Hi wildapache, you can keep pretty permalinks for your posts and pages and change only the attachment URLs. WordPress lets you override the URL it generates for attachment pages with the attachment_link filter. Add this to a child theme’s functions.php (or a small custom plugin, so a theme update does not remove it):
add_filter( 'attachment_link', function( $link, $post_id ) {
return home_url( '?attachment_id=' . $post_id );
}, 10, 2 );
The plain ?attachment_id= URLs still resolve fine with pretty permalinks enabled, because WordPress parses that query variable directly. Your posts and pages keep their /news/…/ addresses, while attachment links become /?attachment_id=12345. One thing to check afterwards: some gallery or lightbox plugins build attachment URLs themselves and skip this filter, so verify the media links on your site once it is in place.
Hi @wildapache,
You don’t have to disable mod_rewrite completely. You can keep your normal pretty permalinks and change only the attachment URLs.
Try adding this to your child theme’s functions.php or a small custom plugin:
add_filter( 'attachment_link', function( $link, $post_id ) {
return home_url( '?attachment_id=' . $post_id );
}, 10, 2 );
This will make attachment URLs like:
http://site.com/?attachment_id=12345
while your posts and pages will continue using their normal pretty URLs.
Just keep in mind that some gallery or lightbox plugins may generate attachment URLs themselves, so it’s worth testing those after adding the code.
