How To Export The Images From Optimole?

1. Navigate to the Optimole Dashboard and log in.

2. Open the Settings panel.

3. Switch to the Account area.

4. Scroll down to the Export images and click the Initiate an export button.

The images will be exported as a .zip file, and you will receive an email once it's ready.

What the export contains

The ZIP archive includes all image files stored in your Optimole account — original uploads, resized variants, and regenerated versions. This means the archive may contain multiple versions of the same filename.

📝 Note: Only images offloaded to Optimole storage are included. Files that were never processed by Optimole — such as images stored only in your local media library or on your server — are not part of the export and must be recovered from your site or server backup.

Troubleshooting ZIP extraction issues

ZIP appears corrupted or incomplete

If your extraction tool reports an error such as "Error 94 - Bad message" or "Unable to expand" on macOS, shows the ZIP as corrupted, or produces a folder that appears smaller than expected, the export is most likely valid. Two common causes produce these symptoms:

• Large archive size — The native macOS Archive Utility can fail on large ZIP files even when the archive is completely intact. Use a third-party tool or the Terminal fallback described below.
• Duplicate filenames — Optimole stores all versions of your images in the backend — including thumbnails and regenerated variants — which can result in multiple files sharing the same name. Default extraction tools on macOS and Windows may silently skip duplicates or report an error instead of prompting you to resolve the conflict.

The Optimole dashboard library view deduplicates these versions, so the archive may appear to contain more data than the dashboard suggests.

Recommended extraction method

Use a third-party extraction tool to recover all files:

1. Download and install 7-Zip or PeaZip.
2. Right-click the Optimole export ZIP and open it with your chosen tool.
3. Start extracting. When prompted about filename conflicts, select Auto rename, Keep both, or Keep all to preserve every version.

💡 Tip: If no conflict prompt appears, check the tool's preferences for a duplicate file or overwrite setting and configure it to rename duplicates automatically before extracting.

Terminal fallback on macOS

If 7-Zip or PeaZip are not available, you can extract using the macOS Terminal:

unzip /path/to/optimole-export.zip -d /path/to/destination-folder

Replace /path/to/optimole-export.zip with the path to your downloaded export file and /path/to/destination-folder with a folder that has enough free disk space. If prompted about duplicate files, press A to rename all automatically.