Title: File counts not adding up
Last modified: August 13, 2026

---

# File counts not adding up

 *  Resolved [mcbsys](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mcbsys/)
 * (@mcbsys)
 * [3 weeks, 3 days ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-counts-not-adding-up/)
 * I’m using Media Cleaner 7.2.5. I made a CSV export before I started working; 
   it lists 753 Issues and 0 Trash.
 * Now after deleting several hundred items, I have 211 Issues, 3 Ignored, and 148
   in Trash, total 362.
 * What happened to the other 391 Issues?
 * I’ve discovered that Media Cleaner doesn’t detect PDF files in use by a custom
   post type, so I need to revert the entire run and start over. I can restore a
   backup, but I thought this plugin allowed delete/undelete as long as you don’t
   empty the trash.
 * BTW I do have SSH access to my server so I can see the /wp-content/.media-cleaner-
   private-xyz folder, which contains 152MB, more than Trash but less that Issues..

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  Plugin Support [Val Meow](https://wordpress.org/support/users/valwa/)
 * (@valwa)
 * [1 week, 6 days ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-counts-not-adding-up/#post-19000923)
 * Hey [@mcbsys](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mcbsys/)! 👋
 * Without more details, it’s difficult to know what would cause this behavior.
 * If you ran a scan using a different version of the plugin, it’s possible that
   the results would differ. Likewise, if you emptied the trash or used the **Skip
   Trash** option, the number of reported issues could also change.
 * If a previous scan stopped before it completed, or if some posts couldn’t be 
   analyzed, it’s also possible that false positives were reported during the initial
   scan.
 * As for **PDF** files, they’re treated like any other media file. However, the**
   free** version of the plugin doesn’t detect third party references. So if your
   PDFs are referenced through custom fields, widgets, or page builder blocks, they
   may be reported as unused even though they are actually in use.
 * Hope this helps!
 *  Thread Starter [mcbsys](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mcbsys/)
 * (@mcbsys)
 * [1 week, 5 days ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-counts-not-adding-up/#post-19001653)
 * [@val](https://wordpress.org/support/users/val/), thank you for your reply. I
   had only one version of the plugin and did not use Skip Trash. I had run a Media
   Cleaner scan before taking the site live (which changed the domain name), but
   was careful to purge the Media Cleaner results and start from scratch on the 
   live site. If you want to review the details, I could send you the CSV files 
   from before and after moved files to trash.
 * I understood that PDF files were not flagged as in use, but when I realized that
   Media Cleaner had lost track of 391 files, I couldn’t even revert and start over.
   My solution was to do a full site and SQL restore, uninstall Media Cleaner, then
   use Media Library Assistant to find unlinked media, sort it by date, and manually
   review and delete.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

You must be [logged in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Ffile-counts-not-adding-up%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US)
to reply to this topic.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/media-cleaner/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=2791576)
 * [Media Cleaner: Clean your WordPress!](https://wordpress.org/plugins/media-cleaner/)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/media-cleaner/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/media-cleaner/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/media-cleaner/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/media-cleaner/reviews/)

 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [mcbsys](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mcbsys/)
 * Last activity: [1 week, 5 days ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/file-counts-not-adding-up/#post-19001653)
 * Status: resolved