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<h4>Why This Plugin Is Different</h4>
Most media cleaner plugins help you delete unused images. This plugin fixes a fundamental WordPress problem first.
WordPress has a built-in “Unattached” filter in the Media Library. The idea is simple: it shows you media files that aren’t connected to any post, so you can decide whether to keep or delete them.
The problem? WordPress only marks media as “attached” if it was uploaded directly through the post editor. Any image added through ACF fields, Gutenberg blocks, page builders, widgets, theme options, or shortcodes shows as “Unattached” — even though it’s actively being used on your site.
This makes WordPress’s native “Unattached” filter completely unreliable.
<h4>How Unattached Media Manager Fixes This</h4>
This plugin scans your entire site, finds every place where media files are actually being used, and properly attaches them to their parent posts. Once attached:
<ul>
<li>WordPress’s “Unattached” filter actually works — It now shows only truly unused media</li>
<li>You can use WordPress’s native tools — No need to depend on third-party plugins to manage media</li>
<li>Import/export plugins work correctly — Tools like WP All Import, WP Migrate, Duplicator, and others can now properly identify and migrate media with their associated posts</li>
<li>You can safely uninstall this plugin — The attachments remain as part of WordPress’s native structure</li>
</ul>
<h4>The Workflow</h4>
<ol>
<li>Scan — The plugin finds all media usage across your site (content, ACF, blocks, widgets, options, etc.)</li>
<li>Attach — One-click to properly attach all “used but unattached” media to their parent posts</li>
<li>Review — Now WordPress’s “Unattached” filter shows only genuinely unused files</li>
<li>Clean Up — Use WordPress’s native tools OR this plugin’s safe deletion features</li>
<li>Done — Uninstall if you want; the fixes stay with WordPress</li>
</ol>
<h4>Yes, It Also Deletes Unused Media</h4>
Like other media cleaners, this plugin also helps you safely delete unused media with:
<ul>
<li>Trash support — Move to trash first, restore if needed</li>
<li>Permanent delete — Remove forever when you’re sure</li>
<li>Change history — Track all attachment changes with one-click revert</li>
</ul>
But the real value is fixing WordPress’s attachment system so you don’t need to depend on any plugin long-term.
<h4>Two Processing Modes</h4>
<ul>
<li>Browser-Driven (Recommended) — Fast and reliable with real-time progress. Keep the browser tab open until complete.</li>
<li>Background (WP-Cron) — Processing continues even after closing your browser. Ideal for server cron setups.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Key Features</h4>
<ul>
<li>Comprehensive Scanning — Detects media usage in post content, featured images, Gutenberg blocks, ACF fields, Elementor, Meta Box, WooCommerce, SEO plugins, widgets, theme options, and more</li>
<li>Fix Unattached Media — One-click to properly attach all “used but unattached” media</li>
<li>Media Library Integration — See usage count directly in your Media Library list view</li>
<li>Safe Deletion — WordPress trash support with restore capability</li>
<li>Change History — Full audit trail with one-click revert for any attachment</li>
<li>Pause & Resume — Stop any operation and continue later</li>
<li>Resource Aware — Three modes (Low/Auto/High) for shared hosting to dedicated servers</li>
<li>Export Reports — Download CSV reports of all media usage</li>
<li>Developer Friendly — Hooks, filters, REST API, and WP-CLI commands</li>
</ul>
<h4>The Problem It Solves</h4>
WordPress marks media as “Unattached” if it wasn’t uploaded directly to a post. But many media files ARE being used — they’re just embedded via:
