wordpress media library | The Blog Pros

March 17, 2023

How to Download Your Entire WordPress Media Library (3 Ways)

Do you want to download all the images and media files from your WordPress website?

By downloading your media library, you can easily store a backup of your media files on your computer or, if you have created another WordPress site, then you can also transfer these images from one site to another.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily download your entire WordPress media library, step by step.

How to download your entire WordPress media library

Why Would You Want to Download the Media Library?

The WordPress media library stores all the media files that you have uploaded to your site. If you want to create a backup of these media files, then you can easily do that by downloading a copy of the media library and storing it on your computer.

You can always use a fully automated WordPress backup solution to back up your entire WordPress site (including plugins, themes, posts, and the media library).

However, most backup plugins do not offer an easy way to just download and upload your media library.

You could also use your WordPress hosting account file manager or FTP to download the media library, but these methods are a bit complicated and confusing for beginners.

With that being said, we’ll show you some easy ways to easily download your entire media library in WordPress.

Method 1. Download Media Library Using The Export Media Library Plugin
Method 2. Download the Entire WordPress Backup Including Media Files
Method 3. Download Media Library Using WordPress Settings

Method 1. Download Media Library Using The Export Media Library Plugin

For this method, we’ll be using a plugin to download the media files.

First, you need to install and activate the Export Media Library plugin. For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to the Media » Export page from your admin area.

Once you’re on the ‘Export Media Library’ page, simply choose the ‘Single folder with all files’ option from the dropdown menu beside the ‘Folder Structure’ option.

Download the media library using the Export Media Library plugin

Now all your media will be downloaded into one folder. They will be downloaded as the original file types, such as JPG, PNG, or SVG.

If you want your media to be placed into separate folders based on the time of upload, then choose the ‘Nested Folder’ option from the dropdown menu.

After that, simply click the ‘Download Zip’ button, and your entire media library will be downloaded into a zip file on your computer.

Method 2. Download the Entire WordPress Backup Including Media Files

If you want to create a backup for your entire WordPress website including the media library, then this method is for you.

We’ll be using the Duplicator plugin which is the best WordPress backup plugin on the market and enables you to create a complete backup of your WordPress website.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the Duplicator plugin. For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Duplicator » Packages page from the admin sidebar and click on the ‘Create New’ button.

Create a new backup by clicking the Create New button

Next, you need to choose a name for your WordPress backup.

It can be anything that will help you identify the backup once it’s downloaded on your computer.

After that, click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.

In the next step, your website will be scanned for potential errors.

Once the scan is complete, simply click on the ‘build’ button to create your package.

Note: If an error is highlighted by Duplicator during the scan, you would need to solve that error before rescanning and building your package.

Once the package is built, you need to click on the ‘Download Both Files’ button.

Now, your installer and archive files will be downloaded simultaneously.

Your WordPress website backup including media files will now be downloaded and stored on your computer.

If you want to restore a WordPress backup, you may also want to see our guide on how to restore WordPress from a backup.

Method 3. Download Media Library Using WordPress Settings

In this method, we’ll show you how to download your entire media library from your WordPress backend and import it to another WordPress website.

Note: This method allows you to download the media library without using any plugins. However, we do not recommend this method because it exports your media as an XML file.

This method can come in handy if you want to import your WordPress media library to one of your other websites.

For that, head over to the Tools » Export page from the WordPress admin dashboard.

Now that you’re on the ‘Export’ page, simply check the box beside the ‘Media’ option.

If you don’t want to download your entire library, then you can also select a date range for a specific time frame. With this feature, only the images uploaded during your chosen time frame will be downloaded.

Finally, click on the ‘Download Export File’ button.

Now, your WordPress media library will be saved on your computer as an XML file.

Next, you need to install and activate the WordPress Importer plugin. For more instructions, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

This plugin will allow you to import your XML file to another WordPress website.

First, you need to visit the Tools » Import page from the admin sidebar.

Then you can simply click on the ‘Run Importer’ link below the ‘WordPress’ option.

This will take you to the ‘Import WordPress’ page where you need to click on the ‘Choose File’ button.

Now, you can upload your media library XML file from the computer.

Once you’re done, don’t forget to click on the ‘Upload file and import’ button to upload the media library.

We hope this article helped you download your WordPress media library. You may also want to see our tutorial on how to speed up your WordPress website, and our comparison of the best Instagram plugins for WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Download Your Entire WordPress Media Library (3 Ways) first appeared on WPBeginner.

June 25, 2022

Where Does WordPress Store Images on Your Site?

Are you wondering where does WordPress store images on your website?

Many WordPress beginners have asked us how does WordPress store images, and what they can to do to organize their media library more efficiently.

In this article, we’ll explain how WordPress stores images on your website. We’ll also share tools and plugins that you can use to organize your images more efficiently.

