Unattached Media in Galleries
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I’m trying to figure out the best way to locate the items I haven’t yet attached to my Galleries. It seems like (from reading this forum) the files attached to Galleries don’t count as Attached, so they all appear as Unattached. That’s making managing my galleries extremely difficult as I can’t figure out what has or has not been attached. What’s the best workflow for me to make sure I’ve attached all the files into galleries?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there. The easiest way to see which images are unattached is to go to the WP-Admin dashboard (http://photosbysvetlana.wordpress.com/wp-admin/) and click on Media ->Library. Make sure your library is displaying as a list, not a grid (two icons in upper-left next to the drop-down menu).
In list-view you can use the left-most drop-down menu to view all your unattached images and attach them to the correct posts.
Let us know if you need more help with this.
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Here’s the relevant support doc: https://en.support.wordpress.com/media/unattached-files/
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@kokkieh, thanks for trying to help, unfortunately, images attached to galleries don’t count as “attached” so it doesn’t apply in my case.
I’m aware of the grid view, but as mentioned in my post, it doesn’t apply to galleries. As per the staff’s comments here on the forum, it’s a product gap.
That’s why I’m asking for a workaround/workflow, that’s specific to galleries.
A couple of quotes from one specific post to illustrate what I mean:
thatrobyn
Staff
Sep 2, 2014, 9:58 AMBecause of the way images are included in galleries, they do display as ‘unattached.’ That is totally fine in the case of galleries. Of course, if your images aren’t displaying properly in a gallery, that’s another story altogether. Do let me know if this happens! Otherwise, this shouldn’t be an area of worry.”
justjennifer
Member
Sep 2, 2014, 12:21 PMHow could they be displaying correctly in their galleries if they are UN-attached??
As far as I can tell, the Media update in November 2012 no longer made it necessary for images to be attached (i.e. uploaded) to a particular post in order to display them in a Gallery. (And actually this change probably occurred even earlier following the introduction of the Photo Carousel.) Oddly enough, single images inserted normally are always attached to their post.”
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/unattached-images?replies=2#post-1855223
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I understand that gallery images are unattached.
What I’m saying is you can locate all unattached images by viewing the media library in LIST view and manually attach those images to the posts where you used them in a gallery.
If you mean you want a way to find all images that are not in a gallery, there’s no way to do that. The library only tracks whether or not an image has been attached to a specific post. It does not track other locations, e.g. galleries, custom headers, featured images, etc, where an image might also have been used.
My best suggestion in this case is to create a spreadsheet on your computer where you track your images manually
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@svetlanasf – The forum thread where you are quoting thatrobyn and me from is located here: https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/media-files-cant-get-unattached-files-to-attach?replies=22#post-2026027
That’s making managing my galleries extremely difficult as I can’t figure out what has or has not been attached.
It usually happens when you first upload your Gallery images to the Media Library and then insert them in a Post or Page with the Add Media>Create Gallery buttons.
If you want your images to be directly attached to a specific post, then do it the old way: upload and insert your Gallery images from within the Post or Page where you are creating the Gallery by clicking the Add Media button>Create Gallery and upload them there.
As far as managing Galleries, one thing you might consider doing is to organize your images on your own computer in Page or Post-specific folders. That way you’ve got them handy “at a glance”.
Spread sheets are nice, but too wordy for visual things. ;)
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Spread sheets are nice, but too wordy for visual things. ;)
True. My defence is I’m an accountant’s kid :-D
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@kokkieh Admittedly they’re good for lots of things. When I was “shopping” for a new free theme, I used a spreadsheet to compare theme features.
@svetlanasf – I had to update a post on my agallerydemo last night so I took the opportunity to use the post to demo what I explained earlier. Here’s a screenshot of my Media Library. All but the last image was uploaded to the Post itself.
I think I may have found a way to help you locate where your image is being used, but it’s really quite painful. Since images in a Gallery don’t need to be attached to a Post or Page in order to appear there, let me know if this is something you are interested in.
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@kokkieh, spreadsheets don’t scare me, I too live in them every day, but I was hoping for a more native solution…
@justjennifer, I think I get what you are saying – it seems I’ve gotten a few images attached directly to the gallery when they were first uploaded – those do show that they are attached. Take a look at this screenshot. Is that what you mean?
It does help a bit, but not much, like you said it’s painful – it still doesn’t give me a way to bulk upload the photos and then deal with them, which is what I was hoping for. It seems like I really have to do a lot of prep work: either put the photos in subfolders, by gallery; or use a spreadsheet to track them… There really needs to be a cataloging feature for the media. It gets even trickier with the multiple copies that get created for inserted headers and such – they look almost identical in the square tiled preview and it’s hard to tell if they are unattached original or the cropped version.