<ul>
<li>The block editor (Gutenberg)</li>
<li>Page builders like Elementor or Beaver Builder</li>
<li>ACF image/gallery fields</li>
<li>WooCommerce product galleries</li>
<li>Theme customizer settings</li>
<li>Widget areas</li>
<li>Shortcodes</li>
<li>Custom meta boxes</li>
</ul>
Unattached Media Manager finds ALL these references and properly attaches the media, so WordPress correctly reflects which files are actually in use.
<h4>Server-Friendly Design</h4>
This plugin is designed to work on ALL servers, including shared hosting with limited resources:
<ul>
<li>Never blocks your site – All heavy operations are processed in batches</li>
<li>Adaptive resource usage – Automatically detects server limits and adjusts accordingly</li>
<li>Three resource modes:
<ul>
<li>Low Resources – 5 items/batch, 2-minute intervals (for shared hosting)</li>
<li>Auto (Recommended) – 15 items/batch, 1-minute intervals (adjusts automatically)</li>
<li>High Performance – 50 items/batch, 30-second intervals (for dedicated servers)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Two processing strategies – Choose browser-driven (fast) or background WP-Cron mode</li>
</ul>
<h4>Supported Content Types</h4>
ALL features below are FREE – no Pro version required!
<ul>
<li>Post Content – Classic editor, Gutenberg blocks, shortcodes, inline styles, data attributes</li>
<li>Featured Images – Thumbnail assignments</li>
<li>ACF Fields – Image, gallery, file, repeater, flexible content, and group fields</li>
<li>Gutenberg Blocks – Core image, gallery, cover, media & text blocks</li>
<li>Elementor – All widgets, backgrounds, galleries, sliders, and responsive images</li>
<li>Meta Box – All field types including groups and cloneable fields</li>
<li>WooCommerce – Product galleries, variation images, downloadable files, category thumbnails</li>
<li>SEO Plugins – Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO, SEOPress (OpenGraph & Twitter images)</li>
<li>Widgets – Image widgets, text widgets with media, custom HTML</li>
<li>Theme Options – Customizer settings, theme mods, custom logos</li>
<li>Options Table – Plugin settings that store media IDs or URLs</li>
<li>Video & Audio – HTML5 video/audio elements, poster images, source tags</li>
<li>Responsive Images – srcset attributes and lazy-loading data attributes</li>
</ul>
<h4>For Developers</h4>
Unattached Media Manager is built with extensibility in mind:
<ul>
<li>Hooks & Filters – Extend scanning with custom parsers</li>
<li>REST API – Query media usage programmatically</li>
<li>WP-CLI Commands – Run scans from the command line (<code>wp aioms scan</code>)</li>
<li>Custom Post Types – Automatically scans all public post types</li>
</ul>
<h3>How to Use</h3>
<h4>Step 1: Run Your First Scan</h4>
<ol>
<li>Navigate to Media → Media Solution</li>
<li>Click Start Full Scan</li>
<li>Choose your processing mode (Browser-Driven recommended for most users)</li>
<li>Watch the real-time progress as your media library is scanned</li>
</ol>
<h4>Step 2: Review the Dashboard</h4>
After scanning, you’ll see:
<ul>
<li>Total Media Files – All attachments in your library</li>
<li>In Use – Media files with detected references</li>
<li>Potentially Unused – Media files with no detected references</li>
<li>Used but Unattached – Media that’s used but marked as “Unattached” in WordPress</li>
<li>Total References – Total number of places media is referenced</li>
</ul>
<h4>Step 3: Fix Unattached Media</h4>
If you have “Used but Unattached” media:
<ol>
<li>Click the Attach All Media Files button</li>
<li>The operation runs in the background</li>
<li>Each attachment is tracked in Change History for easy reverting</li>
</ol>
<h4>Step 4: Clean Up Unused Media</h4>
