Title: Media File Fixer
Author: potensdigital
Published: November 11, 2026
Last modified: November 11, 2026
---
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# Media File Fixer
By [potensdigital](https://profiles.wordpress.org/potensdigital/)
[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/media-file-fixer.1.0.0.zip)
* [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/media-file-fixer/#description)
* [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/media-file-fixer/#reviews)
* [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/media-file-fixer/#installation)
* [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/media-file-fixer/#developers)
[Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/media-file-fixer/)
## Description
Broken media is hard to find and risky to fix. An image disappears from a page,
a thumbnail stops loading, a PDF link goes dead — and the usual advice is to run
a search-and-replace across your database and hope for the best.
Media File Fixer takes the opposite approach. It scans what your site actually stores,
tells you which media files are missing or at risk, explains **why** each one is
broken in plain language, shows you **every place** it is used, and then repairs
it in a way you can preview beforehand and undo afterwards.
#### How it works
1. **Detect** — you start a batched, resumable scan that reads your posts, pages,
featured images, Elementor Image widgets and Media Library, and records every media
reference it finds. Scans only read; they never change anything.
2. **Diagnose** — each unique file is checked once and given a plain-language root
cause, not just “404”.
3. **See where it is used** — every reference is indexed, so you can see which pages,
posts and featured images point at a file before you touch it.
4. **Repair** — fix one location, or every location that uses the file, after previewing
the exact change.
5. **Verify and undo** — the file is re-checked afterwards, the whole repair is recorded,
and repairs that replaced something can be undone.
#### What it scans
* Post and page content, including Gutenberg blocks and plain HTML (images, `srcset`,
links to documents, ``, ``, ``, inline `url()` in style
attributes)
* Featured images
* **Elementor Image widgets**, read from where Elementor actually keeps them, so
they are found even when the page content holds nothing
* Media Library attachments, including their generated sizes
* Media hosted on other websites, only if you turn on **Check external media URLs**
in Settings (off by default)
Published, private, scheduled, draft and pending content is scanned. Trashed content,
auto-drafts and revisions are not.
#### Problems it identifies
* Missing local file and missing attachment
* Missing featured image
* Missing thumbnail or generated size
* Broken local URL
* Old domain reference, left behind after a move or migration
* Broken document, including empty and invalid PDFs
* Dead external file (404 or 410)
* At-risk external file — it works today, but a third party controls it
* Could not verify — the check was inconclusive, so the file is never counted as
healthy _or_ broken
The last three need **Check external media URLs**, which is off by default. While
it is off, external files are reported as Not Checked and are never counted as healthy
or broken.
#### Repairs included
* **Regenerate missing image sizes** from the attachment’s own original, which
is only ever read
* **Use another file here** — pick an existing Media Library file, or upload one
in the same step
* **Suggested replacements** — when your Media Library already holds a file that
is plainly the same one (the same name in another folder, the original of a missing
size, a re-upload), it is offered first with the reason it was chosen, and used
only if you choose it
* **Correct the address** — fix a broken or outdated local URL
* **Repair all locations** — point every place that uses one broken file at the
replacement, in a single operation, including a mixture of ordinary pages and
Elementor widgets
* **Repair an Elementor Image widget** — the address and the Media Library item
are both updated in Elementor’s own data, every other setting is left alone,
and Elementor’s copy of the page and its stylesheet are rebuilt
* **Undo** — put back what a repair replaced
#### Built to be safe
Every repair runs the same way: analyse, preview, snapshot, repair, verify, log.
* Nothing is changed until you confirm, and the preview shows the exact values
before and after.
* The original value of every field is stored before it is modified.
* Only the one occurrence you selected is rewritten. The rest of the content stays
byte for byte identical.
* Elementor pages are changed widget by widget in Elementor’s own data — never
by searching and replacing text in it — so every other widget and setting is
untouched.
* If anything else would change, or a page will not save, the content is restored
exactly as it was and the repair is recorded as failed.
