Environment:
Joomla: 6.1.0
Helix Ultimate: 2.2.5
SP Page Builder Pro: 6.5.0
The Issue / Symptoms
When enabling CSS Compression under Helix Ultimate > Template Options > Advanced, custom background images declared in custom.css randomly break on the live site.
If an image is uploaded via SP Page Builder’s Media Manager, it gets placed into a deeply nested date-based sub-directory (e.g., /images/2026/05/06/hero-bg.jpg).
When defining this path in custom.css using a full absolute URL to ensure stability:
.my-custom-header {background-image: url('https://www.example.com/images/2026/05/06/hero-bg.jpg');}
The URL gets re-written to when css compression is enabled. https://www.example.com/templates/shaper_helixultimate/css/images/2026/05/06/hero-bg.jpg
My workaround was just to move the file to https://www.example.com/images/hero-bg.jpg and update my custom.css file accordingly. Re-enabling css compression didn't break the image path in this instance.