Go to the Unused Media tab to:
<ol>
<li>Review – Check each file before taking action</li>
<li>Move to Trash – Safely move to WordPress trash (can be restored)</li>
<li>Restore – Bring items back from trash if needed</li>
<li>Delete Permanently – Remove forever (cannot be undone)</li>
<li>Empty Trash – Delete all trashed media at once</li>
</ol>
Important: All bulk operations run in the background. You’ll see a status bar showing progress.
<h4>Step 5: Review Change History</h4>
The Change History tab shows:
<ul>
<li>All attachments made by this plugin</li>
<li>When each change occurred</li>
<li>What post each media was attached to</li>
<li>Option to Revert any change (detaches the media)</li>
</ul>
<h3>Important Precautions</h3>
<h4>Before Deleting Any Media</h4>
<ol>
<li>Always run a full scan first – Make sure the index is up to date</li>
<li>Review files manually – The scanner detects database references, but images might be:
<ul>
<li>Hardcoded in theme PHP files</li>
<li>Used by external websites linking to your images</li>
<li>Referenced in custom code or third-party plugins not yet supported</li>
<li>Used in email templates stored outside WordPress</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Use Trash first – Move to trash instead of deleting permanently</li>
<li>Wait before emptying trash – Keep trashed items for a few days to catch any issues</li>
</ol>
<h4>About “Potentially Unused” Media</h4>
Files marked as “Potentially Unused” means:
<ul>
<li>No references were found in the scanned content</li>
<li>This doesn’t guarantee the file is unused</li>
<li>The file might be used in ways not detected:
<ul>
<li>Theme template files (hardcoded)</li>
<li>External sites linking to your images</li>
<li>Custom plugins with non-standard storage</li>
<li>CSS background images defined in stylesheets</li>
<li>JavaScript-loaded images</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4>Recommended Workflow</h4>
<ol>
<li>Scan – Run a full scan with all content types enabled</li>
<li>Review – Look at the Unused Media tab</li>
<li>Research – For each file, consider where it might be used</li>
<li>Trash – Move questionable items to trash (not permanent delete)</li>
<li>Monitor – Check your site for a few days for missing images</li>
<li>Delete – Only permanently delete after confirming no issues</li>
</ol>
<h4>Server Resources</h4>
<ul>
<li>Shared Hosting – Use “Low Resources” mode in settings</li>
<li>If operations timeout – Switch to Low Resources mode</li>
<li>Large media libraries – The scan may take longer but will complete</li>
<li>WP Cron must work – Ensure WordPress cron is running (check with your host)</li>
</ul>
<h3>Privacy Policy</h3>
Unattached Media Manager does not:
<ul>
<li>Collect any personal data</li>
<li>Send any data to external servers</li>
<li>Use any third-party services</li>
<li>Track users or usage</li>
</ul>
All data is stored locally in your WordPress database in custom tables that are removed when you uninstall the plugin.
<h3>Uninstallation</h3>
When you uninstall (delete) the plugin:
<ul>
<li>All custom database tables are removed</li>
<li>All plugin options are deleted</li>
<li>All plugin transients are cleared</li>
<li>All scheduled cron events are removed</li>
<li>Post meta created by the plugin is deleted</li>
</ul>
Note: Attachment relationships (post_parent) that were set by this plugin are NOT removed, as these are now part of WordPress’s native media library structure. If you need to revert these, use the Change History tab before uninstalling.
<h3>Credits</h3>
<ul>
<li>Built with love for the WordPress community</li>
<li>Icons from WordPress Dashicons</li>
<li>Inspired by the need to keep media libraries clean and organized</li>
</ul>

