by ryanpcmcquen 4.3 (26 reviews)

Import external attachments

Name: Import external attachments
Rating: 4.3 (26 reviews)
Author: ryanpcmcquen

Makes local copies of all the linked images and pdfs in a post, adding them as gallery attachments.

Import external attachments ranks #5,222 among WordPress.org plugins with 1,000+ active installations, is #636 of 6,305 in the Media category, a 4.3/5 rating from 26 reviews, and was last updated Feb 24, 2017. Data from WordPress.org, refreshed twice daily — see methodology.

Tested up to WP 4.4 (Current: 7.1)

vtrunk Current Version vtrunk

Updated 9 years ago Last Update on 24 Feb, 2017

Refreshed 10 hours ago Last Refreshed on

#636 of 6,305 in Media Top 10% by installs Downloads +7.2% this week No update in over a year

View on WordPress.org

Rank

#5,222

+13 this week

Active Installs

1K+

-49.5%

KW Avg Position

— No change

Downloads

24.3K

+8 today

Support Resolved

— No change

Rating

86%

Review 4.3 out of 5

4.3 (26 reviews)

Next Milestone 2K

Total Progress 26.6%

1K+ 2K+

5,173

Ranks to Climb

Growth Needed

8,000,000

Active Installs

Pro

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Need 734 more installs to reach 2K+

Rank Changes

Current #5,222

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Active Installs Growth

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Active Installs 0,000,000+

Growth +0.0%

Peak 0,000,000

Downloads Growth

Downloads

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Peak

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Reviews & Ratings

4.3

26 reviews

Overall 86%

20 (77%)

1 (4%)

2 (8%)

0 (0%)

3 (12%)

Security History

Source: WPVulnerability

2 known vulnerabilities on record · 2 in the last 24 months · checked 1 month ago

Dec 14, 2025 UNPATCHED

Import external attachments [import-external-attachments] <= 1.5.12 (unfixed)

CVE-2025-64245 · No fix released
Jun 27, 2025 UNPATCHED

Import external attachments [import-external-attachments] <= 1.5.12 (unfixed)

CVE-2025-53268 · No fix released

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Plugin Details

Version: trunk
Last Updated: Feb 24, 2017
Requires WP: 3.2+
Tested Up To: 4.4
PHP Version: N/A
Author: ryanpcmcquen

Support & Rating

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 4.3
Reviews: 26
Support Threads: 0
Resolved: 0%

Keywords

attachments gallery images photo photobloggers

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TL;DR

AI summary of the plugin's readme

This plugin is for WordPress site owners and bloggers who link to external images and PDFs in their posts. It solves the problem of externally hosted files by downloading local copies and attaching them to the post as gallery attachments.

Local copies of linked images
Local copies of linked PDFs
Adds files as gallery attachments
PDF support
HTTPS support

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Import external attachments

The plugin examines the HTML source of your post when you save it, inspecting each IMG tag, and processing them according to the options you have selected. Under the default settings, it will find IMG tags with links to images on other web sites and copy those images to your web site, updating the IMG src to point to your copy. PDF functionality was added by bengreeley.

Yes! It was developed and built (and is used everyday) at PhotographyBlogSites.com - a multisite install.

You can make it ignore any domain you want on the settings page, in case you work with a CDN or photo hosting site and want to keep those images where they are.

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