# Load Missing Media From the Live Site on Local Copies

> On local, development and staging copies, images and files that are not in the local uploads folder are loaded from the live site instead, so you do not need to download gigabytes of uploads.

- Type: PHP
- Runs: Run everywhere
- Category: [Developer](https://wpide.com/library/category/developer/)
- Tags: local-development, media, staging
- Author: WPIDE Team
- Installs: 0
- Updated: 2026-10-28
- Page: https://wpide.com/library/dev-load-missing-media-from-live/

## Code

```php
// Production site address, without a trailing slash.
$wpide_live_url = 'https://www.example.com';

$wpide_live_media = function ( $url ) use ( $wpide_live_url ) {
    static $uploads = null;

    if ( 'production' === wp_get_environment_type() || ! is_string( $url ) || '' === $url ) {
        return $url;
    }
    if ( null === $uploads ) {
        $uploads = wp_get_upload_dir();
    }
    if ( 0 !== strpos( $url, $uploads['baseurl'] ) ) {
        return $url;
    }

    $relative = substr( $url, strlen( $uploads['baseurl'] ) );
    $local    = $uploads['basedir'] . strtok( $relative, '?' );
    if ( file_exists( $local ) ) {
        return $url;
    }

    $live_base = untrailingslashit( $wpide_live_url ) . wp_parse_url( $uploads['baseurl'], PHP_URL_PATH );
    return $live_base . $relative;
};

add_filter( 'wp_get_attachment_url', $wpide_live_media );

add_filter( 'wp_calculate_image_srcset', function ( $sources ) use ( $wpide_live_media ) {
    foreach ( (array) $sources as $width => $source ) {
        $sources[ $width ]['url'] = $wpide_live_media( $source['url'] );
    }
    return $sources;
} );

add_filter( 'the_content', function ( $content ) use ( $wpide_live_media ) {
    if ( 'production' === wp_get_environment_type() || false === strpos( $content, '/uploads/' ) ) {
        return $content;
    }
    return preg_replace_callback( '#(?<=["\'\s(])https?://[^"\'\s)]+/uploads/[^"\'\s)]+#i', function ( $match ) use ( $wpide_live_media ) {
        return $wpide_live_media( $match[0] );
    }, $content );
}, 99 );
```

## Notes

Set $wpide_live_url to your production address; it never runs on production and only rewrites URLs whose file is missing locally.

## How to use it

Install the free WPIDE plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpide/), find "Load Missing Media From the Live Site on Local Copies" in its snippet library and add it in one click; or create a new PHP snippet in WPIDE (or any code snippets plugin) and paste the code above. More snippets: https://wpide.com/library/