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),
optimized .webp versions of original images (.jpg.webp),
retina thumbnails (-100×100@2x.jpg).

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 in Settings -> Media Sync 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

uitgelezenverhalen December 8, 2023

Some 250 files were missing in my database, but Media Sync put them all back, even with their original time stamp!

zandiver November 3, 2023

It's simple and does the job it's meant to do. I love it and have it in my list for all the sites I work on.

Andrzej Klasén October 1, 2023

I’m using it with Export Media Library By Mass Edge Inc.

synthezoid September 18, 2023 1 reply

The directions the dev included are correct: this is not a plugin a general user should rely on and assume is working right, even if it at first appears to be. If you are not prepared to perhaps spend more time debugging than you saved by using this plugin instead of the (reliably working) native uploader in batches of 20, you may be in for some disappointment. After syncing, even if the sync appeared to complete work correctly, you're going to need to get into the PHP and test every function that you need to work (every context that attachments get called in, etc.) to verify that nothing is broken, and troubleshoot it yourself if it doesn't. +1 star because the developer was upfront that this might not work, although I didn't notice this until it was much too late. Mea culpa. This is NOT a 'support request'. I am not asking for help or support in any way. I am stating my impressions of the plugin and experience with it for benefit of other prospective users, IE a "review", not a "support request".

dglite September 15, 2023

Excellent + awesome + incredible - plugin

flashfreak8 September 2, 2023

The scan is slow, and I get this page is unresponsive so I had to kill the page.

Read all 69 reviews

Contributors & Developers

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

“Media Sync” has been translated into 3 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

1.3.3

Fix detecting files that already in database when “Scan directory” option is used. Issue started in previous version (1.3.2).

1.3.2

Fix handling file names with even rarer special characters that might have resulted in duplicate imports.

1.3.1

Ignore optimized .webp versions of original images (e.g. .jpg.webp) and retina thumbnails (e.g. -100×100@2x.jpg) by default. It’s still possible to customize it with media_sync_filter_is_scan_object_ignored hook.

1.3.0

New option to set custom Batch Size. This might help with errors due to server limits (e.g. max_execution_time).

1.2.9

Fix selecting multiple files without clicking on checkbox (e.g. shift-select).
Minor code cleanup.
Update supported WordPress version to 6.2.

1.2.8

Create a custom _msc record in wp_postmeta table to be able to differentiate files imported using this plugin. Could be useful to clean up the database later on.

1.2.7

Extend plugin access to “Editor” and “Author” roles.

1.2.6

If debugging is turned on, AJAX requests for import are now html which is rendered directly in UI.

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