Store your images in Optimole Cloud

The Store Images in Optimole Cloud feature is a functionality provided by Optimole that allows website owners to optimize their server storage and improve website performance by transferring images to Optimole's cloud infrastructure. This feature enables users to free up space on their own servers by offloading images to Optimole's secure and high-speed cloud storage system.

Once the images are moved to the Optimole Cloud, they remain accessible and usable through the website's Media Library, just as they were before. Users retain full control and visibility over their images, being able to manage and retrieve them back to their server whenever necessary.

🔌 Enable the Feature

To enable this feature, navigate to WP  Dashboard > Optimole.

1

Open the Settings tab.

2

Click on the Cloud Integration panel.

3

Use the toggle to  enable Storing your images in Optimole Cloud.

🚀 User Site and Image Impact

One way to create more space on your server is by using the offloading function, which will offload your images. You can  sync images, meaning that the last uploaded items will be migrated to Optimole's cloud. To do this, enable the offloading images option, then save the changes. This will also remove the images from your server.

Click on the  Sync images button to start the offloading.

After that, you will receive the estimated time for this operation to be finished. You can also use the View Full Logs/Show Logs buttons to see the transfers in real time.

📝 Note: We use the  wp_generate_attachment_metadata hook to offload every new image uploaded to the server, so as long as "Enable offloading images" is toggled to Enabled - your new images are always being offloaded to our CDN.

Reverse offloading

Scroll down to the Restore offloaded images option and click on the Rollback images button.

🔄 Benefits and Trade-offs

Benefits

• Space efficiency - frees up server space, allowing you to use it for core website files or other resources.
• Performance boost - enhances site speed and performance by serving optimized images from a high-speed cloud network.
• Backup and security - serves as a backup for your media files, providing a safety net against accidental deletions or server failures.

Trade-offs

• Dependency - the feature relies on Optimole's cloud infrastructure.
• Download time - downloading large volumes of images back to the server might take time and impact site accessibility during the process.

🧩 Use Cases

The feature can be very advantageous for multiple use cases, such as:

• Limited Server Space - ideal for websites with limited server storage. Moving images to the cloud frees up valuable space on your server for other essential files.

• Performance Enhancement - websites with a lot of images can experience enhanced loading speed and improved performance as images are served from a high-speed, optimized cloud infrastructure.

💡 Common Questions

What happens to my images?

Your images will be transferred to the Optimole cloud-based library and removed from your website. You can still see them by navigating to Dashboard > Media > Library. The only difference is that the images will not be stored on your server and will be served from our global CDN. Only the URL of an image will be used on your pages. 

What happens to my website if I disable the plugin with the images offloaded?

In this situation, the images won't be visible on your website anymore, meaning your website's visitors won't see them also. The solution is to activate the plugin again; this way, the redirect to the correct URLs within the Optimole cloud will work again. You can also roll the images back; however, that's up to you as it's not mandatory to make them visible again. Just activating the plugin back will fix the images.

In case it doesn't work, please make sure that your Optimole's API key is active in the plugin settings and that the URL of your website appears in  Optimole's Dashboard > Allowed Domains.

What happens to my website if my Optimole plan expires with the images offloaded?

In this case, the images won't be visible on your website anymore, meaning your website's visitors won't see them also. The solution is to activate the plugin again and roll the images back - details here.

Is it mandatory to offload images to have Optimole working properly on my website?

No, this feature is purely optional, and it doesn't affect the way Optimole works. Your images can still be optimized even if this feature is disabled.

Will Optimole store several image sizes or only the main one?

One important thing to note is that using multiple times the  add_image_size() function in your theme and plugins will result in the creation of additional image versions upon uploading an image. However, when using Optimole's offloading feature, only the main image will be used so that the variations of the sizes will only be visible in the URL processing. 

This means that Optimole will not create additional images for each size variant; instead, it will serve the different image sizes using URL configuration variations. Therefore, only the primary image will be uploaded to the Optimole cloud, and Optimole will dynamically generate the different sizes as needed.

🗂Useful Resources

You may find useful these guides:

• 6 Best Dedicated Server Hosting Providers Compared – Affordable & Powerful
• What is a Dedicated Server (And When Do You Need One?)

🎥 Video - Optimole's Cloud Library Browsing and Offloading Feature

Still looking for an answer? Contact us!