Why do some of the images not show up on screen after being compressed with the Webflow tool, and why do I have to delete them and then replace them in order to fix the issue?

Images may not display after Webflow compression due to optimization errors or caching issues. Manually removing and re-adding them forces a reset of these problems.

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1. Webflow Image Compression Glitches  

• Webflow’s image optimization tool sometimes alters files in ways that result in broken or unreadable compressed assets, especially for SVGs or improperly exported files (e.g., corrupted metadata).
• If an image is compressed and then fails to load (i.e., it's either blank or missing), the image file might be malformed during the optimization process.

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2. Cache and Asset Linking Issues  

• After compression, Webflow caches optimized assets on its CDN. If an image link points to a bad compression version, it won’t display until the cache updates.
• Simply publishing the site again may not force a new version of that image to load, especially if Webflow believes the asset hasn’t changed.

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3. Replacing the Image Forces Reprocessing  

• Deleting and re-uploading the image forces Webflow to treat it as a new asset, generating a fresh file version and CDNs re-cache it.
• This resets both the optimization and the asset URL reference, usually fixing the display issue.

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4. Best Practices to Prevent This  

• Manually prepare and compress images using tools like TinyPNG or Squoosh before uploading to Webflow.
• Avoid compressing already-optimized images using Webflow’s tool to prevent double compression artifacts.
• For vector graphics, upload SVGs directly rather than letting Webflow convert them or process them through image compression.

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Summary  

Some images fail to display after Webflow compresses them due to file corruption, CDN caching, or duplicated optimization. Deleting and re-uploading the image forces Webflow to reprocess and cache it correctly, resolving the issue.