Use the Media Library to manage your site’s images, audio, videos, and documents all in one place. This guide will explain how to view and make changes to the media files on your website.
In this guide
All of the images, documents, videos, and audio you have uploaded to your site are stored in the media library. To access the media library, follow these steps:
- Log into your WordPress.com dashboard.
- Navigate to Media.
In Media you can add new media, view your site’s available storage space, search for media you’ve already uploaded, and filter to different media types.
Any files you add to pages and posts using the WordPress editor will appear in Media. You can add media files in the WordPress editor using the Image block, Gallery block, Video block, Audio block, and more.
You can also upload images and other media directly on the Media screen following these steps:
Select the appropriate tab for your admin interface style:
To upload media files in the Default view:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Select Media.
- Click the “Add New” button to open your computer or device’s files.
- Select the media files you want to upload. You can hold down CTRL on Windows or CMD on Mac to select multiple files.
- Click the “Upload” or “Open” button to add the media to your library.
You can also drag and drop media files from your computer directly into the Media window.
The option to upload media files from the web is available in the Default view only. Follow these steps to upload files from the web:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Select Media.
- Click on the chevron (downward arrow icon) next to the “Add New” button, then click the “Add via URL” option:
- Copy the URL of the media file and paste it into the field, then click the “Upload” button:
Note: If your dashboard is set to the Classic (WP-Admin) interface by default, you should save the web file to your computer and upload it to your Media Library.
Each image, video, document, and audio file in Media includes the following editable information:
- Title: What the file is called.
- Caption: A line of text that will be displayed below the media item.
- Alt Text (images only): Describe the image for search engines and readers using screenreaders and other assistive technology. Alt text also appears if the image fails to load.
- Description: An optional description of the media file that will display on the file’s attachment page (if you choose for an image to be linked to its attachment page).
Below this information, you’ll find details about your image file: the URL, the file name and type, the image file size, the dimensions, and the date the file was uploaded. Videos include additional fields.
The steps to edit your media are slightly different depending on which admin interface style you are using. Select the appropriate tab below:
To edit the details of your media in the Default view, follow these steps:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Select Media.
- Click on the media file(s) you want to edit. You’ll see a border around the thumbnail and a number in the bottom right corner.
- Click the “Edit” button.
- Make your changes to any of the editable fields.
- If you have selected multiple files, use the left and right arrows to navigate between each one.
- Click the “Done” in the lower right corner to save your changes.
Click “Edit Image” to rotate, crop, and flip photos. For a full guide, see Edit an Image in Media.
Learn more about working with images, including adding them to your site, customizing how they appear, and troubleshooting issues with photos.
Each image, video, audio file, and document has a unique URL. To obtain this URL, take the following steps:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Select Media.
- Click on the media file(s) you want to access. A border will appear around the thumbnail, and a number will appear in the bottom right corner. Or, if using WP-Admin, the Attachment details page will open.
- Click the “Edit” button.
- Locate the URL box.
- Click the “Copy” button next to the link to copy the URL to your clipboard so you can paste/share the media elsewhere. If using WP-Admin, this will display “Copy URL to clipboard” under the link field.
The URL is made up of your site’s primary address, the media directory, the upload date, and the name of the media file. For example, https://yourgroovysite.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/mygroovyfilename.jpg.
Every file name on WordPress is unique. If you upload a new version of an image or other media item with the same file name, a number will be added to the end of the file name; for example: mygroovyfilename-1.jpg. If you require an unchanged link for sharing purposes, insert the file onto a page (PDFs can be embedded with the File block) so that you can share the same page URL while replacing the media item as often as needed.
If you want to use a different file name, you can rename the file on your computer and re-upload it. Remember to replace the file wherever you have added it before deleting the original.
You can delete files from your Media to free up space.
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Deleting a file from Media will also remove it from the post or page it is on. Deleted media files cannot be recovered. You may want to export a backup of the media library before deleting large amounts of files.
The steps to delete your media are slightly different depending on which admin interface style you are using. Select the appropriate tab below:
To delete a media file in the Default Admin view, follow these steps:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Select Media.
- Select the media file(s) you want to delete. You’ll see a border around the thumbnail and a number in the bottom right corner of each file.
- Click the trash can icon next to the “Edit” button. This appears after selecting at least one file.
- You will see a warning that it will remove the files from being shown on your site. Click “Delete” to confirm:
Unlike posts, pages, and comments, deletions from your media library are permanent and will not be moved to a trash folder.
Your site’s storage space may not update immediately after you delete files, so wait a few minutes before checking. The space freed may not appear to drop at all until you delete 500kb of images (1% of the 50mb is 500kb).
After deleting a file, the direct web addresses to the files might continue to work for up to a few days as they are cached. In addition, images (and other media) may continue to be listed in search engines until the search engines re-crawl your site (typically every few days or weeks.)
You can export your site’s media to download a copy of your images, videos, and other media files to your computer.
Learn how to export your Media Library
Along with media files uploaded directly to your site, you can access images from several other sources:
- Connect to Google Photos to view the most recent files uploaded to your Google Photos account.
- Access over 40,000 beautiful and useful copyright-free images from Pexels free photos to use on your site.
- Search over 600 million Creative Commons licensed and public domain image and audio files using Openverse.