Where does WordPress store image files (Explained)

How Does WordPress Store Images?

WordPress comes with a built-in system to manage media uploads like images, videos, audio, and documents on your WordPress website.

This system allows you to easily upload images and other media to a specific folder on your WordPress hosting server.

These files are then displayed in your WordPress media library. You can view all your uploads under Media » Library page. From here, you can also edit these files, manipulate them, or even delete them.

The specific folder where the image files are stored in WordPress is called the uploads folder located inside the /wp-content/ folder.

Inside the uploads folder, your media files are stored by year and month folders. Additionally, you’ll also see folders created by your WordPress plugins to save other uploads.

For instance, all your media files uploaded in June 2022 will be stored in:

/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/

You can view these files and folders by connecting to your WordPress hosting account using an FTP client or via the File Manager app under your hosting account control panel.

Media uploads organized in year and monthly folders

You’ll notice that there are several copies of each image that uploaded on your server. These image sizes are generated automatically by WordPress when you upload an image.

By default, you may see a thumbnail, medium, and large size of the image along with the original upload.

Apart from that, your WordPress theme or plugins may also generate additional image sizes for them to use.

Now you may be wondering how does WordPress display information about these files inside the media library?

To do that, WordPress also stores information about your image uploads in the database as an attachment post type under the posts table.

Apart from that, WordPress also saves information in the posts meta table when you insert images into posts/pages or any other custom post type.

Meta data for images stored in WordPress database

For instance, when you set a featured image, WordPress saves this information as a meta key _thumbnail_id and stores it in the postmeta table of your database.

Image meta data stored in WordPress database

The information inside your database tells WordPress the location of the file on your hosting server. Now if you delete a file from your server using FTP, then WordPress will show those images as broken.

Similarly, if you delete the reference to an image from your WordPress database, the file will still be intact on your hosting server but not appear in your media library.

Changing How WordPress Stores Images and Media Uploads

By default, WordPress does not allow you to change the uploads location from the WordPress admin area. The only change you can make is to disable the month and year based folders by visiting Settings » Media page.

From here, you can also adjust the maximum dimensions in pixels for your image uploads.

Advanced WordPress users can follow our tutorial on how to manually change the default WordPress uploads folder.

Organizing Your Images in WordPress

For most users, the default WordPress media library would work just fine.

However, if images play a more significant role in your WordPress blog, then you may need additional tools to organize your uploads.

For instance, if you run a photography website, then you may want to organize your content in Albums or tags.

For that, you will need a plugin like Envira Gallery. It is a WordPress image gallery plugin that allows you to organize your images in albums, tags, and galleries.

Envira Gallery provides albums and tags functionality for images

Allowing Users to Upload Images in WordPress

By default, WordPress allows any users who can write posts on your website to upload images. This includes users with the Administrator, Author, Editor, and Contributor user roles.

But what if you wanted other users to upload images on your website without logging into the admin area?

To do that, you’ll need the WPForms plugin. It is the best WordPress form builder plugin and allows you to easily create any kind of forms for your website.

It also comes with a file upload field that allows users to easily upload images, documents, and other files without creating a user account or accessing the WordPress admin area.

First, you need to install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the WPForms » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on WPForms website.

Next, you need to visit WPForms » Add New page to create your image upload form.

First, you need to provide a title for your form. After that, you can look for File Upload Form template to get started.

WPForms will now load the form builder interface and automatically load form fields from the File Upload Form template.

The form will include a file upload field by default. You can add or remove fields to your form, change their labels, or move them up or down.

You can click on the File Upload field to change its settings. From here, you can set which file types and how many files a user can upload. You can also set a maximum file size limit.

Once you are finished, you can save your form and exit the form builder.

Next, you need to create a new post or page or edit an existing one. On the post edit screen, go ahead and add WPForms block to your content area.

From the WPForms block settings, click on the drop-down menu to select the form you created earlier.

You can now save your changes and preview your post or page to see your file upload form in action.

You can view files uploaded by users by visiting WPForms » Entries page and clicking on your File upload form. From here you can view an entry to see the files uploaded.

For more details, see our complete guide on how to allow users to upload images in WordPress.

Optimizing WordPress Images for Performance

Images are highly engaging thus they make your content more interesting for users. However, they also take more time to load than just plain text.

This means if you have multiple large images on a page, then your webpage will load slower. This slow page speed affects user experience as well as SEO.

Luckily, there are tons of tools to easily optimize your images for the web before uploading them to WordPress.

For instance, you can use a WordPress image compression plugin to automatically optimize each image that you upload to your website.

You can further boost performance by using a CDN (content delivery network). This allows you to load images from a global network of servers instead of your hosting server.

We recommend using Bunny.net which is the best CDN service on the market. It is super easy and comes with its own WordPress plugin for quicker setup.

