When replacing an inline image, any associated link gets removed

[rbairwell]

Description

When you replace an image using "Inline Image" which has been set up as a link, the link is removed when you change the image.

Step-by-step reproduction instructions

1. Create a New Post
2. Select an enclosing block (problem experienced with Paragraph and Table)
3. Enter some text (to ensure it's a text field)
4. Insert an "Inline Image" using the "More" drop down
5. Set a link for that Inline Image by clicking on it and selecting "Link"
6. Click on the image, select "Inline Image" using the "More drop down"
7. Select a different image
8. Image is no longer linked

Screenshots, screen recording, code snippet

No response

Environment info

• WordPress: WordPress 6.0
• Theme: Twenty Twenty-Two 1.2
• Browser: Brave (based on Chromium) 1.39.122
• Confirmed on Browser: Firefox 101.0.1
• Platform: Windows 10 Profesional Desktop 64bit

Please confirm that you have searched existing issues in the repo.

Yes

Please confirm that you have tested with all plugins deactivated except Gutenberg.

Yes

[kathrynwp]

Hi @rbairwell, thanks for submitting this issue.

I noticed the same behaviour with the regular Image block; when clicking the "Replace" option on that block to swap out another image, the link field was also erased. This makes me think that this is the intended behaviour on image-type blocks such as "inline image."

I noticed this somewhat related issue – #17119 – @draganescu, would you mind taking a peek at this and confirming whether or not this is the intended behaviour, or a bug?

[draganescu]

I looked 😱

A few points:

• that link popover is totally broken when inline images are linked
• the "replace" action via clicking on "more > inline image" again is totally not intuitive, at least for me, I've always deleted and reinserted
• the problem in this issue is not related to the one in Image Block maintains link to previous media after replacing an image #17119 as that was about the media replace flow for blocks that use media in them, while this is a RichText problem.

The link popover being placed so wrong needs an issue (unless I am the only one experiencing the problem).