Media Cleaner Pro

Media Cleaner Pro

WordPress sites are media-heavy by nature. Over time, sites accumulate a tangled mess of images, PDFs, audio files, and other uploads. As themes and plugins come and go, page builders generate endless image sizes, and old posts get abandoned, your uploads folder swells with unused, forgotten files. The result? A bloated site, sluggish backups, and wasted server space. Media Cleaner Pro designed to tackle this digital clutter.

Media Cleaner Pro is perfect for:

• Long-running WordPress sites with years of accumulated uploads.
• eCommerce stores with frequent product changes.
• Agencies managing dozens of sites and regular redesigns.
• Anyone obsessed with performance and cleanliness.

Keep your website running clean and fast

The default WordPress Media Library has no native tools for identifying or safely deleting unused files. As your site ages, the likelihood of accumulating thousands (or even tens of thousands) of obsolete images, thumbnails, and media entries increases dramatically. This “digital waste” not only wastes disk space and slows backups, but it can also complicate migrations and occasionally cause SEO issues by leaving behind broken file references.

Media Cleaner Pro isn’t just about reclaiming space – it’s about site hygiene, performance, and future-proofing your online presence. If you regularly update your site, redesign with new themes, use plugins that create custom image sizes, or simply value a tidy backend, this plugin can save you hours (or days) of tedious manual work.

What Makes Media Cleaner Pro Different?

While the free version of Media Cleaner offers basic scanning of your Media Library to find files not referenced in posts or pages, Media Cleaner Pro takes things to the next level:

1. Filesystem Scan

Beyond database entries, Pro inspects your entire /uploads directory, catching files that may never have been registered in the WordPress Media Library—such as leftover thumbnails, orphaned files from plugin removals, or manual FTP uploads. This is crucial for truly comprehensive cleaning.

2. Advanced Plugin & Page Builder Support

Modern sites use complex tools like Elementor, Divi, WPBakery, Oxygen, WooCommerce, ACF, and more. Media Cleaner Pro can intelligently parse their unique ways of storing and referencing media, greatly reducing false positives (i.e., files marked as unused that are actually in use somewhere non-obvious).

3. Live Site Scan

Sometimes, the only way to know if a file is used is to check the actual rendered output of your live site. Media Cleaner Pro can “browse” your pages like a visitor, picking up dynamically referenced images, slider backgrounds, and other hard-to-detect uses.

4. WP-CLI Automation

For developers, agencies, or power users managing multiple sites, the Pro version enables command-line operation with WP-CLI. This unlocks batch automation, scripting, and deep integration into site maintenance routines.

How Does It Work? A Step-by-Step Workflow

1. Backup First. Always start with a complete backup—both your database and your /uploads directory. Accidental deletions, while rare, can happen (especially on complex sites).
2. Choose Your Scan Type (For the deepest clean, run both scans)
   • Media Library Scan: Scans the database, looking for unused entries.
   • Filesystem Scan: Scans the entire uploads directory for files not registered in WordPress.

3. Review Results Carefully
   Results are displayed in a special dashboard (Media > Cleaner). Media Cleaner moves “at risk” files to a safe internal trash bin, so nothing is deleted permanently at first. Examine each entry—logos, theme-specific images, or hard-coded file paths may appear as unused but are actually needed.
4. Delete or Ignore
   Confident? Delete selected items or the entire batch. Not sure? Click Ignore and those files will never be flagged again. Everything you delete sits in the plugin’s trash until you permanently empty it.
5. Test Your Site
   Before emptying the trash, browse your site thoroughly. Check key pages, product galleries, sliders, forms, and custom post types to ensure nothing broke. If you spot missing images, you can restore them from the trash instantly.
6. Empty the Trash
   Once you’re satisfied, empty the trash for good and reclaim that precious storage.

Smart Filters & Customization

Media Cleaner Pro lets you set directory/file filters (using regular expressions), scan only images, thumbnails, or all media, and tailor the process to your unique site structure.

WP-CLI Automation

For hosts and advanced users, schedule scans, parse results, and even automate cleanups directly from the command line—ideal for agency workflows or large, multi-site setups.

Restore & Rescue

If anything goes awry, restoring files from the trash is a click away. This “safety net” means you can clean with confidence.

Risks, Realities, and Recommendations

Media Cleaner Pro is a powerful tool not a one-click magic solution. Cleaning media requires understanding your site’s architecture. Logos, icons, theme-specific images, and files referenced outside WordPress’s usual content structure can trigger false positives. Always back up, use a staging environment for the first run, and double-check flagged files before deleting permanently.

Pro vs. Free: Quick Table