LiteSpeed Cache handles image optimization and WebP conversion through its own image optimization service, not a separate plugin. From the plugin's Image Optimization screen, you can request optimization and it queues your media library for compression and WebP generation.
Every plan on Flashcloud runs on LiteSpeed Web Server with LSCache, and WordPress installs from the portal come with the LiteSpeed Cache plugin pre-configured. Image optimization is built into that same plugin, which integrates with the rest of your caching setup.
How the optimization queue works
When you request optimization, LiteSpeed Cache sends your images off for compression and WebP generation. The images come back to your server and the plugin swaps them in automatically if you have that option enabled. Processing time depends on the size of your media library.
The plugin's Image Optimization screen shows progress on the queue. If the number of pending images isn't dropping, this is covered in the troubleshooting section below.
Original file handling
On most WordPress accounts, the plugin's settings let you choose to remove originals after optimization to save disk space, but do this only after confirming the optimized images look correct. Once originals are removed, reverting requires re-uploading the source files.
Enabling WebP delivery
Generating WebP versions and serving them are two separate settings in the plugin. WebP generation needs to be enabled to create WebP copies during optimization, and responsive image variants that WordPress generates automatically are covered by a related option. The plugin serves WebP by rewriting image URLs on the fly for browsers that support it, so you don't need to touch your theme's image tags.
Confirming it's actually serving WebP
Open your site in a browser, right-click an image, and choose "Open image in new tab." If the URL ends in .webp or the response headers show Content-Type: image/webp, delivery is working. You can also check via curl:
curl -I -H "Accept: image/webp" https://yourdomain.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/photo.jpg
Look for the Content-Type header in the response. If it still shows image/jpeg, the browser's Accept header may not have been sent, or WebP replacement isn't enabled yet.
Why images get skipped
A few common reasons images don't optimize:
- Already-optimized formats. SVGs aren't touched, and images below a certain file size may not be worth compressing further.
- Images outside the media library. If a theme or page builder references images directly by file path rather than through the WordPress media library, LiteSpeed Cache's optimizer may not pick them up automatically.
- Queue backlog. Very large batches can take longer to process.
If images consistently fail with an error status, remove them from the queue and re-request optimization individually to isolate the problem file.
Combining with LSCache
Image optimization works alongside page caching rather than replacing it. LSCache still caches your HTML output, while image optimization reduces the size of the assets referenced in that HTML. If you're not seeing cache-related speed gains generally, check that LSCache itself is active and not being bypassed, since a caching conflict is a different issue from image optimization.
When to contact support
If the optimization queue is stuck with no progress for more than a day, or images are being served corrupted after WebP conversion, open a ticket from the portal under Support.