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Local: Media from Live

On a local WordPress site, pull media from its live version when it's not found on the local disk

by Ben Wakeford · github.com/benwakeford/local-media-from-live · website

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Install

Download source zip No release zip yet

This is the repository archive. It installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow.

Install straight from GitHub with WP-CLI:

wp plugin install https://github.com/benwakeford/local-media-from-live/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
No built-in updater. New versions won't appear under Dashboard → Updates. Install new releases yourself, or let Git Updater track the repository.
Readme github.com/benwakeford/local-media-from-live ↗

On a local WordPress site, pull media from its live version when it's not found on the local disk.

A single-file must-use plugin for local development copies of WordPress sites (built for LocalWP, works with anything that sets WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE to local). It means you can pull a site's database without downloading gigabytes of uploads: anything missing locally is shown from the live site instead, and anything you do have locally is used as normal.

What it handles

  • Attachment URLs: media library, featured images, ACF image fields, srcset.
  • Upload URLs hardcoded anywhere in the front-end HTML: post content, theme templates, inline CSS backgrounds.
  • TimThumb links (thumb.php?src=...) used by older themes. TimThumb can't fetch images from another site, so when the original isn't on the local disk the link is replaced with the live image.

It only ever rewrites URLs; nothing is downloaded or written to disk.

Safety

  • Does nothing unless wp_get_environment_type() is local.
  • Does nothing unless LMFL_LIVE_URL is defined (shows a notice in wp-admin instead).
  • Keep it out of your live deployments anyway. The setup below keeps it out of the site's own repo.

Install (shared copy, symlinked)

Keep one clone of this repo and symlink the plugin file into each local site, so a git pull here updates every site.

git clone https://github.com/benwakeford/local-media-from-live.git ~/path/to/local-media-from-live

ln -s ~/path/to/local-media-from-live/local-media-from-live.php \
  /path/to/site/app/public/wp-content/mu-plugins/local-media-from-live.php

Use an absolute path for the link. Create mu-plugins first if the site doesn't have one.

Make sure the site's own .gitignore excludes the link (git status in the site should stay clean).

Configure (per site, in wp-config.php)

define( 'WP_ENVIRONMENT_TYPE', 'local' );

// Local: Media from Live
define( 'LMFL_LIVE_URL', 'https://www.example.com' );
Constant Required Default Notes
LMFL_LIVE_URL Yes The live site. Include www. if live uses it. Trailing slash optional.
LMFL_LIVE_UPLOADS_URL No LMFL_LIVE_URL + /wp-content/uploads Only if live's uploads are somewhere else (custom upload path, CDN).
LMFL_TIMTHUMB No true Set to false to leave thumb.php links alone.

Put site-specific settings here rather than editing the plugin, so every site runs the same file.

Notes

  • Keep any local uploads archive outside wp-content/uploads. Cloud-only placeholder files (Dropbox, iCloud) count as "on disk", so the plugin won't swap them and the web server can't serve them.
  • Turn it off for one site by removing the symlink or the LMFL_LIVE_URL line.

Changelog

  • 2.0.1 TimThumb links with a site-relative src (no domain, as some WooThemes themes produce) are now handled.
  • 2.0.0 Settings moved to wp-config.php so one copy serves every site. Optional live uploads URL. TimThumb handling can be switched off. Admin notice when not configured.
  • 1.1 TimThumb thumb.php support.
  • 1.0 First version.

Licence

GPL-2.0-or-later.