Fixing Bulk Updater Stuck On The Same Image Issue

So you are using the Bulk Updater of Image Attributes Pro to update the image attributes (image title, alt text, caption and description) of your WordPress images. The bulk updater worked smoothly for a good number of images, but then it got stuck. Bummer.

Two scenarios are possible:

1. The Bulk Updater keeps on updating the attributes of the same image over and over.
2. The Bulk Updater doesn’t progress and simply stopped.

Let’s look at the possible causes and solutions.

1. The Bulk Updater keeps on updating the attributes of the same image over and over.

If this is an issue that you are facing, check with your sever settings to see if object caching is enabled. If so, please disable object caching until the bulk updater is complete.

Once the bulk updater has done it’s job, you can enable object caching again.

Known environments with this issue:

• WP Engine hosting.
• LiteSpeed Object Cache in LiteSpeed Cache plugin.

How To Disable Object Caching

The steps to disable object caching varies from one web host to another.

• WP Engine has the option to disable object caching in the account admin (WP Engine admin > your website > Utilities > Cache Options).
• LiteSpeed Cache plugin has a setting for object cache in LiteSpeed Cache > Cache > Object tab.
• Cloudways Object Cache Pro plugin can be disabled using the instructions available in this doc.

For other hosts or plugins, you might have to contact their support and ask them to disable it and later enable it for you.

Please note that object caching is not the same thing as page caching (offered by plugins like WP Rocket, Super Cache, W3 Total Cache and the like), although some page caching plugins do include object caching as a feature. Page caching is NOT a probable cause for this issue.

2. The Bulk Updater doesn’t progress and simply stopped.

The reason why the Bulk Updater is stuck might be because the operation it was trying to do timed out. The server has a predefined time for how low long it will allocate it’s resources for a specific task and once the time is up, the server kills the process.

The server running out of resources could also be a reason. Typically if an image is used on too many posts or products and when the Bulk Updater tries to update them, this could happen.

Solution 1: Most of the time trying a bit later resolves the issue. Remember to refresh the page before trying again. The Bulk Updater remembers it’s progress, so you can continue where you left off.

Alternatively, you can try running the Bulk Updater when traffic on the website is low.

Typically staging servers have lower resources than production and if you face this issue on staging it might not happen on your production server.

Solution 2: Skip the current image using the Skip Image button. To enable this button, add the following code into the functions.php of your active theme.

// Enable the 'Skip Image' button in Image Attributes Pro > Bulk Updater > Tools
add_filter( 'iaff_debug_mode', '__return_true' );

Once added, you will see a new button in the Bulk Updater tab, under Tools section.

• Refresh the page and click the Skip Image button.
• Then click Run Bulk Updater button.
• The Bulk Updater will skip the image that it’s trying to update and move on to the next.

If you are still stuck, please feel free reach out to to me and I will definitely help you out.