I think that if you upload an image larger than 2560×2560, WordPress will automatically create a “-scaled” image and use it as the main file for embedding.
Here’s the attachment metadata for an image:
array (
‘width’ => 1280,
‘height’ => 1920,
‘file’ => ‘2022/06/PO962-Kendall-BLACK-1-scaled.jpg’,
‘filesize’ => 490101,
‘sizes’ =>
array (
‘thumbnail’ =>
array (
‘file’ => ‘PO962-Kendall-BLACK-1-150×150.jpg’,
‘width’ => 150,
‘height’ => 150,
‘mime-type’ => ‘image/jpeg’,
‘filesize’ => 7564,
),
‘medium’ =>
array (
‘file’ => ‘PO962-Kendall-BLACK-1-615×923.jpg’,
‘width’ => 615,
‘height’ => 923,
‘mime-type’ => ‘image/jpeg’,
‘filesize’ => 121106,
),
‘medium_large’ =>
array (
‘file’ => ‘PO962-Kendall-BLACK-1-768×1152.jpg’,
‘width’ => 768,
‘height’ => 1152,
‘mime-type’ => ‘image/jpeg’,
‘filesize’ => 177407,
),
‘large’ =>
array (
‘file’ => ‘PO962-Kendall-BLACK-1-900×1350.jpg’,
‘width’ => 900,
‘height’ => 1350,
‘mime-type’ => ‘image/jpeg’,
‘filesize’ => 236725,
),
‘woocommerce_thumbnail’ =>
array (
‘file’ => ‘PO962-Kendall-BLACK-1-500×750.jpg’,
‘width’ => 500,
‘height’ => 750,
‘mime-type’ => ‘image/jpeg’,
‘filesize’ => 85567,
),
‘woocommerce_single’ =>
array (
‘file’ => ‘PO962-Kendall-BLACK-1-1000×1500.jpg’,
‘width’ => 1000,
‘height’ => 1500,
‘mime-type’ => ‘image/jpeg’,
‘filesize’ => 280655,
),
‘woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail’ =>
array (
‘file’ => ‘PO962-Kendall-BLACK-1-138×207.jpg’,
‘width’ => 138,
‘height’ => 207,
‘mime-type’ => ‘image/jpeg’,
‘filesize’ => 9933,
),
),
‘image_meta’ =>
array (
‘aperture’ => ‘0’,
‘credit’ => ”,
‘camera’ => ”,
‘caption’ => ”,
‘created_timestamp’ => ‘0’,
‘copyright’ => ”,
‘focal_length’ => ‘0’,
‘iso’ => ‘0’,
‘shutter_speed’ => ‘0’,
‘title’ => ”,
‘orientation’ => ‘0’,
‘keywords’ =>
array (
),
),
‘original_image’ => ‘PO962-Kendall-BLACK-1.jpg’,
)
I wanted to use the scaled image, so I renamed it to replace the original, but then, it went missing, and there’s no way to make the original the full size image again in bulk.
If I recall correctly, this happened even when I used a plugin to replace the image. WordPress remembers the scaled image somewhere and keeps trying to use it.