Clearyvo Media Cleanup – Duplicate & Unused Images

Your uploads folder is bigger than it needs to be. Images uploaded twice, copies left behind by old themes and page builders, thumbnail sizes WordPress no longer uses, backup folders and full-size originals nobody sees. They fill your hosting space, make every backup slower and larger, and are hard to find by hand. Clearyvo Media Cleanup scans your Media Library and uploads folder for unused images and duplicate images, shows you a preview and exactly why each file can go, and moves only the ones you choose to a restorable quarantine. Nothing is deleted straight away: if anything is missing, put it back with one click. What it finds

• Duplicate images – byte-for-byte identical copies of a picture that stays.
• Look-alike copies – the same picture saved again at the same or a lower resolution, confirmed by a strict picture comparison.
• Unused thumbnail sizes – old photo-300x200.jpg files left behind after a theme change or thumbnail regeneration, which WordPress no longer lists.
• Backup folders – images in old, backup or archive folders inside uploads.
• Full-size originals – the large originals WordPress keeps next to its 2560 px "-scaled" copy.
• Heavy and oversized images – files above 300 KB, larger than 2560 px, or PNG photos above 500 KB, with the pages they are used on, so you know what slows your pages down.

Safe by design

• The file a Media Library item uses is never moved. Registered duplicates are only listed, and a full-size original goes only when its 2560 px copy stays.
• Every use is checked – posts, pages, products, custom fields, page builder data, settings, widgets, the active theme's files and CSS, featured images, galleries, block IDs, the site icon and the logo.
• A check-only pass runs first and shows what would happen.
• Right before every move each file is checked again against the live site.
• Quarantine instead of delete – restore any file for 3, 7, 10 or 30 days (you choose); only then is it removed for good.

Works on any host The scan runs in short, resumable steps while the page is open, so it finishes on shared hosting and on libraries with tens of thousands of images, without PHP time-limit errors. Visitors are not affected. Free and Pro Everything above is free: the full scan, every list with a small preview of each file, the safety checks and the restorable quarantine. Unlimited, with no quotas and no account. There is no file limit, no monthly quota, no time limit, no sign-up and no API key. Everything runs on your own server, and your images are never sent anywhere. Clearyvo Media Cleanup Pro is a separate add-on for larger libraries: it groups every copy of a picture together, suggests which one to keep and why, moves a whole list to the quarantine in one step, and compresses images and makes WebP/AVIF copies on your server. The free plugin never needs it. Part of the Clearyvo family Focused plugins that each check one part of your site and share one Site Toolkit menu with a Site health score: broken links, SEO, PDFs, database cleanup, backups, speed and more. The Site Toolkit plugin has every checker in one plugin. More at wp-sitechecker.com. How it works Every image file in uploads is classified: Media Library files, registered sizes and image-editor backups (never moved); full-size originals next to a "-scaled" copy (only on their own list); orphan sizes; files in backup folders; plugin-managed folders and WebP/AVIF copies (never touched); and unregistered files. Within every group of same-picture files the plugin keeps the best copy in use (referenced, then registered) and the highest-resolution copy. Other copies are only offered when they are unregistered, unreferenced, not recent and verified: identical copies by SHA-256, look-alikes by a two-stage picture comparison (16×16 prefilter, then a strict 32×32 comparison). Anything that does not pass is listed as "unverified" and cannot be quarantined. Limitations

• Image names that plugin code builds on the fly cannot be seen. Plugin folders and plugin-generated images are therefore left alone, and every move goes to the quarantine first.
• Plugin files (other than the active theme and CSS in uploads) are not searched for references.
• If theme files could not be read, quarantine is disabled until a scan completes cleanly. A scan older than 3 days must be repeated before quarantining.
• Visual comparison needs PHP GD (exact duplicates and orphan sizes work without it) and 64-bit PHP.
• Multisite: each site scans its own uploads folder; the main site skips the sites/ folders.
• The quarantine folder is inside wp-content (random name, protected with .htaccess/web.config). On Nginx add a deny rule for wp-content/wpmc-quarantine-*.

For developers

• Filter wpmc_backup_regex: the regular expression that decides which folders count as backup folders.
• On uninstall, tables and settings are removed. Quarantined files are kept (with the table that records where they belong) unless WPMC_REMOVE_QUARANTINE_ON_UNINSTALL is defined as true in wp-config.php.

1.21.9

• The Pro banners have their own illustrations (bundled SVG, nothing loaded from outside): picture copies going to the quarantine, and a heavy image becoming a light WebP/AVIF copy.
• No empty banner frame when a Pro add-on already covers Media Cleanup.
• Upgrade notes and the optimisation panel name Media Cleanup Pro (Clearyvo Pro inside Site Toolkit).
• Readme: clearer short description and tags, "unlimited, no quotas, no account" spelled out, and the full-size originals are described correctly.

1.21.7

• Every list now shows a small preview of each file in the free plugin, so you see the picture before you move it. Big files show the Media Library thumbnail; click a preview to open the file.
• The Pro banner can be hidden for 30 days, and it now describes what Pro adds instead of what the free plugin lacks.
• Upgrade notes name Clearyvo Pro consistently.
• The readme explains what is free and what the Pro add-on adds.

1.21.6

• Plugin name in the header matches the readme: Clearyvo Media Cleanup – Duplicate & Unused Images.

1.21.5

• Shared Clearyvo framework 2.3.1: the SEO checker is listed as Clearyvo SEO (formerly Image Alt & SEO) everywhere, whichever Clearyvo plugin loads the framework.

1.21.4

• Database: every query goes through $wpdb->prepare(), with %i placeholders for table names.
• Faster scan writes: batches of rows are saved in one transaction.

1.21.3

• New icons: one design for the whole Clearyvo family, with a colour per group of checkers.

1.21.2

• The other checkers in the shared menu have their new names (SSL Checker, Security Checker, Indexing Checker and the rest).

1.21.1

• The plugin links point to wp-sitechecker.com again, until the site has moved to clearyvo.com.

1.21.0

• New: read-only connection for the Clearyvo Site Inspector Mac app (Site health as data, for administrators with an Application Password).

1.20.1

• Links to the new home of the Clearyvo WordPress plugins: clearyvo.com/wordpress.

1.20.0

• First release under the Clearyvo name (folder and text domain: clearyvo-media-cleanup). Settings and results of the earlier versions are kept; activating this plugin switches the earlier copy off.