* Repairing several locations is all or nothing. If any of them has been edited
since the last scan, nothing is written at all.
* An issue is only marked resolved once the file has been re-checked and the problem
is genuinely gone.
* Undoing is refused — rather than overwriting newer work — if the content changed
after the repair.
#### Not in the free plugin
So you know what you are getting:
* Recurring scheduled scans, continuous monitoring and email alerts (in the free
plugin, every scan is started by an administrator)
* Repairing several different files or issues together in one go
* Everything in Elementor other than the Image widget — background images, galleries,
carousels and sliders, and images set in custom CSS
* Other page builders, and plugin integrations such as WooCommerce and ACF
* Rollback in bulk, advanced reporting and CSV export
Scanning covers posts, pages, featured images, the Media Library and Elementor Image
widgets. Custom post types can be added with the `media_file_fixer_scan_post_types`
filter but are not scanned by default. Other page builders’ storage, shortcode attributes,
widgets, menus and theme or plugin CSS files are not parsed.
#### What Media File Fixer is not
It is not an image optimiser, a CDN, a backup plugin, a security scanner, an SEO
suite, a compression or WebP plugin, or a media cleaner. It never deletes your media,
and a file that nothing uses is reported as “0 locations” — information, never a
problem.
#### Privacy
Media File Fixer does not send your website URL, media URLs, content, scan results,
or any analytics to Media File Fixer or Potens Digital. There is no telemetry, no
tracking, no account, and no external service to sign up for.
Suggested privacy policy text is available under Settings Privacy.
#### External requests
Out of the box, Media File Fixer contacts no other website. External media checks
are **off by default**: nothing is sent until an administrator turns on **Check
external media URLs** under Media File Fixer Settings.
While it is on, scans and re-checks send a HEAD request (or a GET request limited
to 1 KB) directly to each external media URL found in your content, to find out
whether that file still loads. These requests go to whichever third-party servers
host those files, never to Media File Fixer or Potens Digital, and those servers’
own terms and privacy policies apply. Each server receives your server’s IP address,
the address of the file, and a user agent naming the plugin and its version. The
requests carry no cookies, no login details and no information about your visitors.
Private and internal network addresses are never contacted.
While it is off, no lookup or request is made for external files. They are reported
as Not Checked and left out of the health score. Turning the setting off also stops
a scan that is already running from contacting anyone, from its next batch on.
#### Requirements
* WordPress 6.5 or later
* PHP 7.4 or later (tested on PHP 7.4, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 and 8.4)
* MySQL or MariaDB (tested against MySQL 5.7, MySQL 8.0 and MariaDB 10.11)
The plugin creates its own database tables. It loads nothing on the front end of
your site.
### Credits
* Inter typeface by The Inter Project Authors — SIL Open Font License 1.1 (assets/
fonts/Inter-OFL-1.1.txt).
* Icon geometry derived from Lucide — ISC License (assets/icons-LICENSE.txt).
## Screenshots
[⌊A scan in progress. Scans are batched and resumable, show real progress, and only
ever read your site.⌉⌊A scan in progress. Scans are batched and resumable, show
real progress, and only ever read your site.⌉[
A scan in progress. Scans are batched and resumable, show real progress, and only
ever read your site.
[⌊The Dashboard: a media health score calculated from the files that were checked,
with the counts behind it, the most urgent issues and your recent repairs.⌉⌊The
Dashboard: a media health score calculated from the files that were checked, with
the counts behind it, the most urgent issues and your recent repairs.⌉[
The Dashboard: a media health score calculated from the files that were checked,
with the counts behind it, the most urgent issues and your recent repairs.
[⌊Every issue found, with the file, what is wrong, how many places use it and when
it was detected — filterable by type, severity and status.⌉⌊Every issue found, with
the file, what is wrong, how many places use it and when it was detected — filterable
by type, severity and status.⌉[
Every issue found, with the file, what is wrong, how many places use it and when
it was detected — filterable by type, severity and status.
