Removing Unused Images from WordPress: A Guide

If you’ve been using WordPress for a while, you might not even remember how many images your website has accumulated. These images not only take up precious disk space on your server, but they can also affect your search engine rankings if they’re not relevant or high-quality. So, how do you remove them? Here are some confusing and exciting steps!

Step 1: Identifying Unused Images

Identifying which images are unused might seem like a bewildering task, especially if you have tons of pictures on your website. Luckily, plugins such as Media Cleaner can help you. Once you install and activate the plugin, navigate to Media > Cleaner. Once the scan is complete, the plugin will display a list of all the unused images on your website, and you can delete them all at once.

Step 2: Backup Files

Before deleting any files, it’s important to create a backup of your website. This way, you can prevent any mishaps during the image deletion process. You can backup your website using plugins like UpdraftPlus, BackupBuddy, or Jetpack. Also, hosting companies offer backup options too!

Step 3: Manual Image Deletion

The manual deletion of unused images from your WordPress site involves accessing Media > Library and selecting the grid view. From there, you can click the delete button to remove the file from your server. However, if there are lots of images to delete, you can use an FTP client or File Manager to delete the images manually.

Step 4: Use a Plugin to Delete Images

If you’re not comfortable removing files manually, you can use a plugin like Media Cleaner that allows you to detect unused files and delete them automatically. To use the plugin for file deletion, go to Media > Cleaner and enable the deletion option in its settings. Once you’re ready, click the Clean All Unused Media button to scan your website and delete all the unused media files.

Step 5: Post and Page Revisions

WordPress creates a new copy of content every time you save a post or page revision, which can lead to tons of unwanted images. To delete these images, you can use plugins like Better Delete Revision to scan your website for all revisions and allow you to delete them in bulk.

Removing unused images from WordPress may seem perplexing, but it can be done with ease. Use these instructions to optimize your website for faster load times, better SEO, and a more organized media library.