Troy Chaplin

<p>Ever updated a PDF and realized half your site links to the old version? Or replaced a hero image and watched your carefully-tuned page layout collapse? Smart Media Replacement solves both problems — and adds a safety net you’ll wish you had earlier.</p>
<p><strong>Replace the file, keep the URL.</strong> When you swap an attachment with this plugin, the file’s URL never changes. Every existing link, every email that points to it, every page that embeds it, every SEO ranking — all of it keeps working. No 404s, no broken references, no scrambling to update old content.</p>
<p><strong>Full revision history, one-click restore.</strong> Every replacement automatically snapshots the previous version. Made a mistake? Roll back instantly. Want to see what the file looked like three months ago? Download it. Each revision is timestamped, attributed to the user who made it, and can carry an optional note describing what changed.</p>
<p><strong>Works where you work.</strong> Replace from the Media Library, or from inside any block’s Replace toolbar in the block editor — image, cover, video, audio, file, gallery, and more. The editor refreshes in place, no page reload, no lost work.</p>
<p><strong>Safe by default.</strong> The plugin validates filenames, file types, and image dimensions to keep your URLs intact and your layouts unbroken. WordPress’s auto-scaled images are handled transparently. Revisions land in a database table that’s self-healing on every admin load, and the plugin’s settings page gives you control over how many revisions to keep, how long to retain them, and which file types are tracked.</p>
<h4>Use cases</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Monthly reports and newsletters</strong> — Update PDFs linked from past emails without breaking any of those links.</li>
<li><strong>Brand refreshes</strong> — Replace logos, headers, and brand imagery once; everywhere they’re used updates automatically.</li>
<li><strong>Legal documents</strong> — Keep current versions of terms of service, privacy policy, and contracts live, with older versions preserved as revisions for compliance.</li>
<li><strong>Image updates</strong> — Refresh product photos, blog hero images, and marketing assets without breaking responsive sizes or SEO.</li>
<li><strong>Typo fixes in published assets</strong> — Fix errors in infographics, downloadable guides, or e-books without scrambling to update references across your site.</li>
<li><strong>Versioned downloads</strong> — White papers, e-books, technical docs that need to stay at a stable URL while preserving older versions on demand.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Features</h4>
<p><strong>Replacement and URL preservation</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Replace any media file while keeping its URL, ID, and metadata intact</li>
<li>Existing internal and external links keep working — no 404s, no SEO impact</li>
<li>Automatic regeneration of image size variants (thumbnails, medium, large, etc.)</li>
<li>Transparent handling of WordPress’s <code>-scaled</code> large images</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Revision history</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Every replacement automatically snapshots the previous file</li>
<li>Major/minor version numbering (e.g. v1.0 <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> v1.1 <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> v2.0)</li>
<li>Optional replacement note per revision, attributed to the user</li>
<li>One-click restore of any past version</li>
<li>Download individual revisions, or download a ZIP archive of an attachment’s full history</li>
<li>Configurable: maximum revisions per file, age-based retention with daily cleanup, per-file-type opt-in</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Block editor integration</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>“Update existing file” in every block’s Replace toolbar dropdown (image, cover, video, audio, file, gallery, media-text, post-featured-image)</li>
<li>In-place editor refresh after replacement — no page reload, no lost work</li>
