How to Clean up Your WordPress Media Library 2 Easy Methods

Do you want to clean up your WordPress media library? WordPress makes different dimensions of your images so they are available for the different locations you could place them with your theme. You also do not remove the images that were in a post of yours when you remove that post. In this video, we will show you how to clean up your WordPress media library with two different methods.
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For the first method we will cover, we will be using the Media Cleaner plugin that you can find using the link below:
wordpress.org/...
Once activated you would go under Media, Cleaner to have the plugin analyze your site's media library and find any unused images. Depending on how many images your site has this can take some time for larger sites. The plugin will create a list of images it feels are not being used and you will have the choice of removing the images from your site or not.
For our second recommendation, we will be using the Media Deupper plugin found here:
www.mediadedup...
With Media Deupper installed you would want to go under Media, Manage Duplicates and click on the Index Media button to analyze your media library. It should pull up a list of duplicate images used on your site for you to delete. Select the files you want or all the files and in the bulk action dropdown select Smart Delete and click apply.
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[@niralaholdings01]

Thanks for taking time to create this vidoe and publish here for free, Like myself I am sure many of us got benefited. May God reward you for this great effort.

[@wpbeginner]

Glad you found it helpful :)

[@acegase]

Do not EVER ignore those messages at the top folks. If you don't fix the wp-config your media is gone immediately. No temp folder to recover it from. Just permanently deleted without giving you a chance to check the list. Also never do this without doing a backup. You are permanently deleting things! The plugin developer practically screams this warning at you. If you use a page builder get the pro version. It is cheap. Personally I always make a staging copy of my site, which is easy on decent WP hosts, one click. Then I run media cleaner there and see what it finds. Instead of wading through a big list you can hit delete all, as it is a test site. Then look to see what went missing from your frontend. Make a list. Make a new site copy. Exclude those files and delete again until you get it right. I had 3 files listed incorrectly out of 300,000 found. A woocommerce store 8 years old that had never been cleaned. Those 3 I already suspected would be missed as 2 were in widgets and 1 directly referenced in theme code. This is a great tool but must be used SUPER cautiously.

[@wpbeginner]

Thanks for sharing your recommendations and experience using this plugin.

[@jasonmillar2626]

yeah i just did what she said and there goes all my images, dont ignore those warnings

[@androidphone6972]

is there a manual method to remove the un used images. installing so many plug ins scares me, makes me think my site will become slow. Im a non tech person, trying to wrap my head around these concepts. can i install the plug in, delete the images and delete the plug in as well?

[@wpbeginner]

We do not have a recommended manual method and you can use at the moment but you can use the plugin and then remove it. For your concern of how many plugins on your site, we would recommend taking a look at our article below: www.wpbeginner.com/opinion/how-many-wordpress-plugins-should-you-install-on-your-site/

[@baskaran9190]

Thank you so much for your video, I am looking to solve this issue for a few days, fortunately, got your video.

[@wpbeginner]

You're welcome!

[@MatthewFurman]

This is an awesome video, thank you. Been looking for something like this. You are amazing!

[@wpbeginner]

Glad it was helpful!

[@nirmitha]

Thanks a lot for the valuable content, Always 💙😇

[@wpbeginner]

You're welcome, glad our content is helpful :)

[@MohamedAhmedS1]

thank you very much

[@wpbeginner]

You are welcome

[@francoisnaaijer3821]

Hi, when I create a page., I always have auto draft instead of the title I wrote. Thanks for your tutos

[@wpbeginner]

That is quite odd, you may want to test if it is a plugin or theme conflict by following our guide here: www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-troubleshooting-wordpress-errors-step-by-step/

[@JimKernix]

I know I have some images I uploaded and then didn't use. Does Google index them, and if so, will that create a problem with Google?

[@wpbeginner]

If they are not a part of a post or page then it should not cause any issue

[@abhijeetsingh8282]

@@wpbeginner I used the 1st one and I found when I deleted all the images which that plugin was suggesting that I am not using...were those images which I was actually using. So it deleted my used images.

[@hamednaderi7675]

Perfect !

[@wpbeginner]

Glad our video was helpful :)

[@bassoonmom8914]

I've activated the Media Cleaner plugin but can't find where to open it. It doesn't appear as Meow Apps or as a category under Media.

