Virtual Media Folders

Virtual Media Folders brings virtual folder organization to your WordPress Media Library. Organize your media files into hierarchical folders without moving files on disk—folders are virtual, so your URLs never change.

Features

• Virtual Folders – Create hierarchical folder structures to organize media
• Drag & Drop – Easily move media between folders with drag and drop
• Sticky Sidebar – Folder navigation stays visible while scrolling through media
• Gutenberg Integration – Filter media by folder directly in the block editor
• Bulk Actions – Move multiple media items at once
• Keyboard Accessible – Full keyboard navigation support
• Internationalized – Ready for translation (Norwegian Bokmål included)

Free add-ons

Add-On Manager lets you easily install and manage add-ons that extend Virtual Media Folders with powerful new features:

• AI Organizer – Uses vision-capable AI models to analyze actual image content and automatically organize your media library into virtual folders. This is add-on functionality requiring an API key from a supported AI service provider, or a local LLM.
• Editorial Workflow – Role-based folder access, move restrictions, and Inbox workflow.
• Folder Exporter – Export folders (or subtrees) as ZIP archives with optional CSV manifests.
• Media Cleanup – Tools to identify and clean up unused or duplicate media files.
• Rules Engine – Rule-based automatic folder assignment for media uploads, based on metadata, file type, or other criteria.

How It Works

Virtual Media Folders uses a custom taxonomy to assign media to folders. This means:

• Your media files stay exactly where they are on the server
• URLs never change when you reorganize
• Folders can be nested to create hierarchies

Usage

Organizing Media

1. Go to Media > Library
2. Click the folder icon to show the sidebar
3. Use + to create folders
4. Drag media onto folders to organize / Bulk select media and use the “Move to Folder” action
5. Click a folder to filter the view

Settings

Go to Media > Folder Settings to configure:

• Show “All Media” – Display “All Media” option in sidebar
• Show “Uncategorized” – Display folder for unassigned media
• Jump to folder after move – Navigate to target folder after moving
• Default folder for uploads – Auto-assign new uploads to a folder

Block Editor

When inserting media from a block (Image, Gallery, etc.):

1. Open the Media Library modal
2. Use the folder sidebar to filter
3. Select your media as usual

AI Abilities

Virtual Media Folders exposes Abilities API tools that can be used by AI agents and MCP adapters:

• vmfo/list-folders (read-only) – Lists folders with id, name, parent_id, path, and count.
• vmfo/create-folder (write) – Creates a folder with name and optional parent_id.
• vmfo/add-to-folder (write) – Adds one or more attachments to a folder using folder_id and attachment_ids.

Recommended AI flow:

1. Call vmfo/list-folders to resolve folder names/paths to a stable id.
2. If needed, call vmfo/create-folder to create the target folder.
3. Call vmfo/add-to-folder with that folder_id and one or more attachment_ids.

This avoids ambiguity when duplicate folder names exist.

Permission model:

• vmfo/list-folders and vmfo/add-to-folder require the upload_files capability.
• vmfo/create-folder requires the manage_categories capability.

See the MCP Integration guide for client configuration (Claude, GitHub Copilot, Cursor) and a full usage walkthrough.

Documentation

• Accessibility – Keyboard navigation and screen reader support
• Development – Setup, API reference, hooks, and contributing
• MCP Integration – MCP client configuration, upload flow, and AI agent usage
• Add-on Development – Guide to building add-on plugins

Free add-ons

Use the add-on manager to easily install and manage add-ons that extend Virtual Media Folders with powerful new features:

• Virtual Media Folders – AI Organizer – Uses vision-capable AI models to analyze actual image content and automatically organize your media library into virtual folders.
• Virtual Media Folders – Editorial Workflow – Role-based folder access, move restrictions, and Inbox workflow.
• Virtual Media Folders – Folder Exporter – Export folders (or subtrees) as ZIP archives with optional CSV manifests.
• Virtual Media Folders – Media Cleanup – Tools to identify and clean up unused or duplicate media files.
• Virtual Media Folders – Rules Engine – Rule-based automatic folder assignment for media uploads, based on metadata, file type, or other criteria.

Privacy Policy

Virtual Media Folders does not:

• Track users
• Send data to external servers
• Use cookies
• Collect any personal information

All data is stored locally in your WordPress database.