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Gif's suddenly not animating

A topic by Phantom Cooper created Sep 30, 2025 Views: 9,873 Replies: 110
Viewing posts 1 to 64
(1 edit) (+22)

Having a strange issue where any Gif I try to post isn't being properly animated. I've tried to upload them on 2 diffirent browsers and on multiple of my asset-pages, but nothing seems to be working.

I thought the new .gif files I was trying to upload were the problem, but even why I try to post older .gif's that are already on my page, they appear as static images, while the ones that are already on there are working just fine.

^^ Can you guys let me know if these are animated for you? Is this just an issue on my end?

(+5)

Not animating from where I'm at.

Have the same issue posting gifs myself.

(+6)

I have the same issue. My GIFs are not animating (even those which were working yesterday).

(+2)

Same

(1 edit) (+2)

Same here, I think this is most likely a bug from itch's side or something.

(+2)

Gif's appear to work if you upload them in the screenshots section, but not on the page layout. I hope this get resolved soon 

(+7)

The gif I have set as my store banner stopped animating today. Nice to know I'm not alone.

(+5)

Same here! I've been trying to replace a cover image with a gif but it's not working.

(+3)

Not only that but I’ve also noticed that if the games you’ve displayed on your account have a .gif thumbnail, instead of the gif playing when the user hovers over them, the gif now just plays constantly and freezes once the user is hovering on it. I really hope they fix this soon as it kind of ruins my whole idea I had going for my account

(+1)

Exactly this has been happening to me, but only for one of my projects. The rest also have GIF cover images, but they aren’t animating at all.

(+3)

I am having this issue as well with some of the animated thumbnails for a handful of my games. Notably, the cover image for a game I released a few months ago animates correctly (https://turboshook.itch.io/tomb-of-the-underking), but every other animated cover image is broken.

I hope we get some clarity around whether this is a technical issue or if there are new size restrictions for gifs (or something along those lines).

after some experimenting it seems to be a size limit thing. 

My gifs are all less than 20kb

(1 edit)

They must have changed how a new page is templated then, these work , from 3 months ago https://beatscribe.itch.io/gbbbs95 these from last week , do not https://beatscribe.itch.io/ultimate-lofi-game-boy, if you click them you’ll see they are animated gifs 

(+3)

Same. the background of my game page was animating but it stop recently...

(1 edit) (+3)

same here with my game screenshots

(3 edits) (+1)

Same issue. Can't upload any form of animated gifs to my project pages or devlogs; Itch simply posts the first frame. Fortunately, gifs uploaded prior to this issue's appearance aren't affected retroactively.

(+2)

Same issue...

Even some gifs uploaded a long time ago are not working. Some do, some don't, not sure why. 

(+1)

I'm having the same problem .gif banners stopped working. And any new .gif I try to upload anywhere on the page, regardless of size, doesn't work :(

(+1)

Seeing the same thing with my gif thumbnails :c 

(+1)

Yeah noticed this on my side too!

(+1)

Same issue over here. The gif banner for my game is also not animating correctly.

(+2)

That's not cool !  I just released my tool for quickly creating GIFs from images and modifying   them using 90+ shaders.Maybe the  itch developers won't need to worry about this anymore :(( Will itch.io ever fix GIF support?"
https://cofdins.itch.io/shader-swap-shaders-editor-online

(+6)

I found a solution:

  1. Load gif to Tenor.com or Giphy.com
  2. Сopy image / Copy link —> paste image to your game page
  3. Profit.
(+1)

Thanks for this :)

(1 edit) (+1)

I wouldn't recommend using Tenor or Giphy unless you want your gifs to be used in every social media application and become public domain.
There are other file hosts you can use. (Though be warned that Imgur is blocked in the UK)

(+1)

Good to know, thank you!

(+15)

My solution is to put them in a public GitHub repo and link the raw content URL.

Here’s an example:

This works for GIFs in project page and devlog bodies, but it doesn’t work for banners or background images, since those have to be uploaded via the theme editor.

(1 edit)

Giphy Not Working, I didn't try the other. Raw Github link works

(+2)

This is terrible advice because both of these sites are used for training ai models. So unless you want to risk you art being stolen to train more slop that will eventually flood the front page of this site. I'd avoid these options

(+1)

Don't worry, AI will steal your art one way or another.

(+1)

Same issue.

Also, to your question, no. Your sprites don't appear animated here either.

(+3)

I'm adding to this. I have the same problem but made even weirder - One of the gifs on my main page won't STOP animating even if your mouse isn't on it. In fact, it's the opposite. If you place your cover over it it stops. Except for the latest game the rest also no longer work except that one. 

(2 edits) (+2)

My GIFs are animating again!

At least in the game cover image.

(+1)

Same issue over here across all our asset packs. I hope this get resolved soon!

(+1)

It's the same for me. None of the GIF animations work. Anyone know what's going on?

(+1)

same here, it's still not working

(+1)

Mine also began working on the cover images

(+1)

Mine appear to be working now.

(1 edit) (+2)

None of my banners and screenshots animate at all, although the screenshots animate if you click on them.