We hope this article helped you learn where WordPress stores images on your site. You may also want to see our guide on how to find royalty free images for your WordPress blog, or see our beginner guide on how WordPress actually work behind the scenes.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post Where Does WordPress Store Images on Your Site? first appeared on WPBeginner.

July 23, 2020

How to Organize WordPress Files in Media Library Folders

Do you want to organize WordPress files in the media library folders?

By default, WordPress automatically creates folders in the media library based on year and months. However, some users may want to create their own custom folders for different media files.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily organize WordPress files in custom media library folders.

Why Organize Your Files in Media Library Folders?

Normally, WordPress stores all your images and other media files in the /wp-content/uploads/ folder. To keep it structured, all files are stored in folders organized by year and month.

https://example.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/

This works perfectly for most websites. However, some users may want to get better control on how WordPress stores media files.

For instance, a photography website may want to organize WordPress images by topic, location, or event folders. Similarly, a portfolio website may want to organize their media uploads by type, client, industry, and more.

This allows them to easily browse their media files. At the same time, it improves image SEO, as you can now add keywords in your image file URLs which makes URLs more meaningful.

Having said that, let’s take a look at how to easily create folders to organize your WordPress media files.

How to Organize Your WordPress Files in Media Library Folders

First, you need to install and activate the Media Library Folders plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: The free version of the plugin only lets you create up to 10 folders. You will need to upgrade to the pro version if you want to make more.

Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled ‘Media Library Folders’ in your WordPress admin sidebar. Clicking on it will open plugin’s folder view showing all the folders inside your WordPress upload directory.

From here, you can create new folders and add files to them. You can also move, copy, rename, or delete your files.

We’re going to create some new folders and add images to them.

To create a new folder, simply click the ‘Add Folder’ button and then type in the name you want to use for that folder.

Tip: You cannot use spaces in folder names. Instead, use hyphen or underscore to separate words if needed.

It’s also possible to make subfolders within folders, if needed. To create subfolders, simply click on the parent folder to select it, and then click on the ‘Add Folder’ button.

We created two subfolders for our ‘Landscape-Photos’ folder. They are ‘Forests’ and ‘Mountains’. To view a subfolder, you need to click on the small arrow to the left of the main folder:

To add files to your folders, simply click on the folder then click the ‘Add File’ button. After that, go ahead and upload as many files as you want.

Once you’re done uploading files, you’ll see them on the screen as thumbnails with the filename below:

It’s easy to add your uploaded files to your posts or pages. You can add them just like any other files that you’ve uploaded to the media library:

Moving and Copying Your Files in Media Library Folders

What if you need to move a file to a different WordPress media library folder? It’s easy to move it or copy it using Media Library Folders.

Moving an Image to a New Folder in the Media Library

To move an image or any other file, simply check that the move/copy toggle is set to ‘Move’ and then drag the image to the correct folder.

Tip: Your mouse pointer should be on the new folder, as shown below. The small thumbnail of the image is just showing you what you’re moving, not where you’re moving it to.

In this example, a mountain image was incorrectly placed in the Forests folder. We are moving it to the Mountains folder.

Copying an Image to a Different Folder in the Media Library

To copy an image, set the move/copy toggle to ‘Copy’, then go ahead and drag the image as before. Here, we are copying an image of a bird and flower, so that it’s in both the ‘Bird-Photos’ and the ‘Flower-Photos’ folders.

This time, your original image will stay in place. Your image will be duplicated so that it can be present in both folders.

Renaming Files and Folders in Media Library Folders

You can easily change the filename with the Media Library Folders plugin. First, find the file you want to change and click the checkbox below it. Next, click the ‘Rename’ button at the top of the screen.

After that, type in the filename you want to use. Image filenames can have a small impact on your WordPress SEO, so it’s recommended to use keywords within them. Here, we’ve changed the file name for a post on inspiring forest images:

You cannot rename or move a folder in Media Library Folders. However, it’s possible to create a new folder, move all the images into it, then delete the old folder.

To delete a folder, right click on it, and then click ‘Delete this folder?’ button. Here, we’ve moved the forest images into a new folder called Woodlands, and we’re deleting the Forests folder:

You’ll then see a message prompting you to confirm. Click ‘OK’ to continue and the folder will be deleted. You’ll no longer see it in the list:

Tip: You may see the message ‘This folder is not empty and could not be deleted’ even though the folder looks empty. Simply click the ‘Sync’ button. WordPress may have created additional versions of your images that need deleting. After syncing, you’ll be able to review and delete those images.

We hope this article helped you learn how to organize WordPress files in media library folders. You might also want to check out our articles on fixing common image issues in WordPress and other must have WordPress plugins for business websites.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Organize WordPress Files in Media Library Folders appeared first on WPBeginner.