Media Library – adding, removing, and searching

The Media Library stores every image, document, or file uploaded to the site, and is shared across all Pages, Posts, and other content types – so a file uploaded once can be reused anywhere on the site without re-uploading it.

Adding media

• From within the editor, most blocks (Image, File, Video Cover) have an Upload option that adds directly to the Media Library as you insert it – so uploading and inserting typically happen in one step.
• You can also upload directly via Media > Add New in the admin menu, without attaching it to a specific page – useful for uploading in bulk ahead of time (e.g. a batch of event photos), so they’re ready to drop into pages later.
• Drag-and-drop is usually supported both in the block editor and the main Media Library screen – dragging a file directly onto an empty Image block, or onto the Media Library grid, will upload it without needing to click through the upload dialog.

Searching the Media Library

1. Go to Media > Library in the admin menu, or click Media Library from within an image/file block.
2. Use the search box to search by filename, or use the filters (date uploaded, media type – image, PDF, video, etc.) to narrow things down.
3. Switch between Grid view (visual thumbnails, easier for images) and List view (more detