Introducing WP Media Cleanup: Automatically remove unused images in WP

Often this is because your WordPress site is quietly collecting thousands of image files that you have NEVER actually used.

Every time you upload a single image, WordPress automatically creates 5-10 different size variations, such as thumbnails, medium, large, and custom theme sizes. Most of these variations never appear anywhere on your site. Not once.

A site with only 5,000 images can easily have more than 20,000 unused image files. This wasted storage increases the size of your backups, slows down migrations, and quietly drains your hosting budget every month.

Now imagine if you could see exactly which image variations are taking up space for no reason and safely delete them with just a few clicks.

That’s exactly what WP Media Cleanup by Duplicator offers. WP Media Cleanup is a powerful new tool that helps you free up disk space by identifying unused media files and deleting them quickly and easily.

That means faster backups, easier migrations, and lower hosting costs… all without compromising your site’s images or having to manually search through files for days.

Backstory – Why WP Media Cleanup?

If you’ve ever tried to manually clean out your WordPress media library, then you already know how frustrating the experience can be. You’re staring at thousands of files with names like image-150x150.jpg, image-300x300.jpgAnd image-768x432.jpg.

You absolutely cannot tell which ones are actually used.

As someone who has managed several WordPress sites, I saw this problem time and time again. In fact, I get questions about this all the time from our readers.

Site owners paid for additional storage space. Backups took longer than necessary. The migrations were slower than they should have been. And it was all because of unused image variations hiding in the media library.

That’s why my team at Duplicator built it WP Media Cleanup.

Simply put, it’s the safest way to free up disk space on WordPress sites. This allows you to identify and remove unused image variations, while keeping all your original files protected.

Get a complete picture of your unused files

The problem with unused images isn’t that they exist, it’s that you can’t see which ones you can safely delete.

With one click, WP Media Cleanup scans every corner of your WordPress site. From your published content to your widgets, custom fields and theme settings. It builds a map of which images are actually used.

It then compares that card to your media library to show you exactly what’s unused on your server.

The result? A clear and detailed report in which you know exactly which files you can safely delete. No more guessing. You no longer have to manually check thousands of images. Just a simple answer to “what’s wasting my storage space”.

Clean up your media library without fear

Once WP Media Cleanup shows you what’s unused, the power is completely in your hands. Delete everything at once if you want to free up space immediately. Or view files one by one if you prefer a more cautious approach.

Either way, your original images are fully protected. WP Media Cleanup only focuses on the size variations, such as thumbnail-150x150.jpg, medium-300x300.jpgand similar files that WordPress automatically generated. Your source files remain untouched.

This control is important for agencies and freelancers who manage multiple sites. You can clean up customer sites with confidence, knowing you won’t compromise their content or make irreversible changes.

Delete now, restore later if necessary

Cleaning out your media library doesn’t have to be risky. That is why WP Media Cleanup builds in a recovery system from day one.

When you delete image variations, they are not deleted forever, but they are backed up. The files will be moved to a secure temporary location and will remain there for 30 days (you can change this duration in the settings).

Do you want to get back the images you deleted? Whether it’s one file or everything you deleted, recovering it takes just seconds.

This approach gives you the confidence to actually clean up your site. You’re not gambling with permanent deletion… you’re making reversible decisions that you can adjust as you go.

Automate multi-site cleanup with WP-CLI

When you manage dozens of client sites, it’s not realistic to click through WordPress dashboards for every cleanup task. You need speed and automation.

WP Media Cleanup includes full WP-CLI support, so you can handle everything from the command line. Scan for unused files, delete them, restore backups, check storage statistics… all without touching a browser.

Here is a typical workflow:

# Find and review unused variations
wp media-cleanup find_unused --format=table

# Delete them with confirmation
wp media-cleanup delete_unused --yes

# Check statistics
wp media-cleanup stats

For agencies, this means you can integrate media sanitization into your existing maintenance workflows, run it across all client sites at once, and reclaim storage at scale without manual intervention.

Built by the team behind Duplicator

WP Media Cleanup was built by the same team behind it Duplicatorthe WordPress backup and migration plugin trusted by over 1,500,000 professionals to protect and move their WordPress sites.

Duplicator has been helping you create reliable backups and easily handle complex migrations for years. We’ve seen firsthand how unused image variations increase backup sizes and slow down migrations across thousands of sites.

Our mission has always been to make WordPress site management easier, faster, and more reliable… whether you’re backing up, migrating, or maintaining your site.

That’s exactly why we built WP Media Cleanup. It’s one more tool in your arsenal to keep WordPress sites lean, fast, and cost-effective.

Reclaim disk space and reduce hosting costs

Your media library may look manageable, but behind the scenes, WordPress has created multiple versions of every single image you’ve ever uploaded. Over time, those unused variations become serious storage waste.

When you backup your site or move it to a new host, all those unnecessary files come with you. That means larger backup files that take longer to create, slower site transfers, and wasted storage space that you pay for every month.

Whether you run a blog, an online store, or a business website, WP Media Cleanup will help you avoid hitting storage limits, reduce your hosting costs, and keep your site running efficiently without the bloat. For agencies that manage client sites, these savings multiply across your entire portfolio.

Here’s everything you need to get started:

✅ Install WP Media Cleanup on your WordPress site
✅ Click “Scan” to analyze your media library
✅ View the list of unused image variations
✅ Delete the unused media in bulk or individually
✅ If necessary, restore everything from the 30-day backup

WP Media Cleanup is now available as part of our Duplicator Elite Bundleor you can purchase it separately starting at $29 per year for a single site. The installation takes a few minutes and you will immediately see how much reclaimable space there is in your media library.

We’re really building something special here, and this is just the beginning. If you have ideas about how we can make WP Media Cleanup even more useful for your business, I’d love to hear from you.

As always, thank you for your continued support of WPBeginner. I look forward to helping you keep your WordPress sites sleek, fast, and cost-effective.

Yours sincerely,

Syed Balkhi,
Founder of WPBeginner