Remove duplicate images from media library.

Question

I recently used an image importer that has duplicated all the images. They are attached to the right posts and the posts are fine (not duplicated).

How do I run through my media library deleting duplicate images?

Answer 1

I know its too late for this answer, but can help others, you can use Media Deduper plugin to index and find duplicated image , it is also good enough to link the post to existing image.

Answer 2

You can use custom script which you need to add to your functions.php file of your theme or plugin.

function delete_duplicate_images_from_website() {
global $wpdb;

// Get all attachment IDs from website
$attachments = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT ID FROM {$wpdb->posts} WHERE post_type = 'attachment' AND post_mime_type LIKE 'image/%'", ARRAY_A);

$hashes = array();
$duplicates = array();

foreach ($attachments as $attachment) {
    $attachment_id = $attachment['ID'];
    $file_path = get_attached_file($attachment_id);
    
    if (file_exists($file_path)) {
        $file_hash = md5_file($file_path);
        
        if (isset($hashes[$file_hash])) {
            // If duplicate found, then store ID for deletion
            $duplicates[] = $attachment_id;
        } else {
            // Store the hash
            $hashes[$file_hash] = $attachment_id;
        }
    }
}

// Delete duplicates attachements
foreach ($duplicates as $duplicate_id) {
    wp_delete_attachment($duplicate_id, true);
}
echo 'Duplicate Attachment deleted: ' . count($duplicates);}

You can run this function manually delete_duplicate_images_from_website(); on localhost to test if this works for you.

Answer 3

The best way (if the duplicated images are the ones attached) is to order by date, and bulk delete all the older ones.