Cleanup Orphan Images

Orphan files are physical media files in your uploads folder that exist on the server but are not registered in the WordPress database.

Review the list before deletion. Some files may still be used by themes or plugins that reference them directly by URL. Always back up your uploads folder first.

No, deletion is permanent. Back up your site first.

Some hosting providers and image optimisation plugins (such as Imagify or ShortPixel) auto-generate .webp versions of images using Nginx/Apache rewrite rules and store them in the uploads folder without registering them in WordPress. Server-side rewrite rules is not part of the official WordPress media management specification and is not endorsed by WordPress. This plugin follows the WordPress standard — if a file is not registered in the WordPress database, it is an orphan. Any files created outside of that standard by third-party tools or hosting configurations are beyond the scope and responsibility of this plugin. If you see unexpected files in the scan results, do not select them for deletion unless you are absolutely sure they are not used. For image optimisation, the workaround is to disable server-side rewriting plugins and switch to a WordPress-native WebP converter (such as Manly WebP Converter) which significantly reduces file sizes and registers converted files properly in the database — after which those files will never appear as orphans.