<li>Accessibility-friendly notifications via WordPress’s native screen reader announcements</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Validation safeguards</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Filename matching to keep URLs stable</li>
<li>Image dimension matching to prevent layout breakage</li>
<li>MIME-type matching to prevent file corruption</li>
<li>Clear, actionable error messages when something doesn’t match</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Built-in admin</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Settings page at Media <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> Replacement Settings</li>
<li>Storage stats: total revisions, total disk usage, database table status</li>
<li>Optional deactivation cleanup (files and/or database)</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Multisite-ready</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Network-activate only on multisite — one consistent configuration across every site</li>
<li>Settings live at Network Admin <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> Settings <span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-exclude-emoji">→</span> Media Replacement and apply network-wide</li>
<li>Revisions are stored per-site under each site’s uploads directory; metadata lives in a single shared network table</li>
<li>Daily retention cleanup runs across every site in the network</li>
<li>Automatic row and file cleanup when a site is deleted</li>
<li>Single-site installs work exactly as before — settings and storage stay per-site, no network behavior involved</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>WP-CLI</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><code>wp smr db check</code> — verify the revisions table exists (non-zero exit code if missing, safe for CI pipelines)</li>
<li><code>wp smr db repair</code> — recreate the table if missing; idempotent, safe to run when the table already exists</li>
<li><code>wp smr db status</code> — revision counts and storage usage; <code>--network</code> for a per-site breakdown on multisite</li>
<li><code>wp smr db cleanup</code> — delete expired revisions immediately, with <code>--dry-run</code> to preview and <code>--network</code> for all sites</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Other</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>Self-healing database table via configurable scheduled check (hourly, daily, weekly, or disabled); use <code>wp smr db repair</code> for on-demand recovery</li>
<li>Developer hooks throughout for custom integrations</li>
</ul>
<h4>Privacy</h4>
<p>This plugin is fully self-contained and respects your privacy:</p>
<ul>
<li>Does not collect or transmit any user data</li>
<li>Does not use cookies or third-party tracking</li>
<li>Only processes files locally on your server</li>
<li>Does not communicate with external services or APIs</li>
</ul>
<h3>Usage</h3>
<h4>From the Media Library</h4>
<ol>
<li>Navigate to the WordPress Media Library</li>
<li>Open the file you want to replace (click on it, or use the row actions in list view)</li>
<li>Click <strong>Replace File</strong></li>
<li>Choose your new file — if revisions are enabled, you’ll be prompted for an optional note and version type (minor/major)</li>
<li>The replacement happens immediately, preserving the file’s URL</li>
</ol>
<h4>From the block editor</h4>
<ol>
<li>Click on any media block (image, cover, video, audio, file, gallery, etc.)</li>
<li>Open the <strong>Replace</strong> toolbar dropdown</li>
<li>Choose <strong>Update existing file</strong></li>
<li>Pick your new file — the editor refreshes in place</li>
</ol>
<h4>Viewing and managing revisions</h4>
<ul>
<li>In the Media Library list view, the <strong>Revisions</strong> row action opens the full revision history for that file</li>
<li>On the attachment edit screen, the <strong>View Revisions</strong> button opens the same panel</li>
<li>From either, you can download any past version individually or as a ZIP, and restore any revision with one click</li>
</ul>


