The most common cause of this is if you are using any of the following features in your theme, widgets or shortcodes:

• Image resizing/cropping (specific options inside the shortcode, not the general WordPress cropping option)
• Image galleries (specific to the shortcode or widget or theme, not the general WordPress gallery)

In the first instance, please check the image display options for your theme, widget or shortcode.

Example using WooCommerce Product Carousel plugin

Here is an example using the WooCommerce Product Carousel plugin. They generate shortcodes for you for specific carousels that you create. Inside each carousel, you’ll find the following setting:

If you have the Image Resizing & Cropping option enabled, External Images will not display. If you change the option to No as in the above image, the External Images will work properly as expected.

You can see a working and a broken example on this URL:

https://foundthru.com/2019/05/29/testing-woo-product-carousel-plugin-with-external-images/

In the image above, the top shortcode has the Image Resizing OFF and the 2nd with broken images has image resizing switched on.

External Images cannot be resized through these kinds of custom services – instead External Images crops images using CSS.

Got a unique widget or shortcode that doesn’t work?

If you have a widget or shortcode that isn’t working with External Images, and you’ve checked for image resizing options or image gallery options or image styling options (choose default where possible) then reply to this FAQ and I’ll add a guide unique to your widget.