Hey @loano1 and thanks for these questions.
Let me answer them one by one:
Short question about the legacy process, will pressing the “Convert legacy data” button only copy the metadata or also remove it from postmeta table (to clean it up)?
This process will only copy the metadata from the postmeta to the new dedicated table. In case you want to remove it, there is an option for that in the Settings -> ShortPixel -> Tools tab. Please make sure the conversion has been done before removing the metadata from the postmeta table!
If someone does not perform the conversion, what will be the result?
There is no major issue if that isn’t performed, but it may result in cases when an optimized item could reach the bulk queue, which would then be skipped as optimized. At the same time, whenever an item from the Media Library is opened (by entering the editor), the conversion will be done automatically. In short, it’s much better and recommended to do the conversion, but it can also be skipped.
Does the plugin store the data for new images in the new table while keep looking up the info in postmeta for images that existed and were optimized in the past?
Yes, that’s exactly what happens now. We first check if the old metadata exists, then if new metadata exists, and only if both are missing the item is optimized.
If yes, will there be a point when the plugin will stop looking into postmeta for existing images?
Yes, most likely we’ll include at some point another tool that will automatically remove the old metadata from the postmeta table, but that will be at the earliest next year because we want to give enough time for people to switch to version 5 and later.
Please let us know if you have any other questions!
Pedro/ShortPixel
