wp-content/uploads but are missing from WordPress database. After site migrations, hosting transfers, database restores, or development-to-production moves, files often get orphaned. This plugin scans your uploads folder, finds orphaned media files, and rebuilds WordPress database entries to restore them to your Media Library.
Whether you're recovering from failed migration, hosting transfer, or database restore, Media Library Recovery reconnects existing files to WordPress without uploading or overwriting anything.
Why Choose Media Library Recovery?
wp-media-recovery folder to /wp-content/plugins/Visit the Support Forum to share your questions or requests. We usually respond to tickets within a few days. Feature requests are added to our wish list and considered for future updates. Yes! This is the most common use case. After site migration, files exist in your uploads folder but WordPress database entries are missing. Media Library Recovery scans your files and rebuilds the database entries to restore your Media Library.
Install Media Library Recovery, go to Media > Media Recovery, and the plugin shows all files on your server missing from WordPress database. Select and recover them in batches of 10 until your entire Media Library is restored.
Backup plugins restore entire WordPress sites. Media Library Recovery specializes in recovering media files when they exist on your server but are missing from WordPress database - common after migrations, hosting transfers, or partial database restores.
The free version processes 10 files per batch to prevent server timeouts. Run multiple batches to recover unlimited total files. Pro version offers unlimited batch sizes with background processing.
No, Media Library Recovery won't duplicate or overwrite existing WordPress image files. Plugin only rebuilds database entries for orphaned files missing from Media Library.
WordPress Multisite support is available in Media Library Recovery Pro. The free version works on single WordPress installations only.
The free version scans only the default wp-content/uploads folder. Pro version allows custom upload folder paths for WordPress.
The free version restores image files only. Pro version supports all WordPress media types including videos, PDFs, documents, and audio files.
No, Media Library Recovery never uploads or overwrites files. It only scans existing files on your WordPress server and rebuilds database entries to reconnect them to Media Library.
Plugin scans your uploads folder, identifies orphaned files, then rebuilds WordPress database entries including attachment posts, metadata, and thumbnail references. Files remain on server unchanged - only database connections are restored.
Yes, if you restored WordPress database from backup but files remained on server, Media Library Recovery reconnects those orphaned files to your restored database automatically.
Yes, pulling production database to staging often orphans media files. Media Library Recovery scans staging server files and rebuilds database entries to restore WordPress Media Library on staging.
Custom upload folder scanning is available in Pro version. The free version scans default wp-content/uploads directory only.
Yes, Media Explorer shows all files with color-coded status. Orange icons indicate orphaned files missing from WordPress database. Green checkmarks show files already in Media Library.
If images exist on your server but show broken in posts due to missing database entries, yes. Media Library Recovery rebuilds database connections. If actual image files are deleted from server, plugin cannot recover them.
Recovery speed depends on batch size and server performance. Processing 10 images typically takes seconds. Run multiple batches for large WordPress media libraries with hundreds of orphaned files.