WordPress 5.5 — which was released on August 11, 2020, with the codename Eckstine — added some new default features. One of which is Lazy Load. Lazy Load itself is a term that refers to a behavior where images on a certain page will only be loaded on the visible section of the page. The purpose is to make a page is faster to be loaded by a web browser. It is one of the most common practices of SEO and site performance optimization.
In WordPress, all images will have an loading="lazy"
The question is, why do you want to disable WordPress default Lazy Load?
The Lazy Load feature is added to help you to better optimize your site performance. The problem is, this technique has been implemented by optimization plugins such as SG Optimizer and Smush. Enabling the Lazy Load feature on your optimization plugin while the WordPress 5.5 default Lazy Load is on might lead to a conflict. Besides, not all WordPress users are into the concept of Lazy Load. Some want all images to be loaded without delay, regardless of the site’s performance.
How to disable Lazy Load in WordPress without a plugin
You can disable the Lazy Load feature in WordPress 5.5 by adding a new function to your theme. Login to your WordPress dashboard and go to Appearance -> Theme Editor. Select the functions.php file on the right sidebar to edit it.
Add the following script to add a new function to your theme. If this is the first time you do this (adding a new function), you can place the script below in the bottom section of the file.
add_filter( 'wp_lazy_loading_enabled', '__return_false' );
Here is an example of the script placement. Click the Update File button to update the file.
7 thoughts on “How to Disable Lazy Load in WordPress (Without Plugin)”
Hi Muhammad Rio!
GTMetrix, on my site says:
“Don’t lazy load Largest Contentful Paint image”.
How can I disable lazy-load on specific images (not all)?
Hi Patryk,
You may want to try disabling lazy-load on specific images using a plugin. You can read our article about it.
https://www.wppagebuilders.com/disable-lazy-load-specific-image-wordpress/
this code not work
please help me
Hi David,
Maybe you have another lazy load feature enabled?
Site optimizer plugins like Site Ground Optimizer or LiteSpeed Cache plugin have their own Lazy Load feature, if enabled, they will disable the WordPress core Lazy Load feature and make the code invalid.
What about sidebar ? As many of wordpress themes have sidebar posts widget with images.
When WordPress add loading=”lazy” automatically and you have a LazyLoad plugin, you can see a lot of errors. Thank you for this code.
It is a great idea to disable default lazy loading before using another lazy load script. Thank you for giving the code idea.