DevDome Media Cleaner – Remove Unused Images, Orphan Images & Duplicates

WordPress Media Cleaner & Image Cleaner

DevDome Safe Media Cleaner is a WordPress media cleaner and image cleaner for finding and safely removing unused images, orphan files, duplicate images, and missing media from your Media Library and uploads folder.

Find unused images, review orphan images and files, detect duplicate media, and clean your WordPress Media Library without permanently deleting files immediately.

Selected media moves to a protected Recycle Bin first, so you can check your site, restore cleaned files with one click, and permanently delete them only when you are ready.

Find & Remove Unused Images

Scan your WordPress Media Library for images that are no longer referenced by your website.

DevDome Safe Media Cleaner checks common WordPress content and settings before marking an image as unused, including posts, pages, custom post types, builders, widgets, menus, featured images, galleries, Gutenberg blocks, CSS backgrounds, responsive images, and WordPress options.

Use the review screen to inspect unused images before deleting or moving anything.

Find Orphan Images & Files

Find orphan files that exist inside your WordPress uploads folder but no longer have a matching Media Library record.

Orphan files can accumulate after migrations, deleted plugins, failed uploads, manual file transfers, or years of website changes.

Review orphan media individually or in bulk and move unwanted files safely to the Recycle Bin.

Find Duplicate Images & Media

Detect exact duplicate files in your WordPress media library.

The media cleaner groups duplicate images and helps you identify which copy to keep before cleaning the duplicates.

Duplicate files are never deleted automatically.

Clean Your WordPress Media Library Safely

Media cleanup should not mean permanently deleting files without a way back.

DevDome Safe Media Cleaner uses several safeguards:

• Recycle Bin first: cleaned files are moved instead of immediately deleted.
• Last-second re-check: every selected file is checked again immediately before it moves.
• Protected by default: recent uploads and uncertain files are not automatically selected.
• Clear review status: files are marked Safe to remove, Needs manual review, or Protected with the reason shown.
• ZIP backups: create, download, upload, and restore media backups before cleanup.

How Media Cleanup Works

1. Scan: Scan the WordPress Media Library and uploads folder in resumable background batches.
2. Review: Search, filter, sort, and inspect unused images, orphan files, duplicates, and missing media.
3. Clean: Move selected media to the protected Recycle Bin.
4. Restore or delete: Restore files with one click or permanently delete them after checking your website.

Detailed Image & Media Review

Review scan results in a visual grid or list.

You can:

• Search by filename
• Filter by cleanup status
• Sort by file size, dimensions, or age
• Select individual files or clean media in bulk
• View thumbnails, dimensions, file size, upload date, and cleanup reason
• Export scan results to CSV

Sorting unused images and orphan files by size makes it easy to find the media consuming the most disk space.

Checks Common WordPress Image References

Before identifying media as unused, the scanner checks common WordPress image references including:

• Posts and pages
• Custom post types
• Revisions
• Reusable and synced blocks
• Featured images
• Galleries
• Gutenberg blocks
• srcset and responsive images
• Lazy-loading attributes
• CSS backgrounds
• Widgets
• Navigation menus
• Site logo and site icon
• WordPress options

Page Builder, WooCommerce & Plugin Support

The scanner also checks data used by popular WordPress tools.

Page builders

Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, WPBakery, Bricks, Oxygen, Kadence, GenerateBlocks, Spectra, SeedProd, and Thrive.

WooCommerce

Product images, product galleries, variations, and category images.

Custom fields and SEO plugins

ACF, Meta Box, Yoast SEO, Rank Math, and AIOSEO.

Generated WordPress images

Thumbnail sizes, scaled images, and edited copies are matched to their original Media Library attachment.

Built for Large Media Libraries

Large WordPress media libraries can contain thousands of images.

Scans run in small, resumable background batches to reduce memory usage and timeout risk.

You can pause and resume a scan without starting over.

Free Media Cleaner Features

The following features are free and unlimited:

• Unused image scanning
• Orphan file detection
• Duplicate image detection
• Missing media detection
• Media review and reports
• Recycle Bin
• One-click restore
• ZIP media backups
• Scheduled scans
• CSV export
• WP-CLI commands

No DevDome account is required to scan, review, remove, restore, or delete unused media.

Optional DevDome Monitoring

You can optionally connect a free DevDome account and enable Monitoring.

After each scan, aggregate media statistics can be sent to DevDome so you can track media-library growth across connected WordPress sites and receive alerts when unused media exceeds a threshold you choose.

No media files, filenames, image URLs, or visitor data are sent.

External services

Plugin catalog (devdome.com). The DevDome Dashboard inside wp-admin fetches the list of DevDome plugins (names, descriptions, logos, links, WordPress.org slugs) from https://devdome.com/wp-plugins/catalog.json at most once every 12 hours, so the list stays current. Only the bundled core version is sent in the request; no site or visitor data. Service provider: DevDome. Terms: https://devdome.com/terms-of-service Privacy policy: https://devdome.com/privacy-policy

All scanning, classification, Recycle Bin, backup, and restore features run on your own server. The plugin connects to DevDome only after explicit opt-in.

1. DevDome account connection (devdome.com and api.devdome.com) – optional.

Connecting an account is required only for optional DevDome Monitoring. When you start the connection, devdome.com opens in your browser. After approval, the plugin stores your public DevDome Account ID and a site token, then sends the site token to api.devdome.com to verify the connection. The service returns the account email displayed in the plugin settings.

The Account ID, site domain, and site token are transmitted. If you disconnect, the site domain and site token are sent once to unlink the site.

No media files, filenames, private image URLs, or visitor data are sent.

Service provider: DevDome
Terms: https://devdome.com/terms-of-service
Privacy policy: https://devdome.com/privacy-policy

1. DevDome Monitoring (api.devdome.com) – optional and opt-in.

When Monitoring is enabled, the plugin sends aggregate scan statistics after each scan: site domain, site token, total media count and size, unused media count and size, orphaned file count, alert threshold, and selected email frequency.

DevDome stores this history, displays it in the media-health dashboard, tracks changes across scans and connected sites, and sends alert emails when the chosen threshold is exceeded.

No media files, filenames, image URLs, or visitor data are sent.

Service provider: DevDome
Terms: https://devdome.com/terms-of-service
Privacy policy: https://devdome.com/privacy-policy

Dormant endpoints in the bundled DevDome core

The bundled shared library references these endpoints, but they are disabled and are not contacted by the WordPress.org build:

• https://api.devdome.com/plugin-updates/ – used by the self-hosted DevDome suite installer. Updates and installs for this build come only from WordPress.org.
• https://api.devdome.com/media-cleaner/metrics – used by the DevDome-distributed build for aggregate product metrics. It does not run in the WordPress.org build.

No outbound request is made unless you explicitly connect a DevDome account. Monitoring statistics are sent only after you also enable DevDome Monitoring.

Privacy

• Media files stay local. Scanning, classification, cleanup, backup, and restore run on your server.
• Recycle Bin files stay local. They are stored in /wp-content/uploads/devdome-safe-trash/, which is protected against public access during the review period.
• No cookies are set by the plugin.
• No product metrics are sent by the WordPress.org build.
• Optional Monitoring sends only the aggregate statistics listed in the External services section after explicit opt-in.