Clean up the media library
The pass searches post texts, meta fields and options for every reference to an image. After that, four lists are ready. Nothing is deleted on its own.
Run the check
- Open “Kakapo Media” and choose “Clean up” on the left.
- Click “Go through”. The pass works in batches and keeps running even if you close the page.
- Then look at the four lists.
The four lists
- With no detectable reference: images nothing points to
- The same file more than once: byte-for-byte identical files under different entries
- Larger than needed: originals more than twice as wide as any version that is delivered
- Files without an entry: image files in the uploads folder that have no entry in the media library
Trash or permanently deleted
Kakapo Media moves images with an entry to the trash. They disappear from the media library, but the file and the entry are kept, and WordPress does not delete any of it on its own. WordPress hides this trash by default. That is why the “Clean up” area shows how many images are in it, and “Open the media library trash” leads to the list where you bring an image back with “Restore” or remove it with “Delete Permanently”.
“Larger than needed” offers no deletion, because these images may be in use. Neither Kakapo Media nor Kakapo Performance shrinks originals that have already been uploaded. For new uploads, the “Big-image threshold (pixels)” in the “Images” area of Kakapo Performance sets the edge length from which WordPress scales them down.