will wait to see what the staff input would be:)
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Hi @aheadofthenight, Every site on the free plan can upload their own background image via the Customizer, so long as their classic theme supports it.
For block themes, custom background images and colours are part of the powerful custom styles feature available on all paid plans.
We will look at clarifying the two support articles Jennifer linked to.
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Thanks for clarifying! How do I tell whether my blog theme is a classic or block theme?
Mine is Button 2 and how does that tie to the notification of my blog’s background image needing to be updated?
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Hello again, Yes, Button 2 is a Classic theme.
If you are using any of the offered background tiles at the bottom of Colors & Backgrounds in the Customizer, that is what you’ll want to change ahead of June 15.
There are many, many websites that offer free tiled backgrounds/seamless tiles for download, including Colourlovers. Look at my screenshot in my earlier reply to see how you can upload your own tiled background.
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So are Colourlovers’ background offerings deprecated come June (the ‘please update your background image’ notification)?
Do we save the image on our own and upload it on our own for blogs with Classic themes?
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Hi @aheadofthenight,
That’s right, the Colourlovers patterns are going away on June 15. That’s what the notification was about.
As @justjennifer mentioned, many websites offer free seamless tiled backgrounds that you can download and set as the background image in the Customizer for your Classic Theme, including Colourlovers. Classic themes like Button 2 will still support the ability to upload your own background image.
More on the steps here: Change your site’s background image
Hope that clears things up! And let us know if you have any more questions!
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Glad this is sorted. One thing to consider — if you’re ever looking for a refresh, switching to a newer block-based theme would give you more built-in design flexibility, including background options, right from the Site Editor. Something to keep in mind for the future.
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you need anything else.
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