Cover Block: Settings Unavailable When Using Featured Image in Site Editor

[pauloeaquino]

Context and steps to reproduce

Issue Description

When a Cover block is set to use the Featured Image in the Site Editor, the block settings panel does not display options such as:

• Fixed Background (parallax effect)
• Resolution (Full Size, etc.)

This prevents users from applying these settings when designing page templates.

CleanShot.2025-02-21.at.20.53.40.mp4

Expected Behavior

The Cover block settings (e.g., Fixed Background, Resolution) should be available whether or not the block is set to use the Featured Image. This would allow users to configure their designs without needing a workaround.

Themes Tested On

• Assembler
• Twenty Twenty-Five
• Twenty Twenty-Four

Additional Context

This issue impacts users designing page templates in the Site Editor and prevents full customization of Featured Image-based Cover blocks.

Site owner impact

More than 60% of the total website/platform users

Severity

Moderate

What other impact(s) does this issue have?

No response

If a workaround is available, please outline it here.

Workaround

Users can bypass this issue using the following steps:

1. Add a Cover block in the Site Editor.
2. Select any image from the Media Library or upload one manually.
3. Adjust settings as needed (Fixed Background, Resolution: Full Size, etc.).
4. Click Save.
5. Click Replace in the Cover block settings.
6. Select "Use Featured Image" instead of a manually chosen image.
7. Click Save again.

This workaround successfully applies the desired settings to the Cover block, but the settings panel remains unavailable while the block is set to "Use Featured Image."

Observation in Code Editor

Before applying the workaround, when the Cover block is initially set to use the Featured Image, the corresponding block code lacks key attributes such as hasParallax and sizeSlug:

{
  "useFeaturedImage": true,
  "dimRatio": 0,
  "customOverlayColor": "#FFF",
  "layout": { "type": "constrained" }
}

After completing the workaround and re-selecting the Featured Image, the block code does retain the missing settings:

{
  "useFeaturedImage": true,
  "hasParallax": true,
  "dimRatio": 0,
  "customOverlayColor": "#FFF",
  "isUserOverlayColor": false,
  "isDark": false,
  "sizeSlug": "full",
  "layout": { "type": "constrained" }
}

This suggests that the settings are supported, but the UI does not expose them when the block is set to use the Featured Image by default.

Platform

Simple, Atomic

[Robertght]

Thank you @pauloeaquino !

It looks like this was already reported in core WordPress/gutenberg#69179

The good news is that there's also a PR available for it here: WordPress/gutenberg#69178