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.

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<h4>Abstract</h4>
<p>As its default behavior, WordPress makes a new revision when you update your post.<br />
This also happens when you do a preview before publication.<br />
This is too often even if you like revision control. Thin Out Revisions (TOR), a plugin<br />
for WordPress, will help you to keep unwanted revisions out.</p>
<h4>Basic Feature</h4>
<p>You can remove intermediate revisions during comparing in ‘compare two revisions’ mode in revision.php. To do it, simply press the ‘Thin Out’ button (fig. 1 in the screenshots page).<br />
And you can also remove each single revision from the Edit Post/Page screen (fig. 2).</p>
<p>WordPress 3.5 and prior, which have an old revision screen, are no longer supported.</p>
<h4>When you publish a post</h4>
<p>If you are a careful author, I guess you have many revisions as a result of preview checks.<br />
TOR can clean them when you first publish your post.<br />
Just simply enable the following option in the ‘Settings’ – ‘Thin Out Revisions’ admin page (fig. 3).</p>
<ul>
<li>Delete revisions on initial publication</li>
</ul>
<h4>Bulk erase of old revisions</h4>
<p>You can remove old revisions on the fly or daily as a scheduled task (fig. 3).</p>
<h4>Revision Memo</h4>
<p>The Revision Memo feature enables you to put a short text note on revisions. See the pictures (fig. 4, 5) in screenshots page.<br />
Make sure that you check the ‘Revision Memo’ screen option in Edit Post (Edit Page) screen.</p>
<h4>More to Describe</h4>
<ul>
<li>TOR works fine in multisite environment. </li>
</ul>
<p>If you like it, please share it among your friends by doing Tweet or Like from the plugin home page.<br />
It will encourage the author a lot.</p>
<p>Related Links:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://en.hetarena.com/thin-out-revisions" title="Plugin Homepage" rel="nofollow ugc">Plugin Homepage</a></li>
<li><a href="http://hetarena.com/thin-out-revisions" title="Japanese Homepage" rel="nofollow ugc">Japanese Homepage</a></li>
</ul>


Thin Out Revisions

Enables flexible revision management for you.

Smart Media Replacement vs Thin Out Revisions