Description
Oli Media Cleaner scans your entire WordPress site to find media files that are no longer in use. It performs a deep analysis across multiple sources to accurately determine which files are safe to remove.
What Gets Scanned
- Post & page content — all post types, Gutenberg blocks, classic editor
- Featured images — all post types including WooCommerce product variations
- Custom fields (post meta) — any plugin or theme that stores attachment IDs or URLs
- ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) — image, file, gallery, repeater, flexible content, group, clone fields, and Options pages
- WooCommerce — product galleries, variation images
- Elementor — page builder widget data
- Theme files — PHP, CSS, JS templates scanned for hardcoded image references
- CSS background images — inline styles in post content
- Widgets — image, gallery, text, custom HTML widgets
- Site identity — site logo, site icon, theme mods
- Serialized data — deep scan of complex plugin data structures
Features
- Batch scanning — processes 50 attachments per batch to avoid timeouts
- Whitelist — protect files you want to keep even if unused
- Bulk actions — trash, whitelist, restore, or permanently delete multiple files at once
- Trash All — one-click batch trash of all unused images with progress bar (handles thousands)
- Scheduled auto-cleanup — enable daily, twice daily, or weekly automatic scan and trash via WP-Cron
- Progress bar — real-time scanning progress
- No external dependencies — uses native WordPress admin styles, no Bootstrap or jQuery UI
- Zero custom database tables — stores data in WordPress options
- Clean uninstall — removes all plugin data on deletion
How to Use
- Go to Oli Media Cleaner under Media in the WordPress admin sidebar
- Click Scan for Unused Media
- Review the results in the Unused tab
- Whitelist any files you want to keep
- Trash files you don’t need
- Go to the Trash tab to permanently delete or restore files
Screenshots
Main dashboard with stats cards and scan button 
Unused media list with bulk actions
Installation
- Upload the
oli-media-cleanerfolder to/wp-content/plugins/ - Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress
- Go to Oli Media Cleaner under Media in the admin sidebar
- Click Scan for Unused Media to start
FAQ
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Is it safe to delete unused media?
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The plugin moves files to WordPress trash first. You can review and restore them before permanently deleting. We recommend making a full backup before any bulk deletion.
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Does it work with ACF?
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Yes. The plugin uses the ACF API to discover all field groups and recursively scans image, file, gallery, repeater, flexible content, group, and clone fields — including ACF Options pages.
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Does it work with WooCommerce?
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Yes. Product featured images, gallery images, and variation images are all detected as “in use.”
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Does it work with Elementor?
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Yes. The plugin scans Elementor’s
_elementor_datapost meta for image references. -
Does it scan theme files?
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Yes. All PHP, CSS, and JS files in the active theme (and parent theme) are scanned for hardcoded references to
wp-content/uploads/. -
What about images hardcoded in theme templates?
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Those are detected by the theme file scanner. It finds both URL paths and
wp_get_attachment_image()function calls. -
Can I whitelist images?
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Yes. You can whitelist individual images or use bulk select to whitelist multiple at once. Whitelisted images are never flagged as unused.
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Does it create custom database tables?
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No. The plugin uses WordPress options only. Clean and lightweight.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“Oli Media Cleaner” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Oli Media Cleaner” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.5.0
- Renamed plugin from “Delete Unused Images” to “Oli Media Cleaner”
- New slug: oli-media-cleaner, new prefix: olimc_
- Added “Empty Trash” button — batch-deletes all trashed attachments with progress bar
- Added taxonomy image scanning: WooCommerce category thumbnails, term descriptions, attribute descriptions
- Added termmeta deep scan for images stored by third-party plugins
- Live tab count updates during Trash All and Empty Trash batch operations
- Fixed trash tab count not updating after single/bulk trash, delete, or restore actions
1.4.0
- Fixed all WordPress Plugin Check errors
- Proper output escaping (esc_html_e, esc_html__, esc_html)
- Translators comments for all placeholder strings
- Ordered placeholders (%1$d, %2$d) for multi-placeholder strings
- Fixed SQL preparation: inline $wpdb->prepare(), esc_like() for LIKE queries
- Dynamic file type filter (only shows detected extensions)
- Per-page selector (20, 50, 100)
1.3.0
- Clickable column headers to sort by Name, Size, Type, or Date (asc/desc)
- File type filter dropdown (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, SVG, PDF, MP4)
- Sort indicators (arrows) on active column
- Filters, sort, and search all reset when switching tabs
1.2.0
- Added search box to filter images by name, filename, type, or ID
- Search works across all tabs (Unused, Whitelist, Trash)
- Search clears automatically when switching tabs
1.1.0
- Added “Trash All Unused” button — batch-processes all unused images with progress bar
- Added scheduled auto-cleanup via WP-Cron (daily, twice daily, or weekly)
- Settings panel for enabling/disabling auto-cleanup and choosing frequency
- Native WordPress admin UI refinements (postbox, form-table, nav-tab-wrapper, widefat)
- Reduced custom CSS from 500+ lines to ~20 lines
1.0.0
- Initial release
- Deep scanning: post content, featured images, post meta, ACF fields, WooCommerce, Elementor, theme files, widgets, site identity
- Whitelist feature with bulk actions
- Trash and permanent delete with bulk actions
- Progress bar during scan
- “What was scanned?” info panel
- Native WordPress admin UI — no external dependencies