Rebalance: First page image is duplicated above content
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The Rebalance theme recently started displaying the first image from a Page’s content above the page content itself.
Pages do not have a Featured Image assigned. I have “Automatically use first image” enabled because it is needed for post thumbnails on the blog index.
This did not happen before and appears to be a recent change.
Example: https://naawie.photo.blog/outfits-2025/
The image shown above the page content is simply the first image from the page itself, so it appears twice: once at the top and again in its original place inside the content.
This is especially problematic for gallery pages. The duplicated image does not behave like a page header, banner, or hero section. It is displayed using its original proportions and looks like an extra content block inserted before the page, which disrupts the layout and visual flow of the gallery.
Is this an intentional change or a bug? Is there a way to keep “Automatically use first image” for post thumbnails while preventing this image from being displayed above static Pages?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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This duplication happens because the ‘Automatically use first image’ feature applies to static Pages just like it does to blog Posts, forcing the Rebalance theme to render that fallback image as a top banner. To hide these auto-generated headers on your static pages while keeping your blog index thumbnails completely intact, you can use a quick CSS override. Just navigate to Appearance > Customize > Additional CSS (or your theme’s editor) and add this snippet: .page .entry-thumbnail { display: none;} This safely suppresses the duplicated top image on your static Pages without affecting your Posts or your main blog grid layouts!
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Hi, thanks for the explanation.
I understand the CSS workaround, but I’m on the free WordPress.com plan, so I don’t have access to Additional CSS.
The main issue is that this behavior did not exist before – static Pages were not rendering the first content image as a separate top image. This change has effectively altered the layout of existing pages without any user action.
Is this an intentional update to the Rebalance theme, or a regression/bug? If this is expected behavior now, is there any non-CSS way (theme setting or option) to disable automatic first-image rendering on Pages specifically, while keeping it enabled for blog post thumbnails?
Thanks.
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Since the free WordPress.com plan blocks the Custom CSS option, and there isn’t a native toggle to separate Pages from Posts within that setting, you can bypass this layout bug completely right inside the page editor. Open your affected static Pages, click on the very first image block in your content, and look at the right-hand block settings sidebar. If you change that specific block from a standard Image block to a Cover block (or wrap it inside a Group block), the automatic theme script will no longer recognize it as raw body text to scrape for the top banner. This non-CSS structural tweak stops the duplication on your static Pages immediately while leaving your regular blog Post settings and main index thumbnails completely untouched!
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I tested this on a new Page. The page contains a paragraph followed by a Cover block. The theme still extracts the image from the Cover block and displays it above the page in its original proportions. Theme is not looking for a specific Image block type. It appears to be extracting the first image from the rendered page content regardless of block type.
What I am seeing does not behave like a normal Featured Image header. Existing pages that previously displayed correctly now start with a large duplicate of the first image. Since this behavior did not exist before, could you confirm whether this is an intentional change or an unintended regression?
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You are completely right, and thank you for confirming that test with the Cover block. This proves that the theme’s extraction script is pulling from the fully rendered HTML output of the page rather than targeting a specific block type.To answer your main question: This is definitely an unintended regression (a bug), not an intentional feature change.The Rebalance theme is a legacy, classic theme. Recent under-the-hood core updates to how WordPress.com handles the ‘Automatically use first image’ feature have inadvertently altered how it passes image data to older theme templates, causing it to aggressively force these layout duplicates onto static Pages where they never belonged. Since you are on the free plan and cannot use the CSS fix, I have flagged this thread directly for our WordPress.com Staff / Happiness Engineers. They will need to look at this regression on the backend to coordinate a platform-side fix for the theme, or manually assist you with a workaround for your site. Please hang tight while a staff member reviews the bug!
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