TABLE OF CONTENTS
Running a Media Deduper Scan
Log into WordPress as an administrator.
In the left sidebar, select Media > Manage Duplicates
Then go to the Index tab and click the "Index Media" button.
Indexing can take a long time since it happens as a background action and depends on hosting resources. The progress bar isn’t reliable so we recommend giving it 1-2 days.
Click the Manage Duplicates Now button to continue.
Removing Duplicate Media Files
You'll be taken to a list of all of the duplicate media files in your WordPress Media Library. To remove a duplicate file, click the checkbox to its left. In the Bulk Actions drop-down above the list, you can select one of two options for deletion.
Delete Permanently
When selected, this duplicate image will be deleted permanently everywhere on your site.
This means that if the image is in use somewhere - for example, in a blog post - a broken image icon will display on your site because the image will no longer be available. Delete Permanently has the same effect as deleting an attachment from the main WordPress media library screen, except the MEDIA_TRASH constant is ignored (media will always be deleted immediately).
If you select Delete Permanently, you'll receive a pop-up message asking you to confirm that you want to delete the media file:
Click OK. The image will be permanently deleted and you will be returned to the full list of duplicate media.
Smart Delete
When Smart Delete is selected, the duplicate image will be deleted, and references to it will be replaced with references to its related, undeleted duplicate image. The references will be replaced in:
- <img> tags (including resized versions) in WordPress posts, pages, and other content types
- Direct links to the image file, e.g. <a href=”/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/image.jpg”>...</a>
- Gallery shortcodes with enumerated images, e.g. [gallery ids=”123,456,789”]
- WooCommerce product gallery images
- Yoast’s Facebook and Twitter images
- Featured images
Note: If you attempt to delete all copies of the same image, Smart Delete will not let you delete all copies; it will retain the image with the lowest media ID (typically the oldest version) and will use that file for replacement throughout your site, as noted in the list above.
Before proceeding with Smart Delete, use your favorite backup method to back up your entire site (including uploads) first.
If you select Smart Delete, you'll receive a pop-up message asking you to confirm and recommending that you back up your uploads and database:
If you click OK, the selected file(s) will be deleted and you will be returned to the full list of duplicate media.
Uploading Images
When you attempt to upload a new image into your Media Library, Media Deduper Pro will check to see if that image already exists, and will keep you from uploading a duplicate.
If the image already exists in your library, you'll receive a message that says “It appears this file is already present in your media library” with the name of and link to the existing file.
If you think this feature is conflicting with another plugin, or if, for some reason, you need to be able to upload duplicate images, you can disable this feature by checking the “Disable Duplicate Upload Blocking” checkbox in the plugin settings (WP admin > Settings > Media Deduper Pro).