[⌊An issue in detail: the root cause in plain language, and every page, post and
featured image that uses the file.⌉⌊An issue in detail: the root cause in plain
language, and every page, post and featured image that uses the file.⌉[
An issue in detail: the root cause in plain language, and every page, post and featured
image that uses the file.
[⌊A repair preview. Nothing has been changed yet — this is what would change, and
what would be left alone.⌉⌊A repair preview. Nothing has been changed yet — this
is what would change, and what would be left alone.⌉[
A repair preview. Nothing has been changed yet — this is what would change, and
what would be left alone.
[⌊Repair History: everything the plugin has changed, what the check afterwards found,
who did it, and a way to undo it.⌉⌊Repair History: everything the plugin has changed,
what the check afterwards found, who did it, and a way to undo it.⌉[
Repair History: everything the plugin has changed, what the check afterwards found,
who did it, and a way to undo it.
[⌊Settings. External media checks stay off until you turn them on, and scheduled
scans and email notifications are clearly marked as features the free plugin does
not include.⌉⌊Settings. External media checks stay off until you turn them on, and
scheduled scans and email notifications are clearly marked as features the free
plugin does not include.⌉[
Settings. External media checks stay off until you turn them on, and scheduled scans
and email notifications are clearly marked as features the free plugin does not
include.
## Installation
1. Install Media File Fixer from **Plugins Add New**, or upload the `media-file-fixer`
folder to `/wp-content/plugins/`.
2. Activate the plugin through the **Plugins** screen.
3. Open **Media File Fixer** at the bottom of the admin menu.
4. Choose what to scan and select **Start First Scan**. The first scan only reads
your site — nothing is changed.
5. When the scan finishes, open **Issues** to see what was found, and repair what
you want to repair.
Every scan is started by an administrator from this screen; the free plugin never
starts one by itself. Large sites are scanned in small batches, so a scan can be
paused, resumed and continued later. Once you have started a scan, you can leave
the scan page open to keep it moving quickly, or close it and let WordPress’s scheduled
tasks (WP-Cron) continue that scan’s remaining batches in the background.
Media hosted on other websites is not contacted unless you turn on **Check external
media URLs** in Settings. See “External requests” in the description for exactly
what that sends.
Uninstalling the plugin leaves your data in place unless you switch on **Delete
Data on Uninstall** in Settings Advanced. Your media files are never deleted either
way.
## FAQ
### Will it delete or change my media files?
No. Media File Fixer never deletes a media file. The only repair that writes a new
file is “Regenerate missing image sizes”, which creates sizes that are missing and
never overwrites an existing file. Your original images are only ever read.
### Will it change my posts and pages?
Only when you ask it to, and only the exact occurrence you chose. Every content
repair is previewed first, the original value is stored before the change, and the
content is read back afterwards: if anything beyond that one reference moved, the
previous content is written back and the repair is recorded as failed.
### Can I undo a repair?
Yes, for repairs that replaced something — a file or an address. Open **Repair History**,
choose the repair, and you will see what it changed before you confirm. If the content
has been edited since the repair, undoing is refused rather than overwriting that
newer work. Regenerating image sizes cannot be undone, because it only ever added
files that were missing.
### How are replacement files suggested?
From your own Media Library, by rules you can read: the same file name in another
folder, the original of a missing generated size, a re-upload with a copy number
added, the same image dimensions, a matching title. Each suggestion says which of
those it matched and is marked a **Strong match** or a **Possible match** — never
a percentage. Only files of the same kind that really exist on your server are offered,
and nothing is suggested when nothing is a confident match. Nothing is sent anywhere,
no AI is involved, and a suggestion is never used until you choose it and confirm
the preview.
### Does it send anything to your servers?
No. See the Privacy section above. The only outbound requests the plugin can make
are the optional checks of external media, which are off until an administrator
turns them on and go to the host serving that file, not to us.
