Why Is My WhatsApp Link Preview Image Not Showing? How to Check and Fix It

You paste a link to your new article into a WhatsApp group and wait for the little card to appear. The title shows up, maybe a line of description, but the image box stays empty. Or worse, the preview shows a picture you replaced weeks ago, or a logo from a completely different page. Meanwhile the same link looks perfect on Facebook.

WhatsApp previews feel mysterious because the app gives you no error message. But there is always a concrete cause, and you can find it methodically.

The short answer: WhatsApp builds the preview from your page’s og:image tag. The image goes missing when that tag is absent or wrong, when the image URL does not load publicly, when the file is an unsuitable format or very large, or when WhatsApp is showing a preview it stored earlier.

Start by checking the URL with a tool that reads the page like a crawler, such as the CachePlex Social Share Preview Checker. It shows which of these causes applies. If the checker shows the correct image, the page is fine and you are seeing a cached preview.

Check your link before you change anything

Paste the URL to see the title, description and image your page offers, whether the image actually loads, and a list of what to fix.

Check a Link Preview

How WhatsApp builds a link preview

When you type or paste a link into a chat, WhatsApp fetches the page in the background and reads a few tags from its HTML <head>. These are the Open Graph tags, a standard introduced by Facebook and now used by most apps that show link cards:

<meta property="og:title" content="Our Autumn Menu Is Here">
<meta property="og:description" content="Six new dishes, all under $15. Book a table online.">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/images/autumn-menu-1200x630.jpg">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/menu/autumn">

WhatsApp takes the title, description and image from these tags and sends the finished card along with your message. Three details matter for troubleshooting:

It reads raw HTML. Like other preview crawlers, it does not run your site’s JavaScript. Tags injected by scripts after the page loads are invisible to it.
It fetches the image separately. The og:image URL has to load on its own, publicly, without cookies, logins or a browser.
The preview is made once. A message that was sent with an old preview keeps it. And when the same URL is shared again, WhatsApp can reuse the preview it built before. That is the source of most “but I fixed it!” frustration.

Step 1: See what your page actually offers

Do not start by editing your theme or re-uploading images. First confirm what a crawler receives, because what you see in your browser can differ: you may be logged in, your browser runs JavaScript, and your cache may hold an old copy of the page.

Run the exact URL you are sharing through the Social Share Preview Checker. Use the specific article or product URL, not the homepage. It fetches the page like a preview crawler, lists every Open Graph and Twitter tag it finds, downloads the og:image to test it, and shows an approximate WhatsApp preview. Then work through the result:

The checker shows the right image: your page is fine. Skip to Step 5; WhatsApp is showing a cached preview.
The checker shows no image or the wrong one: the problem is on your site. Steps 2 to 4 cover the causes in order.

Step 2: Make sure there is exactly one correct og:image

The most common cause is also the simplest: there is no og:image tag at all. Many themes output a title and description but leave the image to an SEO plugin that was never configured. Without the tag, WhatsApp usually shows a text-only card.

If there is a tag, check how it is written:

Use an absolute URL. /images/share.jpg is a relative path. The Open Graph standard requires the full address, https://example.com/images/share.jpg, and apps do not reliably fill in the rest.
Use property=, not name=. The standard form is <meta property="og:image" …>. Many crawlers tolerate name="og:image", but not all do.
Put it in the <head>. Tags that end up in the page body, usually through a page builder block, may be ignored.
Avoid duplicates. When a theme and a plugin both add Open Graph tags, the page ends up with two og:image tags, and apps generally take the first. If the first is a default logo, that is what people see. Turn off one of the two sources.

Most platforms have a place to set this without editing code. In WordPress, the Social tab in the Yoast SEO or Rank Math box on each post sets the share image. Shopify has a default social sharing image under Online Store → Preferences, and product pages use the product image. Most site builders have a “social image” field in each page’s SEO settings.

Step 3: Confirm the image loads for everyone, not just you

An og:image tag pointing at a file that crawlers cannot download is as good as no tag. The checker reports the HTTP status of the image. The usual failures are:

What the checker reports	Likely cause	Fix
HTTP 404	The file was moved, renamed or deleted, often after a media library clean-up	Upload the image again or point the tag at the current file
HTTP 403	Hotlink protection, a CDN rule or a firewall blocking unknown visitors	Allow the image path for everyone, or at least for preview crawlers
A web page, not an image	The URL leads to a login page, cookie wall or bot challenge	Use a direct, public link to the image file
Timeout or connection error	A slow server, or a staging site behind a password	Serve the image from the live site or a CDN

Bot protection deserves special mention. Security plugins and CDN features designed to stop scrapers can also block link-preview crawlers. If you use such a service, allow the crawlers of the apps you care about: facebookexternalhit, WhatsApp, LinkedInBot and Twitterbot. Our checker identifies itself as a preview crawler, but a firewall may still treat each app’s own crawler differently, so a pass in the checker does not guarantee WhatsApp is allowed.

Step 4: Check the image file itself

Even a reachable image can be skipped if the file is unsuitable. Aim for this:

Format: JPG or PNG. These are the safest choices. SVG is not displayed as a preview image by social apps, and newer formats such as AVIF are not reliably supported.
Size: 1200 × 630 pixels. This 1.91:1 shape is what large link cards use. Facebook ignores images smaller than 200 × 200, and images under about 600 × 315 tend to appear as a small square thumbnail rather than a banner.
File size: small. WhatsApp does not publish a limit, but developers have widely reported it skipping large preview images, and keeping og:image under roughly 300 KB is the commonly recommended safe target. A 1200 × 630 JPG at a sensible quality fits easily. (Facebook’s own maximum is 8 MB, which is why an image can work there and still fail in WhatsApp.)
Keep the important part in the middle. Different apps crop differently. A face or headline at the edge can disappear.

