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A WebP image won't open or upload

You save a picture from a website and get a .webp file. Windows Photos will not open it, an older Photoshop does not list it, or an upload form says the file type is not allowed. Renaming it to .jpg does not help.

WebP is an image format that many websites send because it is small. The file is fine. Either the app needs WebP support, or the file needs to become a JPG or PNG. Check the real format first, then pick the fix.

What people run into

How to check a file's real format

The file name can be wrong. A name can end in .jpg while the bytes inside are WebP, or the other way round. Apps and upload forms that read the bytes go by what is inside.

  1. Turn on file name extensions in File Explorer's View menu, or in Finder's settings on a Mac, and look at the ending: .webp, .jpg or .png.
  2. Add the file to our WebP to JPG converter. Under the original it shows the format it read from the file's first bytes, whatever the name says.
  3. Or read the first bytes yourself. Google's WebP specification says a WebP file starts with the letters RIFF, then four bytes of size, then WEBP. On a Mac, open Terminal, type the word file and a space, drag the image in and press Return; Terminal prints the format. On Windows, PowerShell's Format-Hex command followed by the file name shows the first bytes.

Does the converted file still fit the form?

Upload rules list their formats and a size limit. We took the 25 WebPs from our WebP to JPG test, whole photos saved at quality 80, and counted how many of each output stay under these official limits.

Our files under each upload limit

UploadFormats it listsLimitOur WebPsJPG at 92JPG at 80PNG
YouTube video thumbnail, from a phoneJPG, PNG2 MB25/25, WebP not listed21/2525/252/25
X profile photoJPEG, GIF, PNG2 MB25/25, WebP not listed21/2525/252/25
X image in a postJPG, PNG, GIF, WebP5 MB25/2525/2525/2511/25
LinkedIn profile coverJPG, PNG8 MB25/25, WebP not listed25/2525/2514/25
YouTube profile pictureJPG, GIF, BMP, PNG15 MB25/25, WebP not listed25/2525/2522/25

We count 1,000,000 bytes to the MB, the stricter reading. Our WebPs are whole photos at full size; a picture with fewer pixels gives smaller files.

PNG is the risky choice: only 2 of 25 PNGs stayed under 2 MB, against 21 JPGs at 92 and 25 at 80.

Source: our test on 2026-11-10 (harness 1e3cf33, site code eacd79c), headless Chromium 145 on a desktop Mac, 25 CC0 photos. How we test

Limits, from the official pages:

What fixes it

An upload form refuses WebP

Convert it with WebP to JPG, then check the limit in the table above. Choose PNG only if the form asks for PNG or you need transparency.

You saved it from a website

The site sent WebP and the browser saved it as it came (user reports above). A new name changes nothing inside. Convert it instead.

Windows Photos, Paint or File Explorer

Install Microsoft's WebP Image Extension, free in the Microsoft Store. Its listing says it lets File Explorer, Photos and other Windows apps show WebP images.

Photoshop

Adobe says Photoshop 23.2 and later open and save WebP without plug-ins. For older versions Adobe points to the WebPShop plug-in.

Your own website

WordPress has accepted WebP uploads since version 5.8, but only when the web host's image library supports WebP; otherwise it shows an error on upload.

An animated WebP

Our converter refuses it with the message “Animated images are not supported. Choose a still image.” Save a still frame in another app first.

What our test covers

The sizes come from our WebP run, which saved each photo as WebP and converted it with this site's own code in a browser on a desktop Mac. We did not upload anything to the services in the table, and we did not test Windows, Photoshop or WordPress; those steps come from the sources below.

See how we test.

Sources

Official pages say what the company states. User reports are what people describe on forums; they are not rules, and we use no number from them.

Official

User reports

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