How to stop URLs from turning into images?

[Gabor Horvath]

I am considering to switch to Trello from Todoist. I started to add tasks to the Inbox, and some of these tasks are URLs, which turn automatically into an image with a description.

For me, this is an absolute show stopper. These cards take up too much place and become super distracting. My lists will look like a news website. 

Is there a way to turn this feature off and leave URLs as they are, but keep them clickable?

[Mia Tamm]

Hi @Gabor Horvath ,
I totally understand what you mean — it can be very distracting when every link turns into a big preview.

At the moment, Trello doesn't have a built-in setting to disable link previews or cards showing rich media. However, a common workaround is to add your links in a code block. For example, type backticks ( ` ) before and after the URL — like this:

`https://example.com`

This way, the link won’t expand into a preview. Unfortunately, it also won’t be clickable, so it's a bit of a tradeoff.

Another option is to add the URL as an attachment, or paste it inside a checklist item or comment. Those usually stay as plain text.

By the way, I’m Mia Tamm — I use Trello too, and I really think they’re doing a great job with the planner features. It’s becoming a solid alternative to Todoist, especially with the flexibility for custom workflows.

Hope this helps!

— Mia Tamm from Simpleasyty

[Nils Geylen]

In Inbox that's is the default. It's a different question as soon as you drag the item into a list on a board.

You may have 'Show card covers' ticked in your board settings.

If that's off (left) the item will still be a clickable link card, but without the image prefetch:

An image link will change into a text link if the cover setting for that board is off.

Of course, if you're also adding images to that board and want those to do show as card covers, that won't be available. The setting is board-level and you have to decide; you can't set the card cover options per card.

In that case you'll have to convert to a regular card, give it a title and paste the link in either the description (with various display options available) or as a link attachment like @Mia Tamm says.