Here's a test GIF that should be animated:

Edit: Clearly still does not fully work, above image is static as of 10/10/25

(+1)

Hey aren't you that speed spriter? I think I remember you from like 5 years ago! Great stuff!

(+1)

Hey, that's me! Thank you for enjoying the Speed Spriting videos! I would do more, but it's a lot of unpaid work to do all the video editing + commentary, plus music, thumbnails, etc. Instead, I've been refocusing on building my pixel art business and making games, with infrequent check-ins on Youtube. Recently did a devlog video for the new version of my game. I'm really glad folks enjoyed the pixel art time-lapse videos though- Maybe they can return in some form someday.

Yeah doing indie stuff is exhausting 😅. No extra pressure though. You do you.

(+1)

Same, screenshots and newly uploaded gifs are still not working.

(+1)

same problem! I hope they can fix this soon :(

(+1)

Same... (((

(1 edit) (+2)

Same problem :( does anyone know when will it be fixed?

(+4)

A mod in another topic said “No idea” in response to a question about it a couple hours ago :/

(+1)

Yup still nothing.

(+3)

yesterday I wasn't able to upload banners, today I can but GIF still cannot be animated.

(2 edits) (+5)

I have a partial solution:

Store your animated GIFs in a public GitHub repository and link the raw content URL in the HTML/Markdown with an <img> tag (HTML) or a ![]() (Markdown).

Here’s an example:

This works for GIFs in project page and devlog bodies, but it doesn’t work for banners or background images, since those have to be uploaded via the theme editor, and thus they rely on Itch.io to be animated and rendered correctly.

(+3)

For now, I'm just starting to update all my banner images to have a better first frame so that the store pages are more presentable. It's more work than it sounds.

Also doing some external hosting of inline images, so at least I can get some of my animations to play until this issue is resolved- Definitely not ideal, though.

(+1)

Yeah I had to do the same, stay strong friend!

(+1)

I uploaded a gif as a cover image today and it animated successfully, maybe its been fixed? :o

Nope :(
Banners (cover images) work, but the rest doesn't, unfortunately...

(+3)

Cover images and banners are two different things- The cover image is the nearly-square image which is the "face" of your project when it's viewed as a store listing, while the banner image is the image shown at the top of your project page.

Cover images seem to work normally and when you hover the mouse over them they animate. Banners do not currently animate under any circumstances. Screenshots do not currently animate unless you click on them. Hope it can be fixed soon...

You're right, thanks for clarifying

(+1)

Same issue.

(+2)

same issue i spent 28 hours to fix try different formats compress and uncompress..etc

(+1)

Can you tell us some of it? Could be useful

(+2)

upload the gif in the any hot platforms copy that gif link and paste into itch.io

(+4)

I did some screenshot testing and reported the results in the other gif thread:

https://itch.io/post/14588554

Basically, the itch servers are delivering single-frame versions of animated gif screenshots, which is why they don't animate. As noted in the post, the animated version of my screenshot image is still on the itch servers and animates on the page correctly with a simple url change via dev tools (not a permanent fix). This indicates the issue is not related to gif file encoding before upload.

(+15)

Hi! It’s been about a month since this issue began (if I’m not mistaken), and for those of us who provide animation products, it’s becoming a significant challenge. I really don’t want to sound insistent, but I was wondering if there’s any official update on the situation. I’d really appreciate it if someone could point me toward any ray of light here.

Thanks for your time and for all the work you’re doing to get this resolved.

(+5)

This not working for me. And haven't heard any updates about this issue.

(+3)

Same, after 2 months

(+3)

Same here, and I see that these are old posts, but I got this today, my pages were animating just fine, but now they do not work.

(+3)

Same! Just ran into this, newly uploaded gifs don't animate.

(+3)

This is a problem for me, too.

Animated gifs work when clicked in some areas and not others.

Main project page: the gif (of trees) plays. https://falsfiction.itch.io/earthquest-tileset/

Devlog: the gifs don’t play. https://falsfiction.itch.io/earthquest-tileset/devlog/1136895/fog-snow-release

(+3)

:( I was hoping this issue is just temp
my game needs gifs! https://maxfragman.itch.io/egg

(+4)

So, it seems this problem still exists? My GIFs aren't loading D:

(+1)

Raw Github link works

(+2)

Did anyone manage to find a solution to the issue? It seems support is completely unresponsive when it comes to this GIF problem. It's been 3 months now, and no updates so far on such a critical issue in the site:(((( 

(+1)

Raw Github links work. Check my game page

thank you for the advice, i've checked your game page but i can't see any Gifs animating apart from the ones in your description, and from what i know description embeded gifs work fine so i'm more concerened about Gifs in the image section that do not work :((( 

(+10)

I think it’s time to start calling this issue out on social media. They don’t seem to respond to support messages about it and they certainly aren’t replying here.

(+7)

it would be nice to get some info on this issue and wether its an intentional change or a bug.

(1 edit) (+5)

I even sent a message on X to @moonscript to see if I could get some information or at least draw attention to the fact that this is a serious issue for a store that sells games and assets, and it really needs to be addressed. But I haven’t received a response.

