Running a Media Deduper Scan
Log into WordPress as an administrator
In the left sidebar, select Media > Manage Duplicates
Click the Generate Media Index button
Click the Manage Duplicates Now button to continue.
Removing Duplicate Media Files
You'll be taken to a list of all of the duplicate media files in your WordPress Media Library. To remove a duplicate file, click the checkbox to its left. In the Bulk Actions drop-down above the list, you can select one of two options for deletion.
Delete Permanently
This duplicate image will be deleted permanently everywhere on your site. This means that if the image is in use somewhere - for example, in a blog post - a broken image icon will display on your site because the image will no longer be available.
If you select Delete Permanently, you'll receive a pop-up message asking you to confirm:
Click OK. The image will be permanently deleted and you will be returned to the full list of duplicate media.
Smart Delete
The duplicate image will be deleted, and it will be replaced with its duplicate image that wasn’t deleted for featured images only.
If you attempt to delete all copies of the same image, Smart Delete will retain the image with the lowest media ID (typically the oldest version) and use it for replacement of any featured images, as noted above.
Before proceeding with Smart Delete, we recommend using BackupBuddy or your favorite backup plugin to back up your entire site before proceeding.
If you select Smart Delete, you'll receive a pop-up message asking you to confirm and recommending that you back-up:
Click OK. The image will be deleted and you will be returned to the full list of duplicate media.
Uploading Images
When you attempt to upload a new image in your Media Library, Media Deduper Pro will check to see if that image already exists, and will keep you from uploading a duplicate:
If the image already exists in your library, you'll receive a message that says: It appears this file is already present in your media library:, with the post ID of the existing file.
If you think this feature is conflicting with another plugin, or if, for some reason, you need to be able to upload duplicate images, you can disable this feature by checking the “Disable Duplicate Upload Blocking” checkbox in the plugin settings (WP admin > Settings > Media Deduper).
Media Deduper Pro
A pro version of Media Deduper is available! Media Deduper Pro includes additional features, dedicated support, and more. For more info and to purchase, check out our website.