If your share image is a 3 MB photo straight from a camera, resize it to 1200 pixels wide and compress it. The Image Compressor will get it down to a few hundred kilobytes without visible quality loss. If you need to create a share image from scratch, PostPlex exports designs in the 1.91:1 link-preview shape.

Also check that og:image:width and og:image:height, if present, match the real file. Wrong values can make apps render the image oddly. The checker compares them for you.

Test the image the way a crawler sees it

The checker downloads your og:image and reports its status, format, pixel size and file size, so you know exactly why an image is being skipped.

Check My Share Image

Step 5: Deal with an old or cached preview

If the checker shows the correct title and image but WhatsApp still shows the old one, your page is fixed. You are looking at a stored preview. Apps keep previews so they do not have to fetch every link again, and WhatsApp offers no public tool to clear them. What works in practice:

Share a slightly different URL. Add a harmless query string such as ?v=2: https://example.com/menu/autumn?v=2. To WhatsApp, this is a new link, so it builds a fresh preview. This is the quickest way to confirm your fix works.
Type or paste the link again in a new message. Messages that were already sent keep the preview they were sent with. Only new messages can show the new one.
Refresh Facebook separately if you need to. Meta’s Sharing Debugger has a Scrape Again button that refreshes Facebook’s copy of your page. It is widely reported not to update WhatsApp reliably, so do not rely on it for WhatsApp, but use it when Facebook shows the old version too.
Give it time. Stored previews eventually expire, and the link will pick up the new tags when WhatsApp fetches it again.

One more cache to rule out: your own website’s. If you use a page cache, a caching plugin or a CDN, an old version of the HTML with the old tags may still be served to crawlers. Purge the cache for that URL, then run the checker again before testing in WhatsApp.

When WhatsApp shows the wrong image

A wrong image is a slightly different problem from a missing one. The usual culprits:

The first og:image is a default. A plugin’s site-wide fallback image comes before the page-specific one. Set a page-specific image or remove the duplicate.
og:url points somewhere else. If every page’s og:url is the homepage, Facebook in particular treats the homepage as the “real” page and builds the preview from its tags. The checker flags an og:url that does not match the page. Set it to each page’s own address.
No og:image at all, so the app guessed. Without a tag, some apps pick an image from the page, often a logo or an advert. Add the tag rather than trying to influence the guess.
A staging or old domain in the tag. After a migration, tags sometimes still point at staging.example.com or the old domain, which may serve an outdated image or nothing at all.

What a checker can and cannot tell you

A share preview checker is the fastest way to diagnose these problems, but it helps to know its limits:

It can verify that your page loads publicly, which tags are present and where they sit, whether the image downloads, and whether it is really an image of a sensible format, size and weight.
It cannot see what WhatsApp or any other app has already stored for your URL. It shows the current state of your page, not an app’s cached copy.
It cannot fully reproduce firewall rules that single out particular crawlers, or content that differs by country or device.
Its preview is an approximation. WhatsApp adjusts its layout from time to time. The issue list is the reliable part; the mock-up shows the general shape.

Get the title and description right while you are there

The image catches the eye, but the title and description decide whether people tap. Write the og:title as a clear headline of roughly 60 characters or fewer, with the important words first, since chats cut long titles short. Keep the og:description to one or two sentences that say what the reader gets. If you need help drafting search-friendly titles and descriptions you can reuse for these tags, try the Meta Tag Generator. The checker also produces a suggested block of Open Graph tags from what it finds on your page, ready to copy into your <head> or your CMS settings.

A quick checklist for reliable WhatsApp previews

One og:image tag, in the <head>, written with property=.
An absolute https:// image URL that loads publicly with no login or cookie wall.
A JPG or PNG, 1200 × 630 pixels, ideally under about 300 KB.
og:title, og:description and an og:url that matches the page.
Tags rendered on the server, not added later by JavaScript.
Preview crawlers allowed through your firewall or bot protection.
After changes: purge your site cache, re-check the URL, and test with ?v=2.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my link preview work on Facebook but not WhatsApp?

Both read Open Graph tags, but they fetch pages independently and keep separate caches. The most common difference is image weight: Facebook accepts large files, while WhatsApp is widely reported to skip heavy images. Compress the og:image and test with a fresh URL.

How long does WhatsApp keep an old preview?

WhatsApp does not publish a figure. In practice, the reliable way to see your change immediately is to share the URL with a small query string added, which counts as a new link.

Can I choose a different preview image just for WhatsApp?

Not in a supported way. WhatsApp uses the same og:image as other apps. Design one image that works for all of them: 1200 × 630, with the key content centred.

The bottom line

A missing WhatsApp preview image comes down to a short list of causes: no og:image, an image URL that does not load publicly, an unsuitable file, or a stored preview. Check the page as a crawler sees it first; that single step tells you whether to fix your site or simply work around the cache.

Find out why your preview image is missing

Check any public URL for free. See the preview, test the image, and get a clear list of fixes, plus the Open Graph tags to copy.

Check a URL Now