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Take a look at this screenshot. Is that what you mean
It’s not possible for me to tell solely by looking at the screenshot whether the images that are attached (or for that fact, unattached) are being used in a Gallery feature or not.
it still doesn’t give me a way to bulk upload the photos and then deal with them, which is what I was hoping for. It seems like I really have to do a lot of prep work
Understood, If you want your images to be attached to the relevant post or page when you upload them, then the simplest way is to upload and insert them directly to the post or page where you are using them in the Gallery feature.
As @kokkieh said above, you can of course attach images to their relevant posts or pages after the fact using the attach function in the Media Library.
Either way, it doesn’t have any effect on the Gallery feature whether the images are attached or not (or for that fact attached to a different post or page and being used again). The images will still appear in the Gallery feature.
There really needs to be a cataloging feature for the media.
It’s been suggested previously in the Ideas forum. Personally, if I have a lot of images that I’m going to insert in a Gallery feature, it’s just as easy for me to prep my images to a single folder and then rename them at one go before I upload them.
It gets even trickier with the multiple copies that get created for inserted headers and such – they look almost identical in the square tiled preview and it’s hard to tell if they are unattached original or the cropped version.
I agree and that is the reason I rarely use this view in the Media Library. Unfortunately there’s no way around it when adding images in a post or page from the Add Media’s Media Manager screen. However, if you upload your images to the Media Manager screen, it will also help to lessen this confusion.
Hope the info I gave helped a bit, but if you have any other questions, please let us know.
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@justjennifer, thanks for helping me figure this out! I think I’ll follow your suggestion of uploading straight into the post. It seems the most straightforward way
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You’re welcome. And I should probably correct myself a bit.
When I said above
it’s just as easy for me to prep my images to a single folder and then rename them at one go before I upload them
that means a single folder specific to that post or page. I’ve set up my hard drive image folders by posts and pages.
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@ svetlanasf,
It seems like (from reading this forum) the files attached to Galleries don’t count as Attached, so they all appear as Unattached.
Not true. Files attached to galleries are clearly recognized as attached images in the media library. You can include unattached images in a gallery, but images used in a gallery needn’t be unattached.
That’s making managing my galleries extremely difficult as I can’t figure out what has or has not been attached.
I’ve had a tremendous problem with unattached images for years. I came to have thousands of unattached images before I even recognized that it was a huge and growing problem. There are many ways that unattached images can accumulate, both intentionally and unintentionally. For example:
It gets even trickier with the multiple copies that get created for inserted headers and such – they look almost identical in the square tiled preview and it’s hard to tell if they are unattached original or the cropped version.
Yes. Multiple edits of a single image, perhaps uploaded to compare appearances during one session, or uploaded at different times over a long period of time, is one of the many ways that unattached images can accumulate. I don’t use the grid view of the media library, so this is not really factor for me. I used to commonly upload five or ten images with slight differences of photo editing, and leave some or perhaps all of them unattached. How did I know that if such a group of images were all left unattached, the media library would provide no information next week or a year from now as to which one of the images I used in a post or page, or which post or page it was used in, or when? A related issue, if I may digress a moment: If I attach two or more identical or almost identical images to a post, but only embed one of them, how will I know by looking at the group of them in the media library, tomorrow, or next week, which one of them is the embedded image and which of them are the discarded images which I may safely delete.
Another way of accumulating lots of unattached images is to delete a post or page without first deleting the images attached it. This has happened to me many times, and there have been extreme examples. For example, at times in the past I’ve used a static front page or leading post with an alternating theme, where in I frequently replaced one set of displayed images with another, without deleting the replaced images because I might use them again. I would eventually accumulate hundreds of attached images in such a post or page.
However, when I would inevitably decide to delete the post or page, I often failed to delete the images. If the images are not deleted before the post is deleted, those images (though they might have been attached to the post/page) will instantly become unattached at the moment the post/page is deleted. AND the media library will provide no clue whatsoever which images among your unattached images came from the just deleted post or page.
This last is a key point. Because there is an intractable problem when it comes to determining whether an unattached image is being used or not:
1. In the media library, no means exists to determine which post or page an unattached image belongs to, if it is being used — whether embedded or in a gallery — in a post or page.
2. In the media library, no means exists to determine if an unattached image isn’t being used in a post or page.
For every unattached image there is no information in the media library as to where it might be being used, if it is presently being used, whether it ever was used, or even when it was used if it ever was, in a post or page.
…it still doesn’t give me a way to bulk upload the photos and then deal with them, which is what I was hoping for.
