Media Library
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I’m making a photo blog using the hundreds and hundreds of photos on my hard drive. Now I read that if images are deleted from the Media Library, they will also be deleted from the blog. I also discovered that the Media Library is very limited, and that it uploads every single image I put on my blog. This means that sooner or later the images I think are in my photo blog will be automatically deleted from the Media Library. Will that also automatically delete them from my blog? Is my photo blog doomed? I’ve put in about a month of full time work on this. Is there a way to preserve my blog?
WP.com: Yes
Correct account: YesThe blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there,
This means that sooner or later the images I think are in my photo blog will be automatically deleted from the Media Library
Images are never automatically deleted from the media library. The only way to remove an image from the library is for you to deliberately delete it. And at that point it will be removed from any posts where you have used it.
I also discovered that the Media Library is very limited, and that it uploads every single image I put on my blog.
I’m not sure what you mean by limited, but you’re correct that any image you add to your site gets uploaded to the library. When you’re adding an image to a post, the image file itself doesn’t become part of the post. The image file goes directly to the media library, and the post just gets a link referencing the file. That’s why deleting the file also removes it from the post, as the object the link points to is then gone.
It’s not possible to use an image on any website unless that image is first uploaded to an online server. Any image you see on any website is simply a link that points to the actual file lying on a server somewhere. In WordPress.com’s case, that file is in the media library.
Eventually your media library will become full, i.e. use up the available storage, and at that point you won’t be able to upload any more images unless you either delete some older images to free up space, or upgrade to a paid plan to get more space.
But your free site comes with a very generous 3GB of available space for media files. As long as you don’t upload high-resolution images, but properly optimize them for the web before you upload them, that storage can take thousands of photos.
Photo Optimization
Let me explain what this is:
I had a look at the most recent image you uploaded to the library, the picture of the moon. That image is 2805 by 2922 pixels big, with a filesize of 1MB (I see others as big as 5000px wide with a filesize of 7MB). But on your site the images only display at 1200px wide (most computer screens won’t show an image bigger than 1500px at full size), so anything you upload bigger than that is just wasting storage space.
If you resized a 2800px/1MB image to 1200px, the file size would reduce to around 300kb (depending on the amount of detail in the photo, of course). That’s a 70% reduction in file size. You can then further trim that down using a tool like JPEGMini that decreases filesize without losing image quality, to get a file that’s a fraction the size of the original version on your computer hard drive, and that will load much faster, using up less data, when people visit your site.
We also have a support page about this here:
https://wordpress.com/support/media/image-optimization/
I see you’re currently already at 2.1GB of the free 3GB allocation, but if you start optimizing your images before you upload them to your site going forward, your remaining storage should still last for at least a couple more years before you’d need to start looking at an upgrade to increase storage space.
Let me know if you have any questions about this.
Is there a way to preserve my blog?
As I explained, no content will disappear from your site automatically unless you delete it, but you can export your site’s content using the exporter at My Site ->Tools ->Export.
However, the file you’ll get this way won’t contain your images, but same as your posts it will only contain links to where the files exist in the media library.
We do have an option to export your media library as well, but that will just be a folder containing the files themselves, without the context of the posts you used them it.
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Thank you for all that information! Just now I checked the Media Libraries for both my WordPress blogs and I see the content is all there going back to when I started each blog; I had thought some was missing. That is what I meant by the library being limited.
I will try using the optimization method, if I can figure it out.
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The image optimization support page does have some step by step walkthroughs on now to do that, so make sure you read that page first as it might clarify things. :)
https://wordpress.com/support/media/image-optimization/
Let us know if you have questions!
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Thank you. I will do that.
Last night I panicked because I thought my photos were disappearing automatically and I’d put in all this work. I am relieved to know that is not the case.
At the moment I am getting ready for a medical appointment but when I have time I will definitely read the instructions and ask if I have more questions. I’ve got thousands of photos so I might go through what’s already posted and optimize those, too. I think people will like for the blog to load faster.
Thanks again for all your help!
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Hello:
I have a few questions now that I got home and had time to look into this.
QUESTION 1: I found a “resize” option on my computer in Windows Live Photo Gallery. Please see my Test Post where I resized a Flower Bud and a Maple Tree at https://naturallyurbanpicshobbycorner.wordpress.com/2021/10/28/test/. Is this the same as (or just as good as) the online software programs you suggested?
QUESTION 2: Did I do it right? A) In the post both Flower Bud photos look exactly the same but on my hard drive, the Resized Copy looks smaller than the Original Copy. B) What is the proper solution for my blurry Maple Tree photo? Please see my trials on the Test Post and let me know if I am on the right track. Thank you!
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Hi there!
With the caveat that we aren’t experts with the third-party software (since different software can do the same thing differently and therefore produce slightly different results), I do think that the resize option on your computer is close to what those other tools do.
When you resize a photo, you’re reducing the dimensions of the photo (pixel-wise) which in turn reduces the overall file size. When you optimize an image with the likes of ImageOptim or follow our guide here for GIMP, these tools do more than just resize to reduce the file size of the photo without significantly affecting the quality.
I’d pay attention to whether you can visibly notice much of a difference in the quality of the resized images. For example, in the third maple tree photo, there’s a highly noticeable drop in quality. But the middle one looks nearly as good. I’m not sure what settings you used for the middle photo, but perhaps you can follow the same.
After resizing the photos, you’d go by what your eyes tell you. :) If there’s a significant drop in quality, you probably want to turn it down a notch (in terms of resizing the image). If not, you’re good to go.
Hope that helps!
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<After resizing the photos, you’d go by what your eyes tell you.>
Good advice except I have impaired vision, which is why I’m seeking additional input. I have to assume that my readers have perfect vision. Several questions.
QUESTION 1:
< I’m not sure what settings you used for the middle photo, but perhaps you can follow the same.>
I used Medium (768×1024) but I am unable to tell if it’s as good as the original. The bottom Maple Tree photo is the same setting (Smaller) as the bottom Flower Bud photo. The two Flower Bud photos appear the same quality to me. Am I correct?
QUESTION 2: You say the bottom maple tree is not good quality. Does this mean that photos with much detail need higher resolution, e.g. Medium rather than Smaller?
QUESTION 3: I downloaded GIMP because you said it was the best but it’s too small for me to see so I uninstalled it. ImageOptim is only for Mac computers and I have Windows 7. For this reason, I used the program on my computer to set up another Test Page at https://naturallyurbanpicshobbycorner.wordpress.com/2021/10/22/colour-at-the-bus-stop/. This page has a lot more photos. Each photo and photo stack is posted three times, once with each setting: Smaller (640×480), Medium (768×1024), and Original. My program also has an option to customize. Can you advise me, given the information in this post? Thank you very much in advance.
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This is a bit outside of the scope we can offer, as we can only support WordPress.com and not image editing apps we’re unfamiliar with.
Those apps should have support contacts or their own community forums that you can reach out to for help.
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