Media Purge

Media Purge gives you complete visibility into your WordPress media library, surfaces every file that is not used anywhere on your site, and lets you clean it up safely — without any risk of breaking live content.

Whether you have a small blog or a large WooCommerce store, media libraries accumulate hundreds of forgotten files over time. Media Purge makes it effortless to spot them, verify whether they are truly unused, and move them to a recoverable trash — not a permanent delete.

Free to use. All core cleanup features are available at no cost — scan, review, trash, restore, export. No scan limits, no file caps. A paid upgrade tier with advanced automation features is planned for a future release; those features are clearly marked “Coming Soon” inside the plugin.

Free Features

Smart Unused Media Scanner Scans post content, post meta (featured images, WooCommerce product galleries), theme customizer options, widget areas, and all major page builder data (Elementor, Divi, WPBakery, Beaver Builder). Results show the exact file size so you know how much storage you will reclaim.

“Used In” Display Each media item shows exactly where it is used — post title, post type, and context (e.g. Featured Image in “About Us”, Elementor widget in “Home”) — with a direct link to edit that post. Never accidentally delete a file that is still in use.

Safe Trash Flow Files are moved to an internal trash, not permanently deleted. By default they remain recoverable for 30 days. The retention window is adjustable in Settings.

Recovery Tab Browse all trashed media, restore individual files to your live library in one click, or bulk-restore. Permanently delete only when you are ready.

Storage Analytics Dashboard See a visual breakdown of your total media storage by file type (Images / Videos / Audio / Documents / Other) with colour-coded segments. At-a-glance stats show total media count, total unused count, total storage size, and potential savings.

Duplicate Detection (View) Automatically groups files that are byte-for-byte identical using MD5 hashing. See every duplicate group with its total wasted storage. One-click duplicate merge is coming in a future release.

Type Filter & CSV Export Filter unused media by file type in one click. Export the full unused media list to CSV for offline review or reporting.

Pagination & Bulk Actions Handles large libraries with 30-items-per-page load-more pagination. Bulk select, bulk trash, and bulk whitelist any number of files at once.

Whitelist Files can be whitelisted so the scanner never flags them again, even if no URL reference is found.

Page Builder Support (Free) Deep scanning of Elementor JSON data, Divi page meta, WPBakery shortcodes, and Beaver Builder layout data.

Features Coming in a Future Release

The following features are currently in development and will be part of a paid upgrade tier. They are clearly labelled “Coming Soon” inside the plugin.

• One-click Duplicate Merge — keep the first copy, rewrite all references, delete the rest automatically.
• Scheduled Auto-Cleanup — set a recurring schedule to automatically trash unused media older than N days, with optional email summary.
• Advanced Storage Analytics — historical storage trend charts and a hosting cost estimator.
• Virtual Folder Organizer — organise attachments into logical virtual folders without touching the server directory structure.

Core cleanup (scan → review → trash → restore) will always be free.

Who Is This For?

• Non-technical site owners — the interface walks you through every step; no FTP, no command line.
• Bloggers and content sites with years of uploaded but unreferenced media.
• WooCommerce stores that have updated product images many times.
• Agencies managing multiple client sites.
• Developers who want a safe, auditable media cleanup workflow.

Compatibility

WordPress: 5.8 or higher (tested up to 6.7). PHP: 7.4 or higher. Multisite: single-site installs only (multisite support is planned).

Plugin / Theme What is scanned

Elementor All image widgets, background images, and gallery elements inside Elementor JSON data

Divi Builder (plugin or theme) Images embedded in Divi module meta and layout data

WPBakery Page Builder Images referenced inside [vc_*] shortcode attributes

Beaver Builder Images stored in Beaver Builder layout posts

WooCommerce Product featured image and all product gallery images

Gutenberg / Block Editor Image, gallery, cover, media-text, and all core blocks that store attachment IDs

Classic Editor All <img> tags and [gallery] shortcodes in post content

Widgets & Theme Customizer Any upload URLs stored in widget options or theme mod values