Delete Unscaled Images Reviews, Downloads & Maintenance

WordPress 5.3 added “big image handling” that scales uploaded images to a maximum size of 2560 pixels for use on the website. WP adds “-scaled” to the full size image file name. The original, unscaled images are kept on the server. This can mean that many large images are stored on the server that aren’t ever actually going to be displayed on the website. In my case, users are uploading 15MB files from their cameras.

After the scaled version and intermediate/thumbnail images are generated, the originals are no longer needed and just taking up storage space. Delete Unscaled Images will remove those unneeded files.

First, original images are deleted immediately after the resized versions are created for all new uploads.

Second, there is a bulk deletion tool in the Media submenu to process existing images.

Installation

See the standard installation instructions at WordPress.org or WPBeginner.

Frequently Asked Questions

No FAQ available

Review feed

coderguy

6/22/2024

Exactly what I needed

Having local backups of all of my original source photos, and never planning to regenerate thumbnails on this particular WordPress site, I went ahead with the drastic action of deleting all the originals. This plugin was very easy to use. Just know ahead of time what you're getting into if you follow through with this action.

room34

11/11/2024

Barebones but it does the job

I couldn't believe how hard it was for me to track down a tool that did what this plugin does: delete the oversized originals after WordPress creates the -scaled versions of uploaded images. Permanently deleting files is a risky task so I think it would be more reassuring to users of this plugin if it gave some details before they click the link to fire off the action, i.e. maybe a "dry run" that lists the files that would be deleted, without actually deleting them first. But if you know what you're doing, this is a great, easy-to-use tool for freeing up disk space — potentially a lot of disk space.

weboersma

1/3/2025

Simple, but good

Works fine.Tested it quite good: - big images are deleted- when media upload has an error then the big image is not deleted; that's good- smaller versions do still work (when image is very small showed on website) I am very satisfied.

Screenshots

No screenshots available

Changelog

1.2

Added bulk delete Media submenu page.

1.1

Hooked into image upload to delete originals immediately.

1.0

Crude bulk process as proof of concept.

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