### Does it contact other websites?
Not unless you ask it to. **Check external media URLs** is off by default, and while
it is off, scans, background batches and re-checks send nothing to anyone. When
you turn it on, it sends small requests to the servers hosting the external media
your content uses. “External requests” in the description says exactly what they
receive.
### Does it scan on its own, or in the background?
A scan only ever starts when an administrator starts one from the Media File Fixer
screen in wp-admin. The free plugin never starts a scan by itself; recurring scheduled
scans are part of Media File Fixer Pro. Once you have started a scan it runs in
small batches: the scan page drives them while it is open, and if you close the
page, WordPress’s scheduled tasks (WP-Cron) can continue that scan’s remaining batches
in the background until it finishes. You do not have to keep the page open, but
it is quicker if you do.
### Does it run a search and replace on my database?
Never. Content is re-parsed with the same parser the scan uses, and only the single
occurrence you selected is rewritten.
### What does “Could not verify” mean?
The check was inconclusive. A server may block automated requests, rate-limit them,
time out, or return an error. That is not proof the file is broken, and it is certainly
not proof it is fine, so the file is reported honestly as unverified and is never
counted as healthy or broken.
### Why is a working file on another website shown as “at risk”?
Because someone else controls it. It works today, but it can disappear without warning.
If you serve your own media through a CDN, you can tell the plugin that host belongs
to you with the `media_file_fixer_local_hosts` filter, and it will be treated as
local.
### I have media that nothing uses. Is that a problem?
No, and the plugin will never tell you it is. Unused files are still checked so
you know whether they are intact, but “used in 0 locations” is information, not
an issue. Media File Fixer is not a media cleaner.
### Does it work with page builders like Elementor or Divi?
Partly, and only where it has been verified. **Elementor Image widgets** are fully
supported: they are read from Elementor’s own data, repaired there, and checked
afterwards — so an image is found and fixed even on a page whose stored content
is empty. Everything else in Elementor is not: background images, galleries, carousels,
sliders and images set in custom CSS are reported if they happen to appear in the
copy of the page Elementor keeps, but they are not repaired.
Other builders, including Divi, are not supported in version 1.0. Plain HTML stored
in your content is always found normally. Shortcode attributes, widgets and menus
are not parsed.
Where a page is built by a builder this plugin cannot repair, it says so and refuses
rather than changing a copy of the page and reporting a success you could not see.
### Does it scan custom post types?
Not by default. Posts, pages, featured images, Elementor Image widgets and the Media
Library are scanned. Developers can add more post types with the `media_file_fixer_scan_post_types`
filter.
### Will it slow down my website?
No. Nothing is loaded on the front end — no scripts and no styles, and none of the
scanner, admin or repair code is built when a visitor’s page is served. The admin
screens only run in wp-admin. A scan runs in small batches with time and memory
budgets, so it stays well within what shared hosting allows, and any batches it
leaves for the background run through WordPress’s scheduled tasks in their own requests,
not inside a visitor’s page.
### Does it work on multisite?
Yes. Each site in a network gets its own tables and its own scans and issues. There
is no network-wide dashboard.
### How long does a scan take?
It depends on how much content and media you have. Scans are batched and resumable,
and the Scan screen shows real progress throughout. A site with a few thousand posts
is scanned in minutes with the page open.
### Is it accessible and translation-ready?
Yes. The admin screens are checked against WCAG 2.1 A and AA with automated tooling,
every string is translatable, and a translation template ships with the plugin.
## Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
## Contributors & Developers
“Media File Fixer” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.
Contributors
* [ potensdigital ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/potensdigital/)
[Translate “Media File Fixer” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/media-file-fixer)
### Interested in development?
[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/media-file-fixer/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/media-file-fixer/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/media-file-fixer/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/media-file-fixer/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).
