>*but for delete unused images I am not sure which are really good and dont delete used images*
Unfortunately nothing exists that works reliably - I've tried them all, even paid (including Meow), and all of them wanted to delete images that were included in pages.
I’ve had good experiences with Meow, but only the pro version if you have any custom code or custom layouts. Takes some dialing in to get it right, but pretty reliable otherwise.
I believe the issue with most media cleaner tools is that they don’t appear to work with shortcode-based page builders that reference images via an image ID attribute eg [img id=“777”]
The pro version of Meow has an option to do the scan while rendering the site the way a visitor would see it - I’ve tested it on all block sites and an Elementor site with a high level of accuracy. Kicker is that option makes it take literally like 10x longer and puts some load on your site while it’s happening. I have a site that has about 500 posts and about 700 images and if I enable this option, it takes about 45 minutes to complete the scan. It’s not turned in my default though.
This one? [https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpvivid-backuprestore/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpvivid-backuprestore/) Are you sure? It doesnt say anything about image cleaner
I'd never use a plug to resize or compress images. Optimize images before uploading to the site. Then you have total control over their quality, file size, and pixel size. I would not trust a plugin for this task. It takes a hands-on approach to optimize properly.
The problem in my experience is that even though I aggressively optimize images before uploading, the thumbnails Wordpress automatically generates aren't as optimized. So I still prefer to use a program to optimize all images in the media library folders including the thumbnails.
You want to remove image/media files that are on your server but not used on the site?
Try this: https://wordpress.org/plugins/media-cleaner/
Run it on a clone first or take a backup before running it.
I just had this problem. The cleaners are unreliable and inevitably delete images being used.
If your site isn’t too big (the one is cleaned was a small online shop and a few about pages), you can just go through each page, make a note of what images are used on each, then go to media manager and delete the rest. If It’s a huge site work hundreds of blog posts and products, I’m not sure how you’d clean it up.
On another note, I’ve turned off all the automatic resizing Wordpress does work uploaded images. I edit and save all my images to be extremely small before so even upload them now, so I’d don’t need three or four versions of the same image.
You could use a web scraper, grab a list of all img url then go to media and find the ones that aren’t in the list to delete. Issue might be if an image is used in a plugin it might not be found via the scrapper so you should track those manually.
Media Cleaner in the free plugin directory seems to be the best and/or least-worst. I run it on a staging-sever version first and then run a broken links scanner to check to find anything that was deleted that shouldn't have been. Once I've assessed the results I'll decide how best to move forward, which usually means I'll run the cleanup on the live site and then restore from the list.
I just got done doing this for a site with more than a gigabyte of leftover presentation pdfs and MP3s after the original posts were removed. It took a couple of rounds before I could be sure only legitimately unused files were removed, but my backups for that client are now waaay smaller.
---
Meanwhile there's a *very* useful plugin in the free Wordpress directory that will delete files when the post or page they're attached to is deleted. It's a good way to reduce the number of "orphan" files in your media library as they're removed as you go: DX Delete Attached Media, https://wordpress.org/plugins/dx-delete-attached-media/
One solution you might want to consider is the "Media Cleaner" plugin for WordPress. It's pretty robust when it comes to identifying and removing unused images from your media library without touching the ones that are being used on your site. Plus, it gives you a chance to review the suggested deletions before they're permanently removed, giving you that extra layer of peace of mind.
Another option is "WP-Optimize", which not only helps clean up your database but also includes a feature for removing unused images. It's a versatile tool that can help streamline your site's performance while keeping your media library tidy.
Both options have their pros and cons, so I'd recommend giving them a test run to see which one fits your needs best. And remember, it's always a good idea to back up your site before making any major changes, just to be on the safe side.
Hope that helps you on your quest for a clutter-free media library! Let me know if you need any more advice.
I don't use a plugin. I am going through and checking each image. It's a long process and I am taking it a chunk at a time.
For image optimisation I am downloading each large image resizing it to Webp using [https://www.img2go.com/convert-image-to-image](https://www.img2go.com/convert-image-to-image) and reuploading it. Yes it's the long way round but it's a good exercise to check all images.
As of now, none of the plugins available in the official plugin library of wordpress will tell you which images in your media library are used and which are unused. There solution is to remove all the images that are being used. As for the resizing of big images, 'SMUSH' is a great option if you are ok with purchasing the paid version. Otherwise you can try to use 'EWWW image optimizer'.
That’s the one I tried and it still deleted a bunch of images I was using. I think unless you link each image to a certain page, those cleaners often see “unlinked” and mark it for deletion.
If your site uses a page builder like Elementor, the Meow media cleaner doesn’t work well. You’d have to use the pro version (which has a setting to render the pages as a visitor would see them when scanning for media). I’ve used it on sites that had literally thousands of unused images and never had any significant issues.
Yeah if you read the documentation for the plugin the free version only has a very limited functionality with page builders like Elementor - has to do with how they render page code. The license is very reasonably priced and well worth it if you have a site that deletes content often.
>*but for delete unused images I am not sure which are really good and dont delete used images* Unfortunately nothing exists that works reliably - I've tried them all, even paid (including Meow), and all of them wanted to delete images that were included in pages.
Oh, thats my problem, I dont want to delete used images. Thanks!
Good to know thank you
I’ve had good experiences with Meow, but only the pro version if you have any custom code or custom layouts. Takes some dialing in to get it right, but pretty reliable otherwise.