Unattached Media Manager

Fix the WordPress Unattached media filter. Automatically attach used media files to their posts so you can safely clean up your library.

Nicolas Juen

Jason Rouet

Milan Ricoul

The Mediapapa Team

Stéphane Godel

Mediapapa is the effortless WordPress media library manager. It gives you full visibility into where and how your media files are used across your site, helping you organize, optimize, and maintain a healthy media library. Mediapapa manages images, videos, audio, and documents in one place.
Most WordPress sites accumulate thousands of media files over time: duplicates, unused media, missing metadata, and oversized images. Previously, you needed multiple plugins to understand and manage your media library. Mediapapa replaces them all.
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<h4>Know Where Every File Is Used</h4>
This is Mediapapa’s core feature: comprehensive usage detection across your entire site.
The foundation of safe media management is knowing where your files actually appear. Mediapapa scans your entire WordPress site with high-precision detection to show you exactly where each media file is used: posts, pages, Gutenberg blocks, Elementor sections, custom post types, custom fields, widgets, and navigation menus.
This comprehensive usage tracking makes everything else safe. You will not accidentally delete a media file that is still in use. You can confidently identify unused files and understand the full impact before taking any action.
<h4>Complete Media Library Intelligence</h4>
Media Score 
Every media file receives a Media Score based on storage optimization, accessibility, SEO, and performance. Your entire library receives a Library Health rating, making it easy to track improvements over time.
Usage Detection 
Mediapapa detects usage across all media types and content sources: images, videos, audio files, and documents in Gutenberg blocks, Elementor, Classic Editor, custom post types, custom fields, widgets, and navigation menus.
Duplicate Detection 
Automatically identifies duplicate images and shows you which one is the reference version. See which duplicates are safe to remove without breaking your site. No more wasted storage from identical files uploaded multiple times.
Unused Media Detection 
Identify every media file that is not referenced anywhere on your site. Review the full list before deciding what to clean up. Nothing is deleted without your explicit confirmation.
Metadata Analysis 
Find missing alt text, titles, and captions that hurt your SEO and accessibility. Get clear guidance on what needs attention and why it matters.
Image Optimization Recommendations 
Detect oversized images, inefficient formats, and missing compression. Get recommendations you can act on to improve your site’s performance.
Smart Library Organization 
Filter and organize your media library by health status, usage, duplicates, or optimization needs. Find what matters without risking accidental changes.
Media Tagging System 
Assign multiple tags per media file and filter the library with smart search suggestions. Organize large libraries with tagging and search.
<h4>Built for Safety and Full Control</h4>
Mediapapa analyses your media and lets you act manually with full control. You decide what to clean, optimize, or keep. This makes it ideal for auditing media libraries, planning cleanups, and understanding your WordPress media before taking action.
No files are modified or deleted without your explicit confirmation.
When you need bulk actions, AVIF conversion, and automated size optimization, Mediapapa Pro handles that.
<a href="https://www.wp-mediapapa.com/pricing/?utm_source=wp-org&utm_medium=plugin-description&utm_campaign=upgrade" rel="nofollow ugc">Upgrade to Mediapapa Pro →</a>
<h4>What You Get for Free</h4>
Mediapapa Free is a complete WordPress media library manager at no cost:
<ul>
<li>Complete usage tracking across your entire site</li>
<li>Duplicate detection with reference file identification</li>
<li>Unused media detection with full preview before cleanup</li>
<li>Media Score and Library Health analysis for accessibility, SEO, and performance</li>
<li>Image optimization recommendations for file size and format</li>
<li>Metadata writing tools with improved Media Library and Gutenberg interfaces</li>
<li>Manual cleanup actions with full control</li>
<li>Anti-duplication checker when adding new media</li>
<li>Library filtering and smart organization tools</li>
<li>AI-powered metadata generation (with credits purchase): auto-generate SEO-friendly alt text, titles, and captions</li>
<li>Compatible with Gutenberg, Elementor, Classic Editor, custom post types, and custom fields</li>
</ul>
<h4>Mediapapa Pro</h4>
Designed for freelancers maintaining client sites, agencies auditing media across projects, and e-commerce stores managing large product image libraries.
<ul>
<li>Bulk Operations: delete unused files and remove duplicate images in bulk, with safety checks throughout</li>
<li>Unlimited Image Optimization: compression and AVIF conversion via the Mediapapa API with no monthly quotas or usage limits</li>
<li>WP-CLI: command-line tools for indexing, scoring, optimization, duplicates, and media replacement</li>
<li>WordPress Multisite: analyse and manage media libraries across your entire network</li>
<li>Scheduled Indexing: automate library indexing on a schedule</li>
<li>Priority Support: dedicated response times through your account dashboard</li>
</ul>
<a href="https://www.wp-mediapapa.com/pricing/?utm_source=wp-org&utm_medium=plugin-features&utm_campaign=upgrade" rel="nofollow ugc">Compare Free vs Pro →</a>
<h4>Who Uses Mediapapa</h4>
WordPress site owners who have accumulated years of uploads and want to understand what is safe to remove before running a cleanup.
Freelancers and agencies who audit and optimize client media libraries as part of a site handover or performance review.
E-commerce stores managing large product image libraries where duplicates and oversized images directly affect page speed and storage costs.
Content teams publishing regularly who need confidence that deleting an old image will not break a page built three years ago.
<h4>Privacy and Safety</h4>
Mediapapa analyses your media locally on your server. Core features (usage tracking, duplicate detection, health scoring, optimization recommendations) run entirely on your server with no data sent externally. The free version’s AI-powered metadata (opt-in) sends image data to the Mediapapa API only when you explicitly request metadata generation. Mediapapa Pro adds optimization and AVIF conversion via the API: you choose when to use these features. See the FAQ section for full details on external services and data handling.
<h4>Documentation and Support</h4>
Help other WordPress users find Mediapapa by <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/mediapapa/reviews/#new-post" rel="ugc">leaving a 5-star review</a>.
Support: Free plugin support is available via <a href="https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/mediapapa/" rel="ugc">WordPress.org forums</a>. Mediapapa Pro customers receive priority support through their account dashboard.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://help.wp-mediapapa.com/en/?utm_source=wp-org&utm_medium=plugin-description&utm_campaign=documentation" rel="nofollow ugc">Documentation and user guide</a></li>
<li><a href="https://roadmap.wp-mediapapa.com/?utm_source=wp-org&utm_medium=plugin-description&utm_campaign=roadmap" rel="nofollow ugc">Public roadmap and feature requests</a></li>
</ul>

