Delete Unscaled Images

ཞིབ་བརྗོད།

WordPress 5.3 added “big image handling” that scales uploaded images to a maximum size of 2560 pixels for use on the website. WP adds “-scaled” to the full size image file name. The original, unscaled images are kept on the server. This can mean that many large images are stored on the server that aren’t ever actually going to be displayed on the website. In my case, users are uploading 15MB files from their cameras.

After the scaled version and intermediate/thumbnail images are generated, the originals are no longer needed and just taking up storage space. Delete Unscaled Images will remove those unneeded files.

First, original images are deleted immediately after the resized versions are created for all new uploads.

Second, there is a bulk deletion tool in the Media submenu to process existing images.

སྒྲིག་འཇུག

See the standard installation instructions at WordPress.org or WPBeginner.

གདེང་འཇོག

2024 ལོའི་ཟླ 11 ཚེས 11 ཉིན།
I couldn’t believe how hard it was for me to track down a tool that did what this plugin does: delete the oversized originals after WordPress creates the -scaled versions of uploaded images. Permanently deleting files is a risky task so I think it would be more reassuring to users of this plugin if it gave some details before they click the link to fire off the action, i.e. maybe a “dry run” that lists the files that would be deleted, without actually deleting them first. But if you know what you’re doing, this is a great, easy-to-use tool for freeing up disk space — potentially a lot of disk space.
2024 ལོའི་ཟླ 6 ཚེས 22 ཉིན།
Having local backups of all of my original source photos, and never planning to regenerate thumbnails on this particular WordPress site, I went ahead with the drastic action of deleting all the originals. This plugin was very easy to use. Just know ahead of time what you’re getting into if you follow through with this action.
2023 ལོའི་ཟླ 5 ཚེས 24 ཉིན།
This plugin is simple and fast and works brilliantly! It saves disk space usage by quickly and effectively removing all of the original, unscaled images that were over 2560px on the longest edge when uploaded.
གདེང་འཇོག 4 ཡོངས་སུ་ཀློག

བྱས་རྗེས་འཇོག་མཁན། & གསར་འབྱེད་པ།

“Delete Unscaled Images” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

བྱས་རྗེས་འཇོག་མཁན།

དག་བཅོས་ཉིན་ཐོ།

1.2

  • Added bulk delete Media submenu page.

1.1

  • Hooked into image upload to delete originals immediately.

1.0

  • Crude bulk process as proof of concept.