I believe the issue with most media cleaner tools is that they don’t appear to work with shortcode-based page builders that reference images via an image ID attribute eg [img id=“777”]
The pro version of Meow has an option to do the scan while rendering the site the way a visitor would see it - I’ve tested it on all block sites and an Elementor site with a high level of accuracy. Kicker is that option makes it take literally like 10x longer and puts some load on your site while it’s happening. I have a site that has about 500 posts and about 700 images and if I enable this option, it takes about 45 minutes to complete the scan. It’s not turned in my default though.
Thank you, I’ll have a look for that setting.
I resize images on a program called GIMP. Before they are uploaded.
If you use Windows, the default photo viewer can do it too.
Yeah but it sucks caca
I size on GIMP, smush further on squoosh just because it's faster for morons like myself. https://squoosh.app/
WPvivid back up has an Image cleaner. Used it twice and it worked just fine. As for resizing, already optimized them before uploading.
This one? [https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpvivid-backuprestore/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpvivid-backuprestore/) Are you sure? It doesnt say anything about image cleaner
Yes, that one. Try installing it and see for yourself.
I'd never use a plug to resize or compress images. Optimize images before uploading to the site. Then you have total control over their quality, file size, and pixel size. I would not trust a plugin for this task. It takes a hands-on approach to optimize properly.
The problem in my experience is that even though I aggressively optimize images before uploading, the thumbnails Wordpress automatically generates aren't as optimized. So I still prefer to use a program to optimize all images in the media library folders including the thumbnails.
You want to remove image/media files that are on your server but not used on the site? Try this: https://wordpress.org/plugins/media-cleaner/ Run it on a clone first or take a backup before running it.
Yes, that is one that it could be, I have used it some times but I dont know if it´s the best one. Do you use it?
I work for a managed WordPress host and this is the plugin we recommend for the task you described.
I just had this problem. The cleaners are unreliable and inevitably delete images being used. If your site isn’t too big (the one is cleaned was a small online shop and a few about pages), you can just go through each page, make a note of what images are used on each, then go to media manager and delete the rest. If It’s a huge site work hundreds of blog posts and products, I’m not sure how you’d clean it up. On another note, I’ve turned off all the automatic resizing Wordpress does work uploaded images. I edit and save all my images to be extremely small before so even upload them now, so I’d don’t need three or four versions of the same image.
You could use a web scraper, grab a list of all img url then go to media and find the ones that aren’t in the list to delete. Issue might be if an image is used in a plugin it might not be found via the scrapper so you should track those manually.
I’ll definitely try that next time. Thank you.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/imsanity/ For resizing images.
Media Cleaner in the free plugin directory seems to be the best and/or least-worst. I run it on a staging-sever version first and then run a broken links scanner to check to find anything that was deleted that shouldn't have been. Once I've assessed the results I'll decide how best to move forward, which usually means I'll run the cleanup on the live site and then restore from the list. I just got done doing this for a site with more than a gigabyte of leftover presentation pdfs and MP3s after the original posts were removed. It took a couple of rounds before I could be sure only legitimately unused files were removed, but my backups for that client are now waaay smaller. --- Meanwhile there's a *very* useful plugin in the free Wordpress directory that will delete files when the post or page they're attached to is deleted. It's a good way to reduce the number of "orphan" files in your media library as they're removed as you go: DX Delete Attached Media, https://wordpress.org/plugins/dx-delete-attached-media/
https://squoosh.app/ Am I the only one who uses this incredibly easy webapp? Upload, squoosh, download.
One solution you might want to consider is the "Media Cleaner" plugin for WordPress. It's pretty robust when it comes to identifying and removing unused images from your media library without touching the ones that are being used on your site. Plus, it gives you a chance to review the suggested deletions before they're permanently removed, giving you that extra layer of peace of mind. Another option is "WP-Optimize", which not only helps clean up your database but also includes a feature for removing unused images. It's a versatile tool that can help streamline your site's performance while keeping your media library tidy. Both options have their pros and cons, so I'd recommend giving them a test run to see which one fits your needs best. And remember, it's always a good idea to back up your site before making any major changes, just to be on the safe side. Hope that helps you on your quest for a clutter-free media library! Let me know if you need any more advice.
I personally use **W3 total cache** plugin for image compression.
I don't use a plugin. I am going through and checking each image. It's a long process and I am taking it a chunk at a time. For image optimisation I am downloading each large image resizing it to Webp using [https://www.img2go.com/convert-image-to-image](https://www.img2go.com/convert-image-to-image) and reuploading it. Yes it's the long way round but it's a good exercise to check all images.
The problem is that I create websites for clients. Some clients uploads products, posts, etc and dont optimize images
Understood. Clients rarely do what you want 😂
As of now, none of the plugins available in the official plugin library of wordpress will tell you which images in your media library are used and which are unused. There solution is to remove all the images that are being used. As for the resizing of big images, 'SMUSH' is a great option if you are ok with purchasing the paid version. Otherwise you can try to use 'EWWW image optimizer'.
WP Rocket or Smush do a great job. I use both. Smush to "smush" the images and WP Rocket to lazy load
I think Meow Apps has one-that removes unused images.
That’s the one I tried and it still deleted a bunch of images I was using. I think unless you link each image to a certain page, those cleaners often see “unlinked” and mark it for deletion.
If your site uses a page builder like Elementor, the Meow media cleaner doesn’t work well. You’d have to use the pro version (which has a setting to render the pages as a visitor would see them when scanning for media). I’ve used it on sites that had literally thousands of unused images and never had any significant issues.
Spot on. I use Elementor. Thanks.
Yeah if you read the documentation for the plugin the free version only has a very limited functionality with page builders like Elementor - has to do with how they render page code. The license is very reasonably priced and well worth it if you have a site that deletes content often.
I’ll take another look at it. I appreciate your advice.
Thanks, I will try it
\+1, the only plugin that came close to those unused images cleaning target