Smart Media Replacement

Replace media files in place — same URL, new content, no broken links. Includes versioned revision history with one-click rollback.

Jon Christopher

cageehv

NerdPress

Colin Devroe

<p>NerdPress has adopted Optimize Database After Deleting Revisions! <a href="https://www.nerdpress.net/announcing-optimize-database/" rel="nofollow ugc">Read the announcement here.</a></p>
<p>This plugin is a ‘One Click’ WordPress database cleaner & optimizer, with precise revision cleanup and flexible scheduling.</p>
<h4>Main Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Deletes revisions of posts, pages and / or custom post types (you optionally can keep an ‘x’-amount of the most recent revisions and you can choose to delete revisions older than…)</li>
<li>Deletes trashed posts, pages and comments (optional)</li>
<li>Deletes spammed comments (optional)</li>
<li>Deletes unused tags (optional)</li>
<li>Deletes ‘expired or all transients’ (optional)</li>
<li>Deletes ‘pingbacks’ and ‘trackbacks’ (optional)</li>
<li>Clears the ‘OEMBED cache’ (optional)</li>
<li>Deletes ‘orphan postmeta items’</li>
<li>Optimizes the database tables (optionally you can exclude certain tables, or even specific posts/pages, from optimization)</li>
<li>Creates a log of the optimizations (optional)</li>
<li>Optimization can be scheduled to automatically run once hourly, twice daily, once daily or once weekly at a specific time (optional)</li>
<li>‘Optimize DB (1 click)’ link in the admin bar (optional)</li>
<li>‘Optimize Database’ Icon in the admin menu (optional)</li>
<li>MULTISITE compatible: optimizes all sites in the network with one click</li>
</ul>
<h4>Settings</h4>
<p>You can find the settings page in the WP Admin Panel » Optimize Database -or- via the WP Admin Panel » Optimize Database icon (depends on settings)</p>
<h4>Excluding specific posts/pages from deleting revisions</h4>
<p>If you want to keep revisions for a specific post/page (no matter what the other settings are), create a custom field named ‘keep_revisions’ for that post/page and give it the value ‘Y’</p>
<h4>Starting the Analysis / Optimization</h4>
<p>You can start the Optimization in the WP Admin Panel » Optimize Database.<br />
Note: if you use the Scheduler the Optimization will run automatically!<br />
Note: you also can click the ‘Optimize DB (1 click)’ link in the admin bar (if enabled)<br />
You can click one of the following buttons:<br />
‘Analyze (summary): analyzes the database and gives the count of what will be cleaned<br />
‘Analyze (detail): analyzes the database and gives a detailed report of what will be deleted<br />
‘Optimize (summary): actually deletes the items and gives the count of what has been deleted<br />
‘Optimize (detail): actually deletes the items and gives a detailed report of what has been deleted</p>
<h4>Multisite Support</h4>
<ul>
<li>Install the plugin as Network Administrator (Network Admin » Plugins)</li>
<li>‘Network Activate’ the plugin</li>
<li>You only can configure and run the plugin on the main network site, but it will optimize ALL the sub-sites too!</li>
</ul>
<h4>Running the plug in from a Unix crontab</h4>
<p>In case you cannot use WPCron, but you can edit the Unix crontab:</p>
<p>Create a .php file, in the root directory of your site, with:<br />
<?php<br />
define(‘RUN_OPTIMIZE_DATABASE’, true);<br />
require_once(‘wp-load.php’);<br />
?></p>
<p>Then, start the .php file from your crontab!</p>
<h4>Supported languages</h4>
<ul>
<li>Belarus [be_BY] – translated by Natasha – https://www.ustarcash.com/ – keyword UStarCash</li>
<li>Danish [da_DK] – translated by Alexander Leo-Hansen – http://alexanderleohansen.dk</li>
<li>Dutch [nl_NL] – translated by Rolf van Gelder, CAGE Web Design – http://cagewebdev.com</li>
<li>English [en_US] – translated by Rolf van Gelder, CAGE Web Design – http://cagewebdev.com</li>
<li>French [fr_FR] – translated by Guillaume Blet – http://www.mycinetheque.fr</li>
<li>German [de_DE] – translated by Kolja Spyra</li>
<li>Indonesian [id_ID] – translated by ChameleonJohn.com</li>
<li>Italian [it_IT] – translated by Fabio Marzocca</li>
<li>Persian [fa_IR] – translated by Milad Mordi, http://seodaramal.ir</li>
<li>Portuguese [po_BR] – translated by Rede Sul Mineira de Comunicações</li>
<li>Russian [ru_RU] – translated by Vadim Sokhin, PluginZone – http://pluginzone.ru</li>
<li>Serbian [sr_RS] – translated by Ogi Djuraskovic, FirstSiteGuide  – http://firstsiteguide.com</li>
<li>Swedish [sv_SE] – translated by P.E.</li>
<li>Turkish [tr_TR] – translated by Keremcan Buyuktaskin</li>
<li>Ukranian [uk_UA] – translated by Anna Goriacha, Coupofy – http://coupofy.com</li>
</ul>
<h4>Disclaimer</h4>
<p>NO WARRANTY, USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK! MAKE BACKUPS FIRST!</p>


Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions

In principle this would be an excellent plugin but it always leads in time-out errors. In our view, the problem lies with the execution of the optimization process itself. There is no safeguard against time-out errors. This should be fixed as there must be better ways to code this. 

Good plugin but leads to ongoing time-out errors


Plugin works exactly as described. Thanks! It was easy to configure and I especially like the ability to remove all revisions except for XX amount, which makes it great for cleaning up existing sites where you've reduced the number of revisions, but the database still contains heaps of older revisions.


Easy to use with great results

One-click database optimization with precise revision cleanup and flexible scheduling. Speeding up sites since 2011!

Smart Media Replacement vs Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions