🔎 How to Find and Delete Unused Images From My Site?
How to Find and Delete Unused Images From My Site? — have you ever opened wp-admin → Media Library and realized your server is packed with hundreds—maybe thousands—of images that are never used anymore? Every unnecessary file means higher hosting costs, slower backups, and longer restores — and that directly affects your site’s speed and your budget. PixRem scans your site, finds truly unused images, creates safe backups, and deletes them securely — no panic, no manual hunting through folders. Below is exactly how it works and how you can run it today.
⚠️ Why you should delete unused images now
- Over time, the Media Library fills with files that are no longer referenced anywhere on the site.
- Unused images eat disk space and inodes, slow down backups, and increase hosting costs.
- Manual searching and deleting is risky and tedious — PixRem takes over and does the job safely.
🔧 What PixRem does to help you delete unused images
- 🕵️♂️ Scanner that finds images in posts, pages, and custom post types.
- 🧩 Supports ACF and all major page builders (Elementor, Divi, Bricks, WPBakery).
- 🛒 WooCommerce support: finds featured and gallery images for products.
- 📦 Detects images inside serialized fields, theme options, and SEO fields (Yoast OG, etc.).
- 🔐 Automatic backup before deletion to
/wp-content/uploads/pixrem-backups/YYYY/MM/. - 📜 Log system and single-file restore capability.
- 🛡 Whitelist / Exclude: skip specific attachment IDs or upload paths from scans.
⚡ How to Find and Delete Unused Images From My Site? — 3-minute guide
- Install and activate PixRem from the WordPress repository.
- Open PixRem in the admin sidebar and click Start Scan.
- Wait for the scan to finish (you’ll see a progress bar).
- Review the results — PixRem will list images it considers unused.
- Select images to delete (or choose Select all), then click Delete.
- Everything deleted is backed up first — restoring a file is one click away.
🔒 Safety & best practices when you delete unused images
- ✅ Every delete action creates a backup first — you can restore any image from the log.
- ⚠️ Recommendation: run the first scan on staging or make a full site backup before the first deletion.
- 📝 If your site uses custom code or unusual shortcodes, add critical files to the Whitelist to be 100% safe.
📌 Use cases — when to delete unused images
- After a migration: leftover uploads that never got mapped to new URLs.
- WooCommerce stores: accumulated gallery thumbnails and old product images.
- Sites built with multiple page builders: abandoned templates often leave images behind.
- Preparing for faster backups/restores: reduce backup size and speed up recovery.
❓ Short FAQ
Is it safe to delete images?
What if I accidentally delete an image I still need?
Does PixRem work with Elementor / ACF / Yoast / WooCommerce?
✅ Conclusion & Call to action
Stop wasting space and money on old images. Run PixRem today — the free version is available on WordPress.org. Start a scan now and feel the difference in freed space, faster backups, and peace of mind.