As your website grows rapidly, the size of your WordPress media library will also increase and end up with hundreds of thousands of images which may lead you to lose track of them or run out the storage space.
It is always recommended that you clean up your WordPress media library. But how to do this?
Let’s discuss what WordPress media library is and the importance of cleaning up this. Finally, we will show you some effective techniques to clean up your WordPress media library.
Table of Contents
What is a WordPress Media Library?
The WordPress media library is a storage that allows users to upload, manage and delete the media files like images, videos and others. In simple words, it is a catalogue of all image, video and audio files.
In order to access the media files, you need to log into the WordPress dashboard and then click on ‘Media’ and select ‘Library’. Here, you can see all the media files that you have uploaded to your WordPress website.
Importance of Cleaning Up the WordPress Media Library?
Now, you may think, why do you need to clean up the media library? Let’s discuss the importance of cleaning up the WordPress media library.
- Improve the website’s loading time.
A cluttered WordPress media library can typically slow down a website. When the server receives the HTTP requests from the browser, it takes more time to search the files through a large number of files, increasing the overall page loading time of your WordPress website.
Hence, cleaning up the WordPress media library can significantly improve the website’s page loading time, which enhances the user experience.
- Save disk spaces.
When you upload an image to your website, WordPress duplicates the image into different sizes by default. Multiple copies of the same image and unused images consume unnecessary disk space. By cleaning up the WordPress media library, you can save disk space.
How to Clean Up the WordPress Media Library?
Manually cleaning up the WordPress media library requires a fair amount of time and patience. If your media library has a manageable file count, you can do this manually.
Follow the below steps to clean up the WordPress media library.
- Log into the WordPress dashboard. Then click the “media” and select the “Library”.
- You need to select the unused media files.
- A pop-up window will open; click on the “Delete permanently” button.
- Finally, you need to click on the “Ok” button to ensure the media file needs to be deleted permanently.
The Helpful Plugins to Clean Up the WordPress Media Library
Several WordPress plugins are there to clean up your WordPress media library. Many website owners waste their time researching on that. Here, we will mention three helpful WordPress plugins to clean up the WordPress media library.
- WP-Optimize
- WP-Sweep
- Media cleaner
WP-Optimize
WP-optimize is one of the most popular WordPress plugins that clean up your WordPress media library by optimising the image and implementing the caching mechanism to speed up the WordPress website.
This WordPress plugin removes all unnecessary media files and optimizes the database table. It has an in-built feature to clean up your database and media files weekly. Additionally, this WordPress plugin provides you with information about the database memory.
The WordPress plugin has a free version which has some limitations. However, the paid version starts from $49 per year.
WP-Sweep
WP-Sweep is another popular WordPress plugin that can also be used for cleaning up the WordPress media library. It removes unused images from your media library, including revisions, auto drafts, deleted comments, and others. This WordPress media file cleaner has built-in WordPress delete functions. It allows you to “sweep” through one file at a time as well as “sweep all” to delete everything.
The main key advantage is the WordPress media file is free. In order to install this media cleaner, you need to download it to your WordPress website.
Media Cleaner
If you want to clean up your WordPress media file, Media Cleaner is one of the best options. This WordPress plugin removes unnecessary media files like image, video and audio files. This Media cleaner has several features like:
- Removes unnecessary media files and broken files from the media library.
- Identify and remove unused files from a WordPress dashboard.
- You can recheck the media files before permanently deleting them.
- The premium version supports WP-CLI.
- The premium version allows you to accurately guess your media files by analyzing your website’s online version.
This WordPress plugin has free and paid versions, whereas the free version has some limitations. You can buy the premium version for only $29 per year.
Some Effective Tips to Optimize the WordPress Media Library
The best practice is to make all your media files handy at every time. In order to optimize the WordPress media library, you need to follow the below effective tips.
- The best practice is to compress your images losslessly (reduce the image file size without losing its visual quality) by converting them into next-gen formats like WebP and AVIF.
- Always try to upload smaller sizes of images.
- Regularly clean up your WordPress media files for better results.
Conclusion
In the blog, we have discussed every detail of the WordPress media library, and the importance of cleaning up the WordPress media library. If you have enough time on your hands, you can clean up the WordPress media library manually.
Otherwise, the best option is to use the above-mentioned WordPress plugins to clean up the WordPress library effectively. Also, we have provided some effective tips to optimize the WordPress media library.
Thus, if you are also struggling to clean up your WordPress media library, you need to follow the above technique an make your website faster and enhance the user experience, which leads an improvement in conversion rate.
It’s also essential to consider backing up your media library before making any significant changes. This way, you can restore your files if anything goes wrong during the cleanup process.
Thus, if you are also struggling to clean up your WordPress media library, you need to follow the above technique an make your website faster and enhance the user experience, which leads an improvement in conversion rate.