It’s becoming hard to understand how something so specific and repeatedly mentioned on the forum is being left unattended. It’s also something that impacts both creators and buyers. It makes me think that something might not be working properly at itch.io (payouts have been taking longer than before, too).

I truly hope it’s resolved soon! It honestly feels like my product is sitting in a shop window with broken glass.

(+4)

Description gifs work using Github links. Unfortunately banner images, background images and screenshots can't be uploaded via links, so those we still can't fix.

Hoping for an official reply

(+10)

I don’t know if there’s another solution yet, but I discovered that .gif files work perfectly if you convert them to .apng!

(+1)

Thank you so much for this! Convert my banner to .apng works perfectly, finally be able to see my animated banner again after like what, 3 months!

(+2)

What do you use to convert them to .apng?

(1 edit) (+5)

Use this site to make conversion easy!

Gif to apng: https://ezgif.com/gif-to-apng

Tip: If for any reason your GIF gets corrupted or loses color during conversion to Apng, I recommend converting it to WebP first. So, converting from Gif to WebP, and then from WebP to gif again and then converting to apng file. I know it’s kinda confusing but that worked to me bc my gif. to apng looked weird and i solution it in that way.

Gif to Webp: https://ezgif.com/gif-to-webp

Webp to Gif: https://ezgif.com/webp-to-gif

(+1)

Oh wow it worked! Thank you so so much!!! 😄

Upvote and share this, everyone

(+1)

I tried it, but it only works for banners, right? It’s not a solution for the GIFs you place in your product gallery (usually shown on the side). I just want to make sure the solution doesn’t apply to my case yet, and that I’m not missing something (my banner isn’t animated).

(1 edit) (+3)

They work in the gallery (the screenshots part, right?) but only when u select them in big, not in the little preview, idk if that was possible in the past, but at least for me, it works so fine!

(+3)

Yeah, side screenshots don't animate automatically anymore, unfortunately. You have to click on them. But this works for description, banner and background. 

(+3)

Today I learned the APNG file format exists. Thank you.

(+1)

Thanks so much for pointing this out, it worked for me as well!

Nice! Thanks for the tip :D

(+2)

Until to this day the problem is still existing, uploading gif images into the description does not work.

But there is a workaround and you could ask the ChatGPT to help you with GitHub Repository Link method on how to use it if you a newbie into this kind of stuff.

Copy and paste the image address link from your GitHub into itch.io description SOLVED! so far this is the only temporary solution that works best.

This is the example of the result, copy and paste into your description like this will appeared.


(+2)

Please don't declare the bug solved when it isn't. This is just a workaround. There's still no official solution to this problem, and no official word on why it's happening.

The current workarounds are:

* Use an external host (like Github)
* Convert the gif to apng

(2 edits)

I mean my gif problem get solved with this alternative temporary solution, I did not say itch.io has solved the issue. As I mentioned on my first line, the problem is still there if you add gif in normal way.

Deleted 72 days ago
Deleted 72 days ago
(+1)

Unfortunately GitHub links work only for the description section. APNGs work on banners and background images too. The community hasn't found a solution for screenshots previews yet, as far as I know. We are making progress, though! :)

Deleted 72 days ago
(+1)

No one needs to ask ChatGPT anything. That workaround has been mentioned multiple times on this page.

I thought maybe if someone not familiar with GitHub and first time heard it might find it confusing on how to do it (like myself), so just in case I wanted to share it to those who needed.

(+1)

That’s a good motivation and likely helpful.

It’s just… ChatGPT is stealing from these threads. People here shoukd read what’s here, not go to a chatbot.

(1 edit)

Testing something…

Website banner

(1 edit) (+1)

For the areas of the site that allow markdown, animated gifs can ve hotlinked from anywhere that allows hotlinking with the following syntax.

![Alt text](website.net "a title")

But put in the full web address.

(+6)

It's been.. how many months now? How is this still not fixed? Come on.

(+1)

Has itch.io support responded about this issue? I'm having the same problem.

(+1)

Nothing yet. I've also tried to direct message Leaf on Twitter and not heard anything back. Support hasn't responded in this thread, and I don't think it's been acknowledged anywhere else. Still unclear why this is happening or if it's intentional.

(+1)

I am having the same issue. I had a gif banner on my main page that used to play fine, but no longer works. I have tried reuploading it with no success. I would really like to have a gif banner as it makes my page look snazzy.

(+3)

The problem is still here.

(+5)

Leaf commented on this in another thread 109 days ago and said it was to do with changing the image processing server.

A community moderator also commented 99 days ago on images not loading, but said they weren't sure on specifics.

Issue is still not resolved, but I wanted to update this topic to tie threads together. I don't know if they are aware that this is still a bug.

(+3)

100% they are aware. There's multiple posts per week here, we've sent support tickets, etc. No idea why they don't reply, though.

(+6)

IT WORKS FOR ME AGAIN!

(+3)

Same!

(+3)

So it seems! Screenshots animate again, hooray!! :)

(+6)

We are so back!


(+2)

 "It's been 84 years..."

(+3)

THANK YOU ITCH <3 <3 <3

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