Title: Folder Management?
Last modified: September 11, 2017

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# Folder Management?

 *  Resolved [alx359](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alx359/)
 * (@alx359)
 * [8 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/folder-management/)
 * I’m looking to create folders in the upload section and manage them on certain
   criteria different of just dates. Do you have experience with such plugin(s) 
   that would be compatible with MLA?
 * Thanks.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  Plugin Author [David Lingren](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dglingren/)
 * (@dglingren)
 * [8 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/folder-management/#post-9487652)
 * Thanks for your question. Back in 2010 as I encountered WordPress for the first
   time I asked our web designer:
 * >  2. How should we organize media? It would be good to have a folder for products,
   > a folder for artisans, etc. instead of uploads\2010\08.
 * I was told in no uncertain terms that this was a bad idea. I followed that advice
   and have not regretted it. That said, the topic has come up before:
 * [Conflict with JoomlaUnited WP Media Folder](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/conflict-with-joomlaunited-wp-media-folder/)
 * [Incompatibility with WP Media Folder](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/incompatibility-with-wp-media-folder/)
 * WP Media Folder is one of several plugins that simulate a folder system but don’t
   change the file locations. Also see:
 * [How to map Image Date to Upload Date](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-map-image-date-to-upload-date/#post-7376123)
 * [filter and using attachment meta](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/filter-and-using-attachment-meta/#post-7346315)
 * In summary, there are two aspects to this topic:
    1. Uploading media items to “non standard” file directory locations.
    2. Showing the “non standard” directory locations in the UI.
 * The first aspect shouldn’t cause any MLA problems as long as all of the WordPress
   database fields and values are updated properly. I made some improvements after
   this topic:
 * [Thumbnails](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/thumbnails-106/#post-9207186)
 * The second aspect is more risky, since none of the other plugins accommodate 
   MLA’s Media/Assistant submenu screen or its Media Manager popup window additions.
 * I hope that gives you the information you need. I am marking this topic resolved,
   but please update it if you have any problems or further questions about non-
   standard Media Library file locations.
 *  Thread Starter [alx359](https://wordpress.org/support/users/alx359/)
 * (@alx359)
 * [8 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/folder-management/#post-9488454)
 * Thanks for the explanation and links provided.
 * I understand the folders vs. taxonomy dichotomy and agree with most of the points.
   Unfortunately, for our usage scenario, organizing stuff only by terminology is
   just part of the equation. Often it has been a need to re-upload one and the 
   same images to improve their quality, focus, etc. Standard WP is completely unsuitable
   for this out of the box, as the ID’s change on each upload, from this follows
   broken attached media to pages, including the WC product galleries, and everything
   that relies upon hard-coded ID’s. We’ve workarounded this with a number of additional
   plugins ([Overwrite Upload](https://wordpress.org/plugins/overwrite-uploads/),
   [Phoenix Media Rename](https://wordpress.org/plugins/phoenix-media-rename/)) 
   and a rather complex custom class I wrote to match filenames to product SKU’s.
 * Regarding folders, they’d help greatly in keeping different levels of mostly 
   technical low-level concerns clearly apart. For example, a folder of originals
   and another one for all the generated stuff, and just another one for all website-
   related artifacts (logos, profile photos, etc.). Flushing the last two can help
   greatly with lean uploads to servers, archival, and house-keeping of increasingly
   larger media archives in general. Some (E)CMS go the monolithic db route and 
   offer a number of tools for managing such low-level concerns, so essentially 
   taxonomy could still get things done with “virtual folders” and such. I’m not
   yet sure what’s the best “future-proof” approach for WP that still works today.
 *  Plugin Author [David Lingren](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dglingren/)
 * (@dglingren)
 * [8 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/folder-management/#post-9490687)
 * Thanks for your thoughtful comments and application goals. You wrote about “**_
   a need to re-upload one and the same images to improve their quality, focus, 
   etc._**” This, too has come up before and you might find the earlier topics helpful:
 * [Image Replacements](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/image-replacements/)
 * This is a complicated collection of topics.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Folder Management?’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/media-library-assistant/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=973502)
 * [Media Library Assistant](https://wordpress.org/plugins/media-library-assistant/)
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 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [David Lingren](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dglingren/)
 * Last activity: [8 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/folder-management/#post-9490687)
 * Status: resolved