I’m not sure why this would be a problem. Bulk uploading of images, whether they will be attached or left unattached, can be done both at the Media Library > Add New, or at Post/Page Editor > Add Media > Create Gallery (or Insert Media).
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1. In the media library, no means exists to determine which post or page an unattached image belongs to, if it is being used — whether embedded or in a gallery — in a post or page.
Using the Omnisearch in the WP Admin Dashboard you can search for the filename if an individual image, or by attachment ID number if the image is used in a Gallery feature.
Thinking about this further, it may be sufficient to search by attachment ID number alone.
Consider this Untested as I am away from my home computer.
I think we’ve now probably covered everything you wanted to know about unattached images but were afraid to ask. :)
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OK-after a little bit of testing, it’s pretty much hit and miss with the Omnisearch by filename and/or attachement ID number, so HT to @musicdoc1 for the further prodding.
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@ justjennifer,
Using the Omnisearch in the WP Admin Dashboard you can search for the filename if an individual image, or by attachment ID number if the image is used in a Gallery feature.
OK-after a little bit of testing, it’s pretty much hit and miss with the Omnisearch by filename and/or [attachment] ID number…
Thanks for this suggestion, justjennifer. I’d been aware of Omnisearch, but hadn’t really used much until today. My testing today demonstrated the following:
1. An image attachment ID of an unattached image entered into the Omnisearch box will locate the pages, posts, or comments in which it is inserted, and the pages or posts in which it is used in a gallery. This works the same for draft pages, posts, and (presumably) comments, as it does for published items. Very nice. I’m certainly going to use this. However, it will not necessarily find a page, post, or comment in which an unattached image is merely pasted, because the ID need not be included in such a case.
2. An Omnisearch search of the file name (minus the file type extension, but not including it) of an unattached image, or even a small portion of the file name, will sometimes locate the posts, pages, or comments in which it is found. In other trials such a file name gave no results.
However, my results suggest that the date of the image, or the date of the page, post or comment in which it appears may be a factor. Omnisearch file name searches located all of the older unattached images I tested, but failed with the new images I created just to for these tests. The new images and its gallery were created within the last 24 hours.
3. Regarding separate searches of all posts, all pages, and all comments, using either the attachment ID of an unattached image, or the corresponding image file name:
Thinking about this further, it may be sufficient to search by attachment ID number alone.
I presumed you meant searches of pages, posts at All Posts, or All Pages, and my tests confirmed your conjecture. For older unattached images tested, searches for either attachment IDs or usernames at pages (All Pages), posts (All Posts), and comments found the pages, posts, or comments containing the ID or username, respectively.
For the newly made unattached images, in a new gallery created in the last 24 hours, searches for attachment IDs pages (All Pages), posts (All Posts), and comments found the pages, posts, or comments containing the ID or username, respectively, but username searches failed in every corresponding case.
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Sorry, I wish I could have made that shorter, and simpler. Perhaps I’ll try to explain my results again someday. For now, I’ve had enough.
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Correction:
For the newly made unattached images, in a new gallery [when applicable] created in the last 24 hours, searches for attachment IDs [at] pages (All Pages), posts (All Posts), and comments…
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@justjennifer, @musicdoc1 – I did a test searching in Omnisearch for an image that shows as attached to one of my galleries, as well as one that’s unattached, using a file name. Both images have been uploaded several days ago and both times it failed to retrieve any results. See these screenshots. First screenshot shows the image status in the library (one was uploaded while editing the gallery, the other was uploaded then inserted into a gallery). The following two (screenshot 2, screenshot 3) show each of the images result in Omnisearch
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@ svetlanasf,
I did a test searching in Omnisearch for an image that shows as attached to one of my galleries, as well as one that’s unattached, using a file name. Both images have been uploaded several days ago and both times it failed to retrieve any results.
I see that you’ve used the full file names, including the file type (.jpg). I found that the file name searches only gave results under the following two conditions:
1. I used the file name minus the file type, e.g. epidendrum-ivan-gasparovic-orchid1, rather than epidendrum-ivan-gasparovic-orchid1.jpg.
2. The search is done on an image that hasn’t been added to the media library recently. I don’t know for sure that age is a factor, or what age might swing the result, but my test results suggested that age might be significant, as I’ve mentioned above.Both images have been uploaded several days ago
I tested only images which were added to my media library about five years ago, and images which were added less than 24 hours ago, nothing in between. Obviously, if your site is just a few days old, as your forum profile indicates, you won’t have the opportunity to test images which have been in the media library for month or years.
You may add a “modlook” tag to the sidebar to call for staff attention, if you’d like to ask invite an explanation from staff for the results you’ve been obtaining.
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