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How to Set a Default Fallback Image for WordPress Post Thumbnails

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Do you want to set a default fallback image for WordPress post thumbnails? Featured images also known as post thumbnails are very useful in engaging users and making your articles more noticeable on social media. In this article, we will show you how to set a default fallback image for WordPress post thumbnails.

Fallback image for post thumbnails in WordPress

Why You Need a Default Fallback WordPress Post Thumbnail?

Post thumbnails or featured images is a WordPress theme feature which allows you to associate an image with your blog post or article. Depending on your theme, this image is then used on homepage, archives, or sidebar widgets.

Some WordPress themes display post thumbnail and excerpt of an article on the homepage in a grid layout. If you forget to add a post thumbnail for an article, then it will appear without a thumbnail, and your layout will look broken.

Layout broken without post thumbnail

By adding a fallback image, you can set a branded image to be used when no post thumbnail is found. This allows you to make sure that all your articles have a post thumbnail.

Another way to deal with this problem is using the Require Featured Image plugin. It makes it mandatory for all authors to add a featured image to their articles before publishing.

Having said that, let’s take a look at how to easily set a default fallback image for WordPress post thumbnails.

Method 1: Set Default Fallback Image for Post Thumbnails Using Plugin

This method is easier and recommended for all users.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Default Featured Image plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » Media page to configure plugin settings.

Default featured image settings

On this page, you need click on the ‘Select default featured image’ button to upload or select the image you would like to use as your fallback post thumbnail.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button after selecting your featured image.

You can now visit your website to see it in action. The plugin will automatically start showing your default fallback image as post thumbnail for articles that do not have a featured image set.

Method 2: Add Fallback Image as Post Thumbnail Manually

This method requires you to add code to your WordPress theme files. If you haven’t done this before, then please take a look at our guide on how to copy and paste code in WordPress.

First, you need to create an image that you want to use as the default image. Next, you need to upload it to your theme’s images folder using a FTP client.

Your theme’s images folder is located inside /wp-content/themes/yur-theme/ folder. If it doesn’t have the images folder, then you need to create it.

After you have uploaded the image to your website, the next step is to tell WordPress to look for this image when a post doesn’t have its own post thumbnail.

Your WordPress theme displays post thumbnails in various places. You need to look for the_post_thumbnail() function in theme files. Typically, you’ll find it in archive.php, single.php, or content templates.

Next, you need to add the following code where you want to display post thumbnail.

<?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) {
the_post_thumbnail();
} else { ?>
<img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/default-image.jpg" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
<?php } ?>

Don’t forget to replace default-image.jpg with your own image file name.

That’s all, you can now visit your website to see it in action.

Fallback thumbnail

Method 3: Use First Image in an Article as Post Thumbnail

This method also requires you to add code to your WordPress theme files.

First, you need to add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

//function to call first uploaded image in functions file
function main_image() {
$files = get_children('post_parent='.get_the_ID().'&post_type=attachment
&post_mime_type=image&order=desc');
  if($files) :
    $keys = array_reverse(array_keys($files));
    $j=0;
    $num = $keys[$j];
    $image=wp_get_attachment_image($num, 'large', true);
    $imagepieces = explode('"', $image);
    $imagepath = $imagepieces[1];
    $main=wp_get_attachment_url($num);
        $template=get_template_directory();
        $the_title=get_the_title();
    print "<img src='$main' alt='$the_title' class='frame' />";
  endif;
}

This code simply outputs the first image added to an article. Now we need to display this output in your theme.

To do that, you will need to edit the theme files where post_thumbnail(); function is used. Replace it with the following code.

<?php if (  (function_exists('has_post_thumbnail')) && (has_post_thumbnail())  ) {
  echo get_the_post_thumbnail($post->ID);
} else {
   echo main_image();
} ?>

Using first image as the post thumbnail in WordPress

You can now visit your website to see it in action.

We hope this article helped you set default fallback image for WordPress post thumbnails. You may also want to see best featured image plugins and tutorials for WordPress.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

66 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

    Hey WPBeginner readers,
    Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
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  2. Muhammed says

    How do you set up dafault thumbnail for posts that have thumbnails already but the images no longer exist on your server? And these posts are up to 1,000, which were created years ago. And these broken images make your site look messy.

  3. Jacques says

    Hi!

    I would like to add a default feature image only to my RSS feeds. Is it possible and how?
    Thanks!

  4. Andre Kish says

    Brilliant stuff – as always – you’ve saved me a ton of time again – THANK YOU!!

    Andre

  5. Hum says

    Hi,

    I tried to implement above code in my site with Sahifa theme (it doesn’t have default fallback thumbnail, I guess). However I am not success yet. I just want to display default image if post has no image. Here is the code in template:

    <a href="” title=”” rel=”bookmark”>

    Where and what code should I add to above to meet my requirement?

