Media Hygiene: Remove or Delete Unused Images and More!

The Media Hygiene plugin has a built-in media scanner that looks at the WordPress database, theme and plugin(s) to identify which media files are no longer in use. You’ll be presented a list in our dashboard that is safe to delete. Please backup your site before you delete the files.

The Media Hygiene plugin will not remove media files that are in use on your website. This means that if a media file is being used in a post, page, or other database entry, it will NOT show up in the scanning results and be presented as an option to be deleted. If you are certain that some files are being used on your site, you can whitelist that file and it will longer be considered for deletion.

The Media Hygiene has two scanning modes. The first mode compares the database entries of specific modules with the files. The second mode scans each folder in the wp-content/upload directory. It identifies files that are not listed in the database and considers them to be unused.

The Media Hygiene plugin does not have the ability to look inside backups and/or remove any files from your backups.

While removing unused media files does not directly impact page loading times, removing unused media files can actually improve the performance of your server and indirectly improve loading times. Unused media files take up space on your server and can cause backups to take longer.

Like any software, there is a small risk of data loss or corruption when using the Media Hygiene plugin. However, the developer has taken steps to minimize this risk by thoroughly testing the plugin and including safety features on various hosting platforms (e.g. shared, VPS, and dedicated). Additionally, it is always recommended to keep a backup of your website before using any plugin that modifies your directories, just in case something goes wrong.

The frequency at which you run the Media Hygiene plugin depends on how frequently you add media files to your website. It's recommended to run the plugin regularly, as this will help keep your media library clean and free of unused files. If you have a lot of media files, it's recommended to run the plugin at least once a month. If your website receives a high volume of traffic and media files are frequently added, it's recommended to run the plugin more frequently, such as every week.

The Media Hygiene plugin is designed to work seamlessly with all the most popular WordPress themes and plugins. However, WordPress is a dynamic ecosystem where there are many changes occurring. The developers have tried to accommodate every possibility. To our knowledge, the plugin does not have any known conflicts with other plugins or themes. We strongly recommend backing up the website and/or running the plugin on a staging or development environment. If you do encounter any issues or conflicts, you can contact the developer for support and guidance. The developer will work to resolve the issue as soon as possible and provide a solution.

Yes, the Media Hygiene plugin allows you to preview the media files that will be deleted before they are removed. The plugin's media scanner will provide a list of all the unused media files, including details such as the file name, image, location (URL), and size. You can review the files and whitelist the file to prevent deletion.

Yes, there is customer support available for the Media Hygiene plugin. The developer provides basic support through the WordPress repository, where you can find answers to frequently asked questions and troubleshoot common issues. Pro users will have access to direct support inside the plugin. The support team will respond to inquiries as soon as possible, but response times may vary depending on the nature of the inquiry and the volume of support requests.

Yes, the Media Hygiene plugin allows you to exclude certain media files type from scan that do not display in unused files by adding files to a whitelist in the scan results list or It is for Folder Scan separate from Regular Media Scan.

The Media Hygiene plugin does not have a built-in feature to restore deleted media files. You can restore accidentally deleted media files by using a backup of your website.

No, the Media Hygiene plugin does not allow you to schedule the plugin to run automatically at regular intervals. We will be including this in the Pro version of the plugin.

This feature is not available yet but coming.

This feature is not available yet but coming

No, Media Hygiene will remove the file in its entirety from the WordPress media library. It does not remove metadata only.

The Media Hygiene plugin is designed to be compatible with the latest version of WordPress. The developer regularly updates the plugin to ensure that it continues to work seamlessly with the latest version of WordPress.