Description
Imgur images embedded across your site can break — most recently for UK visitors, when Imgur was geo-blocked, and permanently whenever Imgur deletes an image. PixelVault Image Rescue fixes both, automatically: when a page loads, it rewrites Imgur image links so they load through PixelVault’s edge instead of Imgur — and, optionally, migrates them into image hosting you own.
- Instant fix, no account required. Activate the plugin and Imgur images start loading through PixelVault right away.
- Reversible and non-destructive. Rewriting happens at output time only — your posts are never modified. Disable the plugin and the original markup returns untouched.
- Handles
srcandsrcset, in post content, featured images, and widgets. An optional whole-page mode also catches theme-hardcoded images.
How it works
- Install and activate. Live rescue turns on by default and shows how many at-risk Imgur images it found on your site.
- Live rescue rewrites each Imgur image to load through PixelVault’s rescue proxy, which fetches the image once and serves it from a global edge network — so it keeps working even when Imgur is blocked.
- Migrate & Own (optional). Add a free PixelVault API key to copy every Imgur image into your own PixelVault project and rewrite your posts to permanent, owned URLs.
Two ways to rescue
- Live rescue — zero setup, no account, instant. Best for keeping existing Imgur embeds visible today. It is durable-cached but re-fetches from Imgur, so it can still break if the original is deleted.
- Migrate & Own — a free API key copies each image into hosting you control and rewrites posts to permanent CDN URLs, independent of Imgur. Fully reversible: every edited post keeps a revision, and a one-click Restore original URLs button reverts everything.
Perfect for
- Blogs and forums with years of hotlinked Imgur images.
- UK sites where Imgur images stopped loading after the geo-block.
- Anyone who wants to stop depending on a third party that can block or delete their images.
About PixelVault
PixelVault is image hosting on a global edge network — permanent URLs, on-the-fly transforms, and zero egress fees, with a free tier. This plugin is the WordPress front-end for its Imgur rescue and migration features.
Learn more at pixelvault.dev.
- Imgur rescue overview: pixelvault.dev/imgur-rescue
- Documentation: pixelvault.dev/docs
External services
This plugin connects to PixelVault (https://pixelvault.dev), a third-party image-hosting service, to rehost Imgur images. It uses two PixelVault endpoints:
1. Rescue proxy — Live rescue (always on when enabled)
- What it does: rewrites Imgur image links on your pages to load through PixelVault’s rescue proxy, which fetches each image and serves it from PixelVault’s edge.
- What is sent: only the URLs of Imgur images found on the pages being rendered, sent to the rescue endpoint (default
https://img.pixelvault.dev/rescue). No account or key is required. - When: each time a page containing an Imgur image is rendered.
2. Import API — Migrate & Own (optional, admin-triggered)
- What it does: when you add a PixelVault API key and click Migrate all Imgur images, the plugin imports each Imgur image into your own PixelVault project and rewrites your posts to the resulting permanent URLs.
- What is sent: the Imgur image URLs to import and your PixelVault API key (sent server-side as a Bearer token), to the import endpoint (default
https://api.pixelvault.dev/v1/images). - When: only while you are running a migration or restore from the plugin’s settings screen. Nothing is sent on the front end.
No visitor data and no post content beyond the Imgur image URLs themselves are ever sent. Both endpoints are configurable if you self-host PixelVault.
By using this plugin you agree to PixelVault’s Terms (https://pixelvault.dev/terms) and Privacy Policy (https://pixelvault.dev/privacy).
Installation
- Upload the plugin to
/wp-content/plugins/, or install it from the Plugins screen. - Activate it.
- Visit Settings Image Rescue. Live rescue is on by default; you’ll see how many Imgur images were found.
FAQ
-
Does this modify my posts?
-
No. Rewriting happens when a page is rendered. Your saved content is never changed, and deactivating the plugin fully reverts the behavior.
-
Some images still aren’t rewritten.
-
Enable Whole-page mode in the settings. It also rewrites theme-hardcoded and background images at the cost of a little extra processing.
-
Is it permanent?
-
Anonymous (live-rescue) mode is durable-cached, not permanent — it re-fetches from Imgur as long as your pages get traffic, so it can still break if Imgur deletes the original. For permanent ownership, add an API key and run Migrate & Own, which copies the images into your PixelVault project and rewrites your posts to owned URLs.
-
Can I undo a migration?
-
Yes. Migration saves a revision for every edited post, and the settings page has a Restore original URLs button that reverts posts back to their Imgur URLs (your owned copies on PixelVault are kept).
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“PixelVault Image Rescue” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
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Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
0.2.3
- Readme only: expanded the plugin description (how it works, the two rescue modes, use cases, and links to pixelvault.dev). No functional changes.
0.2.2
- Escape rewritten rescue URLs with esc_url() before they are returned to the front end, falling back to the original image URL if a URL is ever rejected.
- Whole-page mode now closes its output buffer only when that buffer is provably its own (top of the stack and opened by this plugin), closes it as late as possible on shutdown, and never opens more than one — so a buffer opened by another component is never flushed or left misaligned.
0.2.1
- Whole-page mode now explicitly closes its output buffer on shutdown.
- Documented the optional Migrate & Own import endpoint under External services.
0.2.0
- Mode B (Migrate & Own): with a PixelVault API key, copy Imgur images into your project and rewrite posts to permanent, owned URLs. Browser-driven with a progress bar, idempotent (skips already-migrated URLs), and reversible via a Restore button.
0.1.0
- Initial release. Mode A (live rescue): rewrite Imgur
src/srcsetin content, featured images, and widgets; optional whole-page mode; settings page with an at-risk image count.