    Many thanks in advance.

  6. Andrei Filonov says

    Unfortunately adding condition “has_post_image” may be tricky when plugins are used for “latest” or “related” posts, as we don’t want to mess up plugin code :)

    In this case we can add a custom filter to load custom default image when the_post_thumbnail is called:

    You can use it as a starting point and expand if you want custom default images for different post types or categories.

  7. JAVAD says

    hi i use auto-post-thumbnail to create auto thumbnail

    now i want if i enable show excerpt in my theme , first image or featured image shown on above the post in index.php

  8. Siddharth says

    Great! It is easy to understand now. I have seen different preference of feature images in many different themes but your blog post made sense.

  9. Laura P. says

    How can I tweak this function for adding a specific image (example.jpg) as the default image for post type: topic? Basically, I’m trying to set a default image for bbpress topic pages.

    Thanks!

    L

  10. Jose Salazar says

    Hi!

    Im adding the First Post Image as the Default Fallback, but would like to display attachment image ONLY if size in pixels is between 460×350 and 700×525. Is that possible? Any suggestions?

    Thanks in advance!

    • Dee says

      Hi Jose, How did you get the first image to show up? I removed the echo thumbnail and else statements and only have echo main image but it’s still showing the manual featured image. Thanks

  11. Paal Joachim Romdahl says

    Hey

    Could someone update the above code but this time to be added into the functions.php file?

    Perhaps even add on to how to define various category post images.

    Thank you!

  12. Nestor Cheese says

    Works great, thanks! The thing, though. is that the default thumbnail links automatically to the post but if you add a featured image, it doesn’t link. Has anyone resolved this?

  13. wfriley says

    I pasted the code into the functions.php file and checked my site to make sure nothing went haywire. For some reason my posts are now ending up on my static home page. I removed the code but it did not correct the problem. Any chance you might know a fix for that? I tried recreating the home page but the same thing happens.

  14. Alexandre Michel says

    Hi, looks like it’s working but in my single post page the default image does not show up. It returns blank code. Would you happen to know why?

  15. Mitch Larouche says

    How can I do an if statement where if there is no FEATURE or no MEDIA image then show google ad? This works but I want to add and IF for when I add a media image also. So if there is NO media image or feature image INCLUDE the adsense…php ad.

    ?php if( has_post_thumbnail() ) { ?>
    ?php } else { ?>
    ?php include(‘adsense_singlepost_top_square.php’) ?>
    ?php }

    Can’t see to figure out how to include the media file from the post?

  16. Chetan Patel says

    Hello I have Wallpapers site on wordpress. I have little problem with images. Google Indexing my thumbnail instead of full size images. I want to index only full size image. Any way to do this. ?? please help ,me.

  17. Doop says

    This is great except if you upload an image to a post and then decide to delete it, it will still be attached to the post.

  18. darkpollo says

    Will this work with external images too? Or only with the ones hosted on the same domain?

    Thank you

  19. Byron says

    Hi,
    I’m tying to set a default image for one of my custom post types. I’ve not been able to do this and have tried many of the plugin on the WP repository… Default featured image sets a featured image to All post types even Ubermenu.

    I need to limit this to one post type. Do you have any suggestions for me please?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      Byron, does the custom post type you want to set the default thumbnail for has featured image support? If yes then using this code in your theme template should display the default post thumbnail.

      <?php if ( has_post_thumbnail() ) {
      the_post_thumbnail();
      } else { ?>
      <img src="<?php bloginfo('template_directory'); ?>/images/default-image.jpg" alt="<?php the_title(); ?>" />
      <?php } ?>
      

      Admin

  20. Paul says

    Okay, that didn’t work…! The a href tag messed it up. How do I show you code?

    <a href="" title="" >

    Try that!

  21. Alejandro says

    Excellent solution. Now, how I can use this to assign to a specific category and taking ramdom images from a folder?

    <img src="/images/default-image.jpg” alt=”” />

    Thank you a lot!

    • WPBeginner Support says

      This requires a more complicated solution. First you would want to set an image for each category and upload them to a specific folder probably using category slug as the image file names. Then you need to get the category slug for each post and use it as the fallback image URL.

      Admin

  22. Konstantin says

    I am having a small problem, when calling the image, it only shows the full image, not the ones I try to specify (small, medium, thumbnail, etc).

    Did anything change in wp3.7+? The images are there, and are being created, but they wont display :(

  23. Arthur Okonkwo says

    please is there a plugin that can do this, cos i don’t want to mess with with my code.

  24. Susan Clifton says

    Will this work with a custom post type? I’m building a Portfolio theme. Your tutorials are always so helpful. I don’t really know PHP but I’m comfortable with messing with it.

