Try to Search Your WP Media Files!
As your Media Library fills up, you will either need to delete some of your photos, resize them, or start a new website, or purchase a more expensive WP plan. Every picture you’ve ever put in any of your posts is in your WordPress Media Library unless you manually delete them. Sometimes finding the photo to delete is not easy.
I’ve used this photo in more than one post, and even though I searched under Van Gogh, it didn’t show up. Find out why as you read.
If searching for a specific photo to delete or edit wasn’t successful, try switching to the Classic View in your Media Library. This is the view to use for editing, too.
Search by First Words of Post Title
When I typed in SS for Sunday Stills into the Default View search box, I got everything from photos titled “Publishing Process” to “How to Overcome Messed Up Instructions.” In the Classic View, if your photo title begins with the initials of the challenge “ss-cobalt blue” then finding the photos is much easier
Search by date.
This search doesn’t work at all in the Default View of the Media Library. I tried searching for “2012” without quotes and got 108 pictures from every year between 2012 and now.
In the Classic View, there were 1,771 items. The first photos that appeared were the ones with 2012 in the title. Here is the first one that showed up, “20120811_043756000_ios.” That’s not my favorite title of all time, but it showed that the search for 2012 worked.
By the way, “20120811…” was a terrible photo and it was unattached. So I deleted it. Deleting photos have to be done with care. Other photos that I found, like the ones in this post, were labeled as detached. I corrected that and attached them to this post. I have 431 items that are unattached.
“Unattached files mean that the media file was uploaded directly to the media library, and not from within a post or page. If a media file was then added to a post or page after uploading to the media library, it is still considered Unattached.”
Media Library Unattached Media Files
After about seven pages of 20 photos on each page, I found some random media titles that showed up in the search. One example was “j0409425,” which was published in 2021. That glitch only continued for one page, then all the photos that showed up in the search were published in 2012 and had odd names like “Surprise 1.”
Using the Default View, I searched “2012,” and only 20 pictures appeared.
Search by Subject
I tried searching for history – bad idea – my blog address at the time I first wrote this post was tchistorygal.net, which is on EVERY MEDIA FILE! Note that the word history is buried, but WP still recognized it.
Labeling Photos Before They Come to WordPress
In 2021 when I wrote this post, I labeled my photos in Photoshop Elements when I processed multiple photos. If you don’t have a name on your files when you load the picture into WordPress, you might have a picture called 20140403_230945000_iOS.jpg. This label becomes the title of the picture, or in some cases the alt-text unless you change it when you process the photo or change it manually in WordPress. Random numeric files are difficult to find in a search.
Adobe Lightroom works much better for adding keywords and changing the names of multiple files. You can also change the name in the file folders themselves on your computer. I have all my files organized by years and months, then named simple descriptions starting with the date like 2022 01 12 Butternut Squash.
After talking to Cee Neuner, I spend less time creating the labels in my computer files, but I still have a file for each month. It is more important to use Lightroom to label pictures with keywords.
Search by alt-text
If you find commonalities in the alt-text or titles within the post, this will allow you to know the keyword to search. All the photo files in my post, Willis Tower Joke, had the alt-text of Chicago. Lucky me.
If I think I might want to use the photo again, I can edit it in the post and update the alt-text, or I can go in and edit it in the Grid (probably easier, in the long run, to add in the description). The description box is missing in the Block edit on your post. You can only edit one photo at a time in the grid.
- Add the post title in the Description box.
- Add a date in the Description box.
- Add the name of the building or exact location in the Description box.
- Add other tags that are on the post in the Description box.
- Add tags that are on the original photo in your file in the Description box.
Tidbits of Information
- If you reblog a post, you have all the media files from that person’s post.
- It is easier to edit in Classic View as well.
- Correct your spelling errors as you find them. The search engine doesn’t allow for mistakes if you search by the correct spelling.
Should You Edit All Your Photo Files?
Lisa Coleman and I both agree that editing all your photo files would be onerous. If you have just organized your photo files on your computer, external hard drive, or online storage it might be easier to add a duplicate if you need that picture. Besides you might change it to make it more compelling by cropping or improving the coloring, or adding a filter.
However, if you can’t find your photos on your computer, these tips will help you find them in WordPress. Once you find them, you might want to take the time to make changes.
Upcoming
Frank at Beach Walk Reflections is hosting this week’s Writer’s Quotes Wednesdays Writing Challenge. Be sure to link your post to his this week. We will both follow up with them.
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
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