Exclude Image Thumbnails From UpdraftPlus Backups
An UpdraftPlus extension that excludes image size thumbnails, generated by WordPress, from Updraft backups.
5(11 reviews)
·4.0K+ active installs·Updated 1 year agoAs of April 2026, Exclude Image Thumbnails From UpdraftPlus Backups is a WordPress image plugin with 4.0K+ active installations and a 5/5 rating from 11 reviews. It has been downloaded 47K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 3.5+ and PHP false+. Available on WordPress.org since 2018. Last updated 1 year ago — may have compatibility concerns. Downloads are up 11% this week. Top alternative: Firelight Lightbox.
5/511 reviews
4.0K+active installs
47K+total downloads
8 yearssince 2018
Overview
A small plugin to exclude WordPress generated image thumbnails from Updraft backups, saving space. The original, full-sized image is included in backups, so if a restoration from backup is needed, WP CLI or a plugin can be used to regenerate thumbnails using the original, full-size images.
Features:
- Works for all image types and includes both native and custom image sizes added by themes and plugins.
Ratings & Reviews
511 reviews
5 ★
11
4 ★
0
3 ★
0
2 ★
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1 ★
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Recent Reviews
So simple but making failing backups work again!
by Jos Klever·3 years ago
I found the code in your plugin via a tip in the #sustainability channel of WP Slack, so I tested it on a website that wasn’t able to do a full backup for over a year now (due to a bad host). By filtering the thumbnails out, I was finally successful in making a full backup again.
For sustainability this should actually be an option in UpdraftPlus.
Thank you for saving time and disk space!
Must have for updraft – cuts backup sizes in half – at least.
by Bjarne Oldrup·4 years ago
I was attempting to reduce my sites backup sizes, to ease day to day administration, and from a sustainability perspective. All data transfers and hot storage uses energy – there is a carbon footprint to those backups.
Excluding themes and plugins that I might as well get from WordPress.org in a rare restore situation, helped a lot. But those many WordPress image variants were a real eyesore. Even with a lean theme, there is at least 6 different variants/thumbnails of each image.
Exclude Image Thumbnails From UpdraftPlus Backups did away with those images unnecessary in the backup, making it so much smaller, faster to backup and friendlier to the enviroment.
Bonus tip: I chose to exclude all webp images from the backup as well. Those are in my case generated from the original jpg or png images, for even speedier load times. I would be able to re-generate those easily if restoring my site. Obviously you shouldn’t exclude webp if you upload these manually to the media library…
Highly recommended.
Should be part of Updraft
by argosmedia·4 years ago
This is a great plugin. I always had Updraft complaining about resources, and lots of backups that failed partly or completely. Now it runs smoothly and without errors. The feaure this plugin adds to Updraft should be a standard feature of Updraft itself. It’s a must have, simply as that. I was considering to stop using Updraft, although I use it on dozens of sites. But now I can continue using it. Thanks to this litle gem!
10/10
by dustrider99·5 years ago
Literally a miracle. Was next to impossible to reliably create backups for one of my sites due to so many images. This plugin makes using Updraft possible. THANK YOU!
From 2.2Gb to 1.3Gb
by sqez·5 years ago
Didn’t try to restore and recreate thumbnails but for now I’m happy with the space savings. Thanks!
Download Trends
Today: 12Yesterday: 17This week: 97Period total: 5K
Compatibility
| WordPress | 3.5+ requiredTested up to 6.7.5 |
| PHP | false+ required |
Version Adoption
v1.0
100.0%
Top Alternatives to Exclude Image Thumbnails From…
Frequently Asked Questions
Changelog
1.0.4
- Updated assets.
Contributors
Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.