Title: Using media library properly
Last modified: November 15, 2017

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# Using media library properly

 *  [zooey999](https://wordpress.org/support/users/zooey999/)
 * (@zooey999)
 * [8 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-media-library-properly/)
 * I’ve looked everywhere for help, but haven’t been able to find any. It will probably
   be obvious that I know little about WordPress and I’m not a computer geek either.
   I just want to do things properly. I would be most grateful for any advice.
 * Having moved from WP.com to WP.org a few months ago, I set up over 700 images
   in the media library because it was familiar to me (and I didn’t plan beforehand).
   Then I went with the Photocrati theme and NextGen galleries, which I later upgraded
   to NGPlus. I love my site and am happy, but for one thing. I recently found out
   NextGen duplicates the images because I chose to import them from the WP media
   library. I have many galleries of my photographs, plus I add media through NextGen
   for my blog posts. The only items attached directly from my WP media library 
   are those on the about, equipment, contact pages etc. Just 13 actually.
 * It’s not the extra work I mind, but it seems wasteful and yet I can’t help but
   wonder if it’s still better to keep all these unattached items in the WP media
   library as an insurance policy. What if I moved from Photocrati/NextGen in the
   future and lost all that hard work? I’m now half way through organising the images
   in the WP media library with another plug-in so the categories match my NextGen
   galleries. At least I have the images and category information to set up again
   with less hassle.
 * How would you do this please?

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

 *  [paulwpxp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/paulwp/)
 * (@paulwp)
 * [8 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-media-library-properly/#post-9686795)
 * >  I can’t help but wonder if it’s still better to keep all these unattached 
   > items in the WP media library as an insurance policy.
 * I don’t think attaching the unattached images will remove images from plugin’s
   folder, but backing up the image folder is just a few clicks away via FTP.
 * Anyway, you might already know this but just to be sure. For those unattached
   images, we can manage to attach them on Media Library page (click on Unattached
   tab and click attach on individual image and choose the post that the image belongs
   to). Keep in mind that once attached, there is no way to unattached it on Media
   Library page, you have to go to the edit post page and delete that image and 
   re-upload to new post.
 * Once you got all images attached to the post it belongs, make sure from then 
   on to upload images via post edit page only, this will automatically attach the
   image to the post. Don’t upload image via Media Library page.
 * WordPress native image/gallery function is not perfect but I find it good enough
   to build a photo gallery blog without plugins. I usually use WP native gallery
   shortcode with a simple code like this ‘[gallery]‘ will display a 3 columns gallery
   just like instagram, and optionally I would use a plugin just for a lightbox 
   effect.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The topic ‘Using media library properly’ is closed to new replies.

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 1 reply
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [paulwpxp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/paulwp/)
 * Last activity: [8 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/using-media-library-properly/#post-9686795)
 * Status: not resolved

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