# How URLs are served

Offloft changes media addresses as each page is shown, so normal offloading doesn't change your database. Your posts keep their original local addresses. A verified file gets the cloud address, and anything else keeps the local one. Turning rewriting off returns your site to its local files at once.

## What this means for you

- **It's reversible.** There's nothing to search and replace back.
- **It's decided file by file.** One unverified thumbnail doesn't affect the others. It simply loads from your server.
- **Pages don't run an extra database query for each image.**

## Changed files get a new name

With **Versioned file paths** on, the default, Offloft adds a short version to each address. A changed file gets a new address, so no browser or CDN cache serves the old version. This applies to files offloaded from then on.

## Caching plugins

If a page cache stored a page before you turned rewriting on or off, that stored page still has the old addresses. Clear your page cache after changing it.

## When a theme saved a full address

A few themes and plugins save complete image addresses somewhere Offloft doesn't rewrite. If you find one, see [replace URLs in old content](/docs/replace-urls). Most sites never need this.

Updated 2026-11-06.

Source: https://www.offloft.com/docs/how-urls-are-served