Elongated Images

  • Unknown's avatar
    harindabama · Member ·

    Hi, I noticed something weird happening to a lot of the images on my blog posts. While some appear normal, others are for some reason elongated vertically. I tried to open the same blog posts on my laptop and phone, but the same problem persists. Do other people experience the same problem? And how can I fix it?

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • melvend5 · Staff ·

    Hi @harindabama,

    I checked your site and opened several of the recent posts and images, but I’m not currently seeing the vertically elongated image issue from my end. The images I reviewed appear to be loading with their normal proportions.

    Since this may require a closer review of specific posts, images, or account/site settings, please contact WordPress.com support directly so we can investigate further.

    You can contact support here:

    https://wordpress.com/support/contact/

    You can also access support from your WordPress.com dashboard by clicking the question mark icon in the upper-right corner, then selecting Need help? Get in touch. Paid plans include access to 24/7 expert human support through the Help Center.

    When contacting support, please include the direct links to the posts where the images appear stretched, along with a screenshot showing the issue. That will help us compare what you’re seeing with what loads on our end.

  • Unknown's avatar
    harindabama · Member ·

    Hi @melvend5,

    Here are some of the posts that have this problem:

    Cholon: Saigon’s Eclectic Chinatown

    Angkor Wat: Built to Impress

    Memories of Anuradhapura

    When I tried to open these on another browser (Edge), everything seems normal. I wonder if the issue is with Chrome. And if so, is there anything you can help or I should do?

    Thank you.

  • melvend5 · Staff ·

    Hi @harindabama,

    Thanks for sharing the example posts. We were able to reproduce the issue in Chrome.

    The uploaded image files themselves appear to be fine, so this does not look like damaged or corrupted images. The issue appears to be caused by how Chrome is handling some older image markup on those posts.

    Specifically, some of the affected images have their original size stored in the image data, but they are missing explicit width and height attributes in the image markup. WordPress is also outputting sizes="auto" for those images, and Chrome appears to be interpreting that combination incorrectly. As a result, Chrome calculates the wrong display height and the images appear vertically stretched.

    We found this affecting images in these posts:

    • Cholon: Saigon’s Eclectic Chinatown
    • Angkor Wat: Built to Impress

    We did not see the same issue on Memories of Anuradhapura, and the more recent posts we checked did not appear to be affected.

    A CSS adjustment should help force the affected images to keep their natural proportions. If your plan includes access to Additional CSS, please try adding this under Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS:

    .entry-content img:is([sizes="auto" i], [sizes^="auto," i]),
    .entry-content .single-image-gallery img:is([sizes="auto" i], [sizes^="auto," i]) {
      contain: none !important;
      contain-intrinsic-size: auto !important;
      height: auto !important;
      max-width: 100% !important;
      object-fit: contain;
    }

    After saving, please check the affected posts again in Chrome.

  • Unknown's avatar
    harindabama · Member ·

    Hi @melvend5,

    I have applied the additional CSS. While the images now appear normal and are no longer stretched, a new problem happens: the distance between each image and its caption is really wide, leaving a lot of empty space between them. Here are some examples:

    The East Mebon & Pre Rup: Stately Legacies in Eastern Angkor

    A Ride to the Past

    I’m also sharing the illustration here (you can see the blank spaces between images and captions):

    Is there any other additional CSS I need to add to fix this?

    Thank you.

  • Unknown's avatar
    mederdempsey · Member ·

    I am having the same issues. I don’t have a paid plan on WordPress. This is what I found.

    Older posts containing images linked using legacy .files.wordpress.com URLs display distorted images in Chrome and Edge, but display correctly in Firefox and on mobile devices. Opening the image itself in a separate tab shows the image correctly.

    The issue has been observed on other WordPress.com blogs. I checked their older posts. Note that I’ve already gone through and fixed about 50 posts (of 700). Before fixing them the first two images consistently appeared normal while the elongated began with the next images in the post.

    I have always used Classic Editor. When I view the Setting Details for the Media File in the post, it is set to “Custom URL” (I don’t think this was the original setting or the dropdown items have changed since these were posted). If I change it to “Media File,” it appears to correct the display. In HTML, it rewrites the image URL. The change is from
    files.wordpress.com to
    wp-content/uploads

    Examples:
    https://openingdoorsinbrickwalls.wordpress.com/2021/01/15/teaching-a-friend-to-find-records-on-familysearch/

    2020 A Year in Review and What’s Coming in 2021

    Dear Cousin – We Have a DNA Match, Now What? (Updated)



  • Unknown's avatar
    harindabama · Member ·

    Hi @mederdempsey,

    Thanks for sharing. However, I wonder if there is a fix where I don’t need to manually change the image setting one by one because with almost 500 blog posts where each post can have between 20-40 photos, it will take a long time to do the task.

  • Unknown's avatar
    mederdempsey · Member ·

    That is also why I came to the forum, looking for help or an answer. I don’t want to manually fix over 3500 images in 650 posts. Our readers should not be seeing these distorted photos. And what do they think of our work when they do? I’ve been using WordPress.com (free and not on a paid plan) for 12 years and have never had a problem. I’m hoping it can be fixed by WordPress.