  25. Tania says

    Is there a way to show a default “image not available” image when the source image src is empty ?
    I’m promoting amazon products in my blog (using API) but most of the products do not have image. By providing a default “image not available” image, I can help my visitors to understand that the sellers do not provide any image.

    I prefer html, css or javascript solution.

    thanks and sorry about my english ;)

  26. Waheed Akhtar says

    Hi Balkhi,

    I have some old posts where post thumbnail is not defined. Also may be for some posts there’s no image uploaded (did it manually through FTP and linked in the post). The result is I don’t see any featured thumbnail for the post.

    Is there a way we can grab the first image, resize it (e.g. 200 x 200) and show as featured image?

    Thanks.

  27. Amin says

    Thanks for this post. I’ve been searching for days to find a way to have an automatic default featured image. This saved me so much time! Thanks a lot.

  28. James says

    I’ve tried to merge both options but failed.

    How would you Check for Thumbnail, but if none then check for First Post Image, but then if none then post Default Branded Image?

      • Editorial Staff says

        Try this:

        function get_fbimage() {
          if ((function_exists('has_post_thumbnail')) && (has_post_thumbnail())) {
          $src = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id($post->ID), '', '' );
          $fbimage = $src[0];
          } else {
            global $post, $posts;
            $fbimage = '';
            $output = preg_match_all('/<img.+src=[\'"]([^\'"]+)[\'"].*>/i',
            $post->post_content, $matches);
            $fbimage = $matches [1] [0];
          }
          if(empty($fbimage)) {
        	
            $fbimage = //Define Default URL HEre;
          }
          return $fbimage;
        }
        

        Admin

        • Vanessa K says

          Hi :), great tutorial. I’m a somewhat beginner for a lot of wordpress code. I tried to follow this tutorial for setting up the fall back image a few months ago and failed :p but was able to successfully implement it just now. Yay me! haha. However I would really like to set it up in the way James mentioned…

          “How would you Check for Thumbnail, but if none then check for First Post Image, but then if none then post Default Branded Image?”

          Posting the code you offered in response to his request is only showing up with syntax errors for me in my functions file :/. I’m sure it’s me and not the code :p but any suggestions? Thanks! And Happy Thanksgiving!

  29. jfwebdesignstud says

    wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id( $post->ID ), ‘full’ );
     
    can this be used somehow with this for including pinterest featured image

  30. CharlesUibel says

    Yes But I don’t want to just display the fallback image, I want to assign the image to permanently be the featured image.

  31. leitseitenmacher says

    how do you create a real fall back thumbnail?

    with the solution a post rhumbnail is shown but therefore not registerate in the backend.

    any solution

    • wpbeginner says

      @leitseitenmacher The whole idea of a fallback is to show when nothing is selected at the thumbnails area in the backend… so NO you will not be able to see it in the backend….

      • leitseitenmacher says

        @wpbeginner

        well i allready noticed that.

        but the question was: is it possible in wordpress to register a standard post thumbnail via php code so you can see it in the backend?

        • wpbeginner says

          @leitseitenmacher Great find. Again, there is no HYPE that we are trying to create. It is impossible to keep track of what exists in the plugin sphere of WordPress because there are thousands.Just tested out that plugin… It doesn’t register those thumbnails in the database of each post. It is just hooking and giving you a visual display of what you selected in the plugins setting.

          If that is what you want, then sure.

          The article above accomplishes exactly the same thing without going the extra lengths of visually displaying. In most sites the fallback is usually the site logo. So you don’t really need to see it. But we will do a writeup on the plugin you found. Thanks for the suggestion :)

  32. gal1982 says

    Excellent solutions, i was looking for that for a while

    Is there a way to change the resize the image?

    I have tried for example:

    $image=wp_get_attachment_image($num, ‘medium’);

    But it doesn’t effects the image size. any idea?

  33. milohuang says

    Nice tutorial. Have test the first method but it did not seem to work. Check the HTML and the default thumb does not exist (no img tag was found). However, if I use the Default Post Thumbnail plugin, it works. Any help? Running 3.2 locally. Thank you!

  34. sebastianjthomas says

    Great! But how do you set the main_image size without CSS (which stretches the image)

  35. wp_smith says

    Hello,

    I have written a plugin, <a href=”http://wpsmith.net/go/genesis-featured-images”>Genesis Featured Images</a>, that will do this for the <a href=”http://wpsmith.net/go/genesis”>Genesis Framework</a>. I’d love to hear your thoughts!?

  36. sleepingsun says

    Hello !

    Thanks a lot for this useful tip. How would I make the same function to work in RSS feeds please ? If a post thumbnail has been set : use it, otherwise : use the first image attached to the post.

    Any help would be much appreciated !

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