Description

You can scan all files that are in uploads directory and see which ones are actually in Media Library and which ones are just sitting there. Then you can select files you want to import to the database and therefore make them available in Media Library.

You can also use FTP to upload your files to uploads directory and bring those files into Media Library.

Disclaimers

Please read before adding a support topic. Reviews are not intended for support or suggestions.

“For developers”
This plugin makes database changes (wp_posts and wp_postmeta tables), and it was primarily developed to help other developers that are aware of the consequences.
“1 file first”
Please be careful and try to import only one file first, to see if it works.
“All at once”
This plugin is focused on scanning, selecting, and importing all files at once. So it might not be great for huge amounts of files, since it can use up a lot of memory. Future versions will hopefully solve that problem. For now, you can try to go to Settings -> Media Sync and set it to scan only a specific directory.
“Your setup is unique”
Please keep in mind that each WordPress installation is unique, so it’s quite possible this plugin will not work in your case. If that happens, please turn on debugging in settings of this plugin, try to figure out why you have that problem, and then describe what you found in the Support section. The more details we have – it’s more likely the problem will be solved.

Ignored files

index.php,
various hidden files (.DS_Store, .htaccess),
WP generated thumbnails (files ending with for example -100×100.jpg),
WP generated scaled images (files ending with -scaled).

This is now configurable with a custom hook function and it can totally overwrite these rules or add additional ones.

Screenshots

Initial Page
Example of selecting files for import
Import to Media Library in progress
Import completed

Installation

Upload media-sync directory to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

FAQ

Stuck at importing / spins endlessly: Please try to increase max_execution_time (and/or memory_limit) in php.ini on server (as described here). Or if you have too many files, try going to Settings -> Media Sync and change “Scan directory” to some inner folder.
Files not showing up in Media Library: Please make sure “Dry Run” option is NOT checked. This is a safety mechanism to make sure you know what you’re doing, so be careful, try it first with just one file.
Doesn’t work: Please first try to turn on debugging by adding this: define('WP_DEBUG', true); to your wp-config.php and check Network tab in Chrome DevTools to see what is going on in the background. Then report actual errors since it’s hard to help without knowing the error which is causing the problem.

Reviews

gvaslin August 21, 2021

This plugin just saved my life !... my medias ! Everything is back correctly ! So easy ! So functional ! Really good job ! To thank you for this plugin I have completed the French translation !😉 And if you're ok and if you want I'll be pleased to draw you a new icon with more fun !😉 Thanks again for this plugin !

lynndye April 13, 2021

I used the WP import/export tool to move just my 8+ years of blog articles to a brand-new website I was making. Thought I would be missing many images as this has happened to me in the past and sure enough, spot checking my articles proved that many months were missing. This plugin worked well - I had my backups of uploads folders and simply uploaded my images to the new host and then used the plugin to sync them to the media library and they appeared back in my blog articles - worked very well. Thank you.

WebTrooper April 1, 2021

I panicked after reinstalling wordpress and realizing I had to upload almost 1000 images and a few videos. Then a quick google search turned up Media Sync. That was less than an hour ago and all my images and videos are now in my media library. I'm glad I didn't delete those directories. Whew!

James Jones March 8, 2021

This plugin saved me hours of manual work and helped me get a half a gig uploads folder down to 250MB. Interface was simple enough to understand. This was a perfect little package.

mustberuss March 7, 2021

I ported a site from a proprietary CMS to WordPress and this plugin did all the media library inserts for me. It worked flawlessly! The move would have been a lot harder without this plugin. Thanks!

wp510 January 22, 2021

It totally fixed the issues I was having on my site with the image library. Worked like a charm!

Read all 45 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Media Sync” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

“Media Sync” has been translated into 2 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Media Sync” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

1.2.5

New filter hook (media_sync_filter_before_update_metadata) which can be used to customize how metadata is updated or to run additional actions after file import.

1.2.4

Handle files with quotes (apostrophes) or other special characters in the file name.
Continue importing other selected files if there was an error with some of the files.
Show errors in UI instead of alert.

1.2.3

Better error handling and fallback when finding mime type

1.2.2

Fix meta data errors caused by invalid mime types

1.2.1

Much better error handling while importing

1.2.0

Optimized directory scanning to use less memory
New option to turn on debugging for this plugin
Changed parameters passed to media_sync_filter_is_scan_object_ignored hook function
Now requires PHP 5.5

1.1.8

Fix handling big (“-scaled.jpg”) images introduced in WordPress 5.3. These files will now be skipped and won’t be imported multiple times.
Add handy “Re-scan” button.

1.1.7

Fix issues when importing files containing special characters

1.1.6

Slight improvements with error handling in JavaScript

1.1.5

Always convert backslashes (“\”) to forward slashes (“/”) to fix various issues when using Windows Server.

1.1.4

Important backslash (“\”) vs forward slash (“/”) fix for use on Windows Server.

1.1.3

New option to set “Scan directory” in settings which will allow checking only certain sub directory.
New hook function media_sync_filter_is_scan_object_ignored which can be used to overwrite which files are ignored by default or to just skip additional files.

1.1.2

Fix Smart File Time on Windows server

1.1.1

Reduce the maximum number of items to import per batch from 20 to 10.
So batch sizes are now: 1 (importing 1 to 10 items); 5 (importing 11 to 100 items) or 10 (importing more than 100 items)

1.1.0

[IMPORTANT] Date of imported Media Library items now defaults to the current date.
But there are options to choose before importing and also a possibility to overwrite that using the custom hook.
New options page with the option to disable and hide “Dry Run”.
Fix Media Library filter that was showing all items when the filter didn’t find any result.

1.0.4

Reduce the number of items to import per batch

1.0.3

Support multisite network by changing required access capability from update_plugins to import

1.0.2

Another fix for get_current_screen error

1.0.1

Fix get_current_screen error

1.0.0

New option to clean up Media Library from items that are missing actual files (using custom Media Library filter)
New filter when scanning uploads directory which can help to show only files missing from Media Library

0.1.6

Fix PHP short array syntax
Update required PHP version to 5.4

0.1.5

Date of imported Media Library item is now set based on file modification timestamp

0.1.4

Add plugin localization
Add Serbian translation

0.1.3

Various improvements and fixes

0.1.2

Fix sorting of directories and files
Minor wording changes and code cleanup

0.1.1

Fix error on activation

0.1.0

Initial plugin features

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