  • Unknown's avatar
    justjennifer · Member ·

    @harindabama @mederdempsey Sometimes when the software and/or features like the Gallery or Images are updated, it can adversely affect older posts. Can you mention how you inserted those images in your post?

    FWIW I visited your sites for the first time today in Firefox latest and in spite of any additional CSS, the images in the posts you both linked to are elongated for me starting with the second or third image in the post.

  • Unknown's avatar
    mederdempsey · Member ·

    @justjennifer, I took a break from blogging regularly in 2023 until recently. I only noticed the problem when I was redoing a page with links to posts. I have always used the Classic Editor, Add Media button, uploaded image and/or chose image from library without making any changes to the Link to in the Display Settings. This screenshot is adding a media file to a draft today. When I open the same in an older post, the media has link to Custom URL. I’ve used this with feature images that I’ve added to other posts (with the link to original post) but not for images I’ve using a a post.

  • Unknown's avatar
    mederdempsey · Member ·

    @justjennifer, even the first 2 or 3 images in a post that are showing correctly in a browser have display settings>Custom URL. I’ve gone in and fixed about 50 posts–every image had “Custom URL.” I haven’t made any changes to the Media Gallery/Library. Rarely reuse an image other than, for example, the sign-off I use.

  • Unknown's avatar
    mederdempsey · Member ·

    I’ve gone through my recent posts. Since Nov 2025, images have been added by default as Media File for the display setting. All posts I’ve viewed before Feb 2025 have (had before I fixed them) Custom URL. Figured this out from my signature image that is used in all posts. I did not have any posts between Feb and Nov 2025.

  • Unknown's avatar
    untouraujapon · Member ·

    Hi,
    It seems I’m experiencing the same problem as you… I just noticed on my blog that the layout of some photos has changed (mainly vertical photos that are completely stretched). This doesn’t appear on smartphones, but it’s present on PCs regardless of the browser. I saw the message about the Classic Block and I imagine it’s related (I haven’t touched the site in a while except for paying for the domain name). Here’s an example of a page where the problem occurs: https://untouraujapon.com/2019/12/14/entre-tsumago-et-magome-balade-sur-la-nakasendo/ You can see the stretched photos (the 7th and 12th photos in the article, for example).

    Thanks in advance for your advice!

  • Unknown's avatar
    untouraujapon · Member ·

    It appears that when I start “Edit my article,” I get the message: “The classic block is being phased out. Convert this content to blocks for the best editing experience, or move it to a custom HTML block to preserve the original markup.”
    If I choose HTML, the stretched images return to normal in the 4-5 articles I’ve tried to edit.

  • Unknown's avatar
    harindabama · Member ·

    Hi @untouraujapon,

    For now, what I’m doing is: in the Classic editor I click on the stretched image, then choose the size to other sizes (by default it’s Full Size), then save the draft. Then click on the same image again to change the size back to Full Size, then save again. This seems to fix the problem. But you can imagine this will take a lot of time. Until a quick fix is found, this is the best thing I can do.

  • Unknown's avatar
    2020testjj · Member ·

    Hello all, from information in a different forum thread, staff are aware of this issue affecting some users.

    “This is due to a recent update that’s been affecting how images display on some sites recently. It’s not something you did, and your original images are fine.

    We’re working on a permanent fix.”

    It is not necessary to post again about this

  • Unknown's avatar
    untouraujapon · Member ·

    Thanks for your answer, I’ll try this :)

  • Unknown's avatar
    baryshnitsa · Member ·

    I also discovered this very annoying, infuriating issue just now. A lot of my images are blurry and way too big, despite being normal-sized when I checked them in Classic Editor. It’s going to be such a headache to fix this, on top of still having to re-enter the image links for all my WikiCommons images that don’t display on either of my blogs anymore thanks to a surprise update to their URL system.

  • Unknown's avatar
    mederdempsey · Member ·

    @baryshnitsa, thank you for mentioning WikiCommons images. I noticed one wasn’t displaying when I went through posts with the distorted images. I didn’t realize it was an update to their URL system. I haven’t used many and will have to search for the rest. At the same time, I noticed that embedded Google maps are also not displaying. Hopefully, WordPress will fix the elongated images issue.

  • mikeicode · Staff ·

    Hi everyone, this issue has been fixed.

    A WordPress core CSS rule (contain-intrinsic-size: 3000px 1500px) was forcing a 2:1 landscape aspect ratio on all lazy-loaded images. Older posts — especially those created in the Classic Editor — were hit hardest because their image markup often doesn’t include explicit width and height attributes, so browsers had no correct dimensions to fall back on. That’s why the first couple of images in a post usually looked fine (they load eagerly) while the rest appeared stretched.

    The fix strips that problematic sizing from images that don’t have dimensions set, so browsers can now calculate the correct proportions naturally. Your original images were never damaged — this was purely a display issue.

    If you added any custom CSS workarounds, you can safely remove them now.

1 2
  • The topic ‘Elongated Images’ is closed to new replies.