Mediapapa – Your WordPress Media Library Manager & Copilot


I've been using Mediapapa on a few websites and it quickly became my go-to for WP media cleanup. The usage scanner shows where each file appears in posts, Gutenberg, Elementor and custom fields, and the Media Score plus optimization tips make it easy to know what to fix first.



The "Prevent duplicated image to be uploaded" feature alone stopped dozens of needless uploads and saved storage immediately. The duplicate detector also highlights a safe reference file, unused media detection is thorough, and the metadata suggestions help with accessibility and SEO.



I haven't tried the AI features yet, but knowing the plugin is built by one of France's top WordPress agencies reassures me about its quality.



Also, the UI and branding is polished and well thought out. Good job guys!


The plugin we were all waiting for


That kind of plugin is a mu-plugin, yes, must-use. I had several duplicated media because of languages etc, this plugin saved me from filling up my hdd. Also, the googly eyes.


Should be in core


The media library is often the bottleneck for clients with a lot of images to handle. Mediapapa brings clarity, avoids double images and tedious searches.



A must have for big sites but also for small websites with a lot of images.


Clean library, clean mind


I've started by testing the Pro version discovered during the WordCamp Toulouse.I'm now testing the free version which sounds great too.Keep the good job !


First tested the pro version, good to see a free version


Ça fait des années qu'on jongle avec des plugins pour gérer correctement sa médiathèque WordPress. Mediapapa est exactement ce qu'il manquait : une vision complète de l'utilisation de chaque fichier, la détection des doublons, le scoring qualité… tout au même endroit. Un vrai manque comblé. Merci à l'équipe pour ce travail.


Le plugin qu'on attendait depuis des années


Really reliable plugin; a serious problem, handled the right way.


Solid

WordPress media library manager: track usage, find duplicates, remove unused files, fix metadata and optimize images. Free.

Unattached Media Manager vs Mediapapa – Your WordPress Media Library Manager & Copilot