## Changelog
#### 1.0.0
* First stable release. Everything listed below, from detection and diagnosis to
repairs you can preview and undo, Elementor Image widgets and replacement suggestions,
tested on PHP 7.4 to 8.4, MySQL 5.7 and 8.0, MariaDB 10.11 and WordPress 6.5
to 7.1.
* Changed since 1.0.0-rc.12: checking media hosted on other websites is now off
until an administrator turns it on, under the new **Check external media URLs**
setting. The old setting, which was on by default, is not carried over, so after
updating nothing is sent to other websites until you opt in, and external files
are reported as Not Checked.
* Changed since 1.0.0-rc.12: Media File Fixer moved from below Media to the bottom
of the admin menu.
#### 1.0.0-rc.12
* New: replacement suggestions. When a broken file’s replacement is already in
your Media Library — the same name in another folder, the original of a missing
size, a re-upload — the issue page offers it first, with the reason it was chosen
and whether it is a strong or a possible match. Nothing is used until you choose
it, and choosing it runs the same preview, snapshot and verification as picking
a file yourself. The Media Library picker is still there.
* Matching is deterministic and local: no AI, no external service, and a fixed,
small number of database queries however large the Media Library is.
#### 1.0.0-rc.11
* Internal: reserves the `bulk_repair` history label used by Media File Fixer Pro.
No change to how
the free plugin scans, diagnoses or repairs anything, and nothing
new runs on a site without Pro.
#### 1.0.0-rc.10
* Internal: Media File Fixer now has one place that knows whether the Pro add-on
is active, so a Pro installation can identify itself. Nothing changes on a site
without Pro.
#### 1.0.0-rc.9
* Fixed, found while reviewing rc.8: if Elementor was deactivated but its data
left behind, the images its widgets used stayed listed as places the file was
used — alongside the page content that renders in its place — and the plugin
offered to repair a widget nothing would draw. Those locations are now retired
on the next scan, and the page content counts again.
#### 1.0.0-rc.8
* New: Elementor Image widgets are now found and repaired. Elementor keeps the
page in its own data and draws from that, so this is the only place where changing
an image changes what visitors see — and it means an image is found even on a
page whose content is otherwise empty.
* A repair of an Elementor image updates both the file and the Media Library item
it points at, keeps the chosen image size and every other widget setting, and
asks Elementor to rebuild its copy of the page and its stylesheet.
* “Repair all locations” now spans ordinary pages and Elementor widgets together,
and is still all or nothing.
* An Elementor image is counted as one place, not as the two or three settings
that describe it, and the copy Elementor keeps of the page is no longer counted
as a second place for the same image.
* Undoing a repair restores the Elementor page’s own data, and is still refused
if the page was edited afterwards.
* An issue is resolved only once the widget has been read again and genuinely no
longer names the old file.
* Fixed: when nothing used a file any more but the issue stayed open, the message
blamed the Media Library even when the Media Library was not holding it. It now
says what is actually true.
* Still not repaired, and not claimed: Elementor background images, galleries,
carousels, sliders and custom CSS, and other page builders.
#### 1.0.0-rc.7
* Fixed: repairing an image inside an Elementor page reported success and closed
the issue, while the image on the page was still blank. Elementor keeps its own
copy of the page and draws from that, so changing the page content only hid the
problem from the plugin. Images inside a page a builder controls are no longer
repaired automatically: the repair is refused with an explanation, and the issue
stays open until the image is replaced in the builder — or the file itself is
repaired, which still works.
* Fixed: a repair counted every address inside an image instead of the image itself,
so sixteen images were reported as “All 80 locations now point at the new file.”
Previews, outcomes and Repair History now all count the places you can actually
see, and agree with the number shown on the issue.
* A repair of a file used in both ordinary pages and builder pages now repairs
the ordinary ones and says plainly which it has left alone.
#### 1.0.0-rc.6
* Fixed: replacing an image that had been deleted from the Media Library could
leave the page still showing a broken image, even though the repair reported
success and the issue was closed. WordPress stores the original and every generated
size in the same `