My Media Library is getting cluttered and I would like to start deleting old images. Will doing so affect the posts into which I have inserted these images? Does inserting them into the post copy the images into a different folder? Can I safely delete the "original" from the Media Library?
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This plugin will do that. Personally, I use this which is awesome and re-organizes your media into folders based on the post names.– Bryan WillisCommented Jan 18, 2016 at 4:25
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Adding to a post does NOT copy the image. The images are always referenced by ID so you'll end up with a bunch of missing image links.– jgraupCommented Jan 18, 2016 at 11:52
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2 Answers
Deleting an image from the WordPress media library will remove the image from the website completely. It will no longer be available to any posts, pages or other content that referenced it.
No, you can't.
Deleting the media makes it disappear from every page/post you inserted it.
However, you CAN delete its unused variations.
Depends on which theme/plugin you're using, a media file will be automatically generated into different size versions.
Eg: Original media file
- File name: classic-gold-watch.png
- Dimensions: 526x590 pixels
This very media file can be generated into many variations with name suffix of its dimension.
Please note that it's been modified, not duplicated.
With this being said, if you wish to declutter your media library, you can delete its variations. This can be done once you ditch the old theme and switch to another one. And of course, please make sure you're not using that image variation in your page/post before deleting it.