[@wpbeginner]

We would recommend reaching out to the plugin's support as it sounds like it may be having an error on your site.

[@alphared5715]

You need to deactivate, and delete it. Then reinstall and re-activate it. Once you re-activate it, STOP and look on top of the page, you will see a blue link that reads: "generate the media index" then click "index".

[@k3nsh1n07]

Hello thank you very much! One question, this plugins works if I want to delete the images of a deleted product in woocommerce?

[@wpbeginner]

Yes, it should

[@k3nsh1n07]

@@wpbeginner awesomee, both of theem ? thaank youu a loot :D

[@SophiePloeg]

Using a page builder usually messes up whether an image is 'attached'. Any tips on how to clean up if you're using a page builder? Thanks.

[@wpbeginner]

It would depend on the page builder you're using, if you reach out to the page builder's support they should be able to help clarify and hopefully fix the issue.

[@SophiePloeg]

@@wpbeginner Thanks, I'll ask!

[@acegase]

@@wpbeginner The pro version supports most popular page builders. The plugin site has a list. Pro is cheap at $34 for 5 licenses. having extra licenses lets you test on a copy of your site first. I highly recommend that strategy..

[@LarryProchazka]

Thank you! I'm wrestling with how to clean up several thousand images on my travel blog posted over the past 12 years. For a large media library, would Media De Duper be better? And...I noticed in my Bluehost file manager upload folder, I have as many as 15 versions of the same image but in varying sizes. Is that something WordPress gallery does or could that be from Robin Optimizer which I use?

[@wpbeginner]

We would recommend the plugins from our tutorial at this time, we have not tested those specific plugins. The duplicate images are created based on the settings for your theme as there are different image sizes for the different sections of your site for where to place your images. You can see more about it in our article below: www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-prevent-wordpress-from-generating-image-sizes/

[@LarryProchazka]

@@wpbeginner Thank you! They apparently work differently? I tested both and Media Cleaner found none while Deduper found nearly 500 images. Does one cleaner work better if I'm using elementor?

[@citymadera4784]

Can you install media Cleaner, delete your images and then desinstall the plugin media cleaner?

[@wpbeginner]

Yes, you can certainly do that if you like :)

[@MrSpock-sm3dd]

Well I used this application and all the images it said wasnt being used were being used and it messed the whole site. Thanks a lot.

[@wpbeginner]

Sorry to hear, we would recommend letting the plugin's support know and they can normally take a look and assist in fixing that issue.

[@MrSpock-sm3dd]

@@wpbeginner Ok, no problem.

[@DrShonTV]

Thank you.

[@wpbeginner]

You're welcome :)

[@THEROBINKEVIN]

nice

[@wpbeginner]

Thank you :)

[@arshfitness2052]

If I deleted my pics from media then it also deleted from my website??

[@wpbeginner]

Correct, your media library are where the images on your site are stored and if you remove an image from there then it is removed from your site.

[@arshfitness2052]

@@wpbeginner mam I just maid an multi vendor website through word press so there is any why to delete media from library without deleting the pics from website becz it's look so creepy when a vendor see all those images in there media library

[@gobrad]

Great video but don’t all these plugins slow the site diwn

[@wpbeginner]

The number of plugins does not affect your site's speed, the quality of the plugins does. You may want to take a look at our article on this below: www.wpbeginner.com/opinion/how-many-wordpress-plugins-should-you-install-on-your-site/

[@user-ev7dm4tg9l]

Heres the thing there si 30 000 images... Gues what happens when I start scanning.. It fcking DIES I could never reach more than 30 % of scanning ( took 10 hours for 30 % )

[@wpbeginner]

For a site of that extreme size, we would recommend reaching out to the plugin's support and they should be able to assist in getting it to work with your site!

[@dudesicko]

hehe yeah, there were way way way to many it said "Seems not in use", that i know for 100% i had in use, so did not trust this for a bit :( When 1/4 of all the fimes it shows as "Seems not in use" i know is in use, i dont trust that any of the other are safe to delete tha ti dont remember 100%

[@wpbeginner]

You may want to check the sizes of the images as your site normally generates different images sizes for each image.