If you are like me and you only have intentions of using the images you upload in their original Full Size, it makes good sense to disable the default Media Library Settings. This way WordPress will not be saving duplicate images of your original and thus using more space in your Media Library, making it bigger than it needs to be.

In the left side menu in your WordPress Dashboard, you will want to click on Settings and then click on Media. This will bring up your Media Settings for Image Sizes. It is here that you will make your changes so that you can free up future space for all images you upload moving forward.

In the above image you can see that I changed all of the Width and Height settings to a value of zero, (0), and I unchecked the box that says Crop thumbnail to exact dimensions. Now when I upload an image, no matter what its original Full Size is, that will be the ONLY image saved into my Media Library, see below image.

Changing these settings will work for all images you upload from now on, but what about all of those images that you have already uploaded. There are two options. You can use another plugin to clean up unwanted images or you can delete previously uploaded images and then re-upload them.

For me, both are not that desirable. I personally am not one to use a lot of plugins because more than 5 on a website will be another reason why a website will run slower. And I have so many images already uploaded. So it would be a long process to delete images and re-upload them again.

Though the latter is not that desirable an option, it is probably my best option and one that I could initiate over a period of time. Seeing how I have a file saved on my computer of all images I have ever used in all of my websites, this is something I could do over the course of time.

NEXT UP = The results of my changes to the Media Library Settings



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RD40 Premium
Great training Robert. I have already made the changes to my media settings. Perhaps this will solve an issue I've been having with double urls showing up in the Serps. When people click on this double url link, it brings them to my site with a post of a picture, but no content. So i've been doing 301 redirects to bring them to the original content when they click on it. Are you familiar with this issue Robert?
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boomergp08 Premium
Thank you. I am happy you liked my training tutorial.

That is an interesting problem you are having. Once you get that image fixed, let me know if having only one sized image instead of duplicates, makes a difference. I would like to know.

You will however probably have to do another fetch as Google of that particular post and wait a couple of days to see if the change in the image has fixed the problem or not.
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RD40 Premium
Thanks Robert. I will make the change and monitor it over the next few days. I will definitely let you know when I can. Thanks again!

Ralph
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boomergp08 Premium
You are welcome Ralph
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Judy-B Premium
I changed the settings in the Media Settings. I have the EWWW plugin installed a while back. So I still have to delete and reload images I already have?

Also do the images added in the new Content feature take care of size automatically or do they need to be fixed too.

Thank you for this training, Robert. Wish I would have known this before I had so many images. :)
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boomergp08 Premium
You are welcome Judy.

As for images already uploaded there are no up to date plugins I know of that will cleanup the unwanted image sizes in your media library.

So going back and deleting then uploading the image again will fix the issue, but could take some time depending on how many images you have.

For me this is a process I will take my time with because it is not something that needs to get done right away. This is more of a cleanup that can happen over the course of time.

As for all future images you upload, just upload images that are pre-optimized to a size close to how you will use it in your website.

Then if you have the EWWW Image Optimizer installed, or another similar plugin, the image you upload will be further optimized automatically before being saved in the media library.

Did I answer your questions enough?
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Judy-B Premium
Yes, you did. Sounds good to me. Thank you for taking the time. Guess I will do the same and delete and upload as time allows. :)
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boomergp08 Premium
You are welcome.
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teddae Premium
What plugin do you recommend for Option#1? I have a new site that is almost developed... on a non-template, custom-made WP platform which I have learned is the correct way to avoid guaranteed problems with site performance as your site grows in content and images... and get your site on a VPN Server of course. You don't want your site contaminated by anyone else on your SHARED server like happened to me.

Anyway, I'd like to add a well-known and recommended plugin to my current site as a test to see how it works in removing 2/3 (not actually of course) of my Library. I really don't care what happens to this site version as it will be replaced in a week or so.
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boomergp08 Premium
I only know of one plugin but it is outdated and has not been updated in over two years. WordPress does not recommend its use. Option 2 is still the best option, at least for me.
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teddae Premium
Roger
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teddae Premium
Thanks Boomer! This is what I call an EXTREMELY HIGH IMPACT post. Are you the 1st one in WA history to solve this problem for us? WA should have a HIGH IMPACT medalion for posts like this. Awesome, I've been dealing with Image Library (needs WP re-design) problems ever since I can remember. WHAT A NICE GUY!
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boomergp08 Premium
You are welcome Ted. I believe that no one else here at WA has done this training before.
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KelseyLim Premium
Hi Rob, Thanks for the informative training on keeping the image size down to a minimum in the WP media library. I didn't realize that the default setting can be set to zero which not only space but also speed. I certainly agree with you that it is better to go through the hassle to resize each image than to install another plugin which may affect the page speed. [Kelsey]
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boomergp08 Premium
You are welcome Kelsey. After using the EWWW Image Optimizer I noticed that it would show that it optimized 3 or 4 sizes of the same image. Then I realized that these were duplicates created by WordPress when we upload images. Changing the settings to 0 worked in stopping WP from duplicating the images.
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