@michaldybczak You can’t rid of dynamic folder as it is necessary for displaying your thumbnails.
And, frankly, I don’t understand why use a plugin to backup files on the server. Do you really need it?
But why those few images are dynamic while others are not? What is so special about them? I uploaded over 100 photos and 5 of them got to dynamic images folder and then they produce warnings in my backup program, because they cannot be backed up. Rest is fine.
What happens when I delete those dynamic images?
@michaldybczak In the dynamic folder there is every image that’s created on request (e.g., a new size of thumbnails), and they are displayed in your galleries as thumbnails.
You can’t delete the folder itself with all its content, you can delete the single “dynamic” images if you are sure that they are no longer used in the galleries, but this does not serve your current purpose.
Still, why don’t you simply download manually once and for all via FTP your /gallery/ folder, or your /wp-content/ folder? Go grab a coffee and when you come back you find it on your desktop. If you download the whole wp-content maybe there is time even for a cigar, even if it hurts 😉
Seriously, usually the stuff in wp-content is not updated every day, but in this case you just need to manually download only the last folder. In any case, it is good practice to keep a local copy of what is uploaded on the server.
I don’t want to delete the folder. I just want to get rid of dynamic files and replace them with normal ones.
I still don’t get it. I made a new gallery, uploaded files automatically and automatically I got ANOTHER PHOTO (for 20-30 images that didn’t) which was put to that list. Were those photos somehow different from others? If so, how? Maybe if I edit them, give them a specific resolution they will be put in next upload in regular folder not dynamic one? That is what I want to now. I need solution.
There must be some, because you said: “In the dynamic folder there is every image that’s created on request”. I NEVER REQUESTED that. All I did was to upload all files from chosen folder on my computer, that’s it. If I had tempered with them afterwards, I get it, program must create some copies of altered images, but I DIDN’T! And that is what pisses me off the most. Next Gen does something automatically without reason and this causes issues that I don’t need. That is what I look for a solution. Manual backup is possible but not practical. I prefer it to be automatized that is why I love Back WPup and want it to work smoothly.
I just want to get rid of dynamic files and replace them with normal ones.
@michaldybczak, you can’t. I don’t understand what you mean by “normal”, but you can’t anyway, whatever you have in mind.
Were those photos somehow different from others?
There are 3 groups of images in NextGEN folders. The first contains the original images, “thumbs” is for the thumbs that you see in admin and “dynamic” is for the images/thumbnails that are seen in your gallery on your site, i.e. the images requested to display, i.e. the ones that visitors see. You can’t delete/rename none of them. All who use NextGEN have those plugin folders, not because you do or do not something particular.
Maybe if I edit them, give them a specific resolution they will be put in next upload in regular folder not dynamic one?
There is no folder less regular than another, each has its own function. I see now that this is a duplicated post: you have posted this same question few days ago. In the other topic you said you want to rename files one by one (?)… here you are talking about editing the resolution (?)… And all of this would be easier and faster than download a folder via FTP? It makes no sense.
Again, you can not edit them and the creation of folders/images it’s the same each upload, you can’t control it.
Here the three solutions:
– Since the issue has to do with the tar format specification (not with NextGEN), use zip and you’ll have long file names and no issue in your backups.
– Look in your backup plugin’s options if you can exclude NextGEN folders from backup. Usually with that type of plugin you can choose what to backup. Then you can download those folders manually via FPT.
– Since the problem occurs in the backup plugin this is not a NextGEN issue, so please contact the backup plugin support.
I can.
I can delete files via FTP (or delete from gallery) and upload them again to see if they end up again in dynamic or regular folder.
There has to be reason who those few images landed in dynamic folder while most didn’t. I’d like to know that reason.
Making my archive ZIP changes backup time from 3 min to 50 min. so this is not an ideal solution.
Downloading entire unpacked site through FTP takes lot of time because many thousands of files there (last time I did it it took about 8 hours on quick LTE Internet! So basically it depends not on upload limits but the number of files, because in the past where the site was simpler, it took less time but still was very time consuming) so yes, I prefer that my backup program does its thing and I can download the whole site as package in few minutes. I also prefer to have entire site in this backup. Remembering that I need to make additional and manual backup is just a recipe for more problems (it’s enough that something crashes and I forgot to make this backup, which is very likely due the great number of things I have to deal with). It’s not practical.
It’s much better to spend time now, find some permanent good solution then what you are proposing right now.
So once again, those images must be different somehow, otherwise they would not be put in dynamic folder. Knowing how allows me to find solution. This is all I ask.
In meantime I’ll experiment with other formats then ZIP or TarGz and maybe one of them make this issue none relevant ;P.
Thanks for responses.
@tizz – Thanks for all of your efforts here. The issue appears to have been resolved by @michaldybczak changing their file format for their back ups.
– Cais.
@michaldybczak, did you manage to resolve your backup problem?
I have just one (pure theoretical) question. Suppose I upload an original jpg image in [gallery] folder that is 1024x768px with filesize of 200kb. Why does NextGen create a copy of it in [dynamic] folder that is the same 1024x768px but with bloated filesize of 500kb?
Unfortunately I couldn’t find any neat solution. Changing file format to ZIP stopped the warnings and dynamic images were included in backup file but the process lasted about one hour as opposed to other formats like TAR who needed only few minutes to do the same. So I changed back to those formats and simply ignore warnings. Once in a while I do ZIP backup thou.
It’s not perfect but I didn’t find any other way. I just don’t have time for more researches.
And I am still unsatisfied with answers that didn’t say why this images were taken as dynamic ones and not the others. They all have the same resolutions, similar content and are shown in the same way on my page as one gallery. And yet few randomly chosen one became dynamic with insanely long names.
If I’d new what are the reasons they were chosen as dynamic, maybe I could counteract, change the files so I would be dynamic images free? But no, everyone was just saying some generic formulas avoiding strict answer. They just don’t know… and those who do know, don’t show up here :(.
I’d wish there would be simple option to turn off dynamic images. I don’t see what they do for my site.
I haven’t check the size of dynamic images but I guess it’s possible that the NG uses some crappy and inefficient code to do that so the files go bigger.
