Photos not uploading in Wordpress media manager

Question

I am trying to upload images into the media manager of a Wordpress website for my clients. No issues last time I touched this website, which was about a month ago.

So far, I have:

• Tried uploading images that are already in the media manager (same size, file, etc)
• checked all permissions in the FTP (all permissions are fine)
• disabled each plugin, 1 by 1, until all were disabled to test if that was the issue (it wasn't)
• uploaded an image directly into the FTP to get it to appear (it didn't)
• reset the upload location for the media manager (thought that was the issue, but it wasn't. More on that below)
• made a lot of grumpy noises
• tried uploading different files (didn't work)
• Reinstalled the latest update of WP

So far, here's what I know:

• When I click "edit image" the image appears in the editor
• In the FTP, when I upload the image, it appears in the appropriate folder (public_html/wp-content/uploads/2021/11)
• when I access the image from the FTP, it is there in all dimensions as created by WP
• The URL of http(s)://company.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/name.jpg brings me to a blank page
• No errors are returning in console expect that there is a missing resource
• It's even worse on Safari (as opposed to Chrome), where none of my images are appearing

So far, every answer I can find for this problem involves the permissions for the files, none of which seem to affect anything for me. The files upload automatically at a 644 permission level, though I can change them to a 744 and still get nothing.

SOS and thanks for any help!

Answer 1

Unfortunately, I don't have much of an answer as to why it works, but I do have a solution.

I backed up my WordPress site using a plugin, then restored the backup. My plan was just to do the backup, then restore an old backup, but just in case I tried restoring the backup I just created seconds before—and voila, it worked. I don't know why, but hey! I have a solution.

So make a backup, and then restore that backup.

Thank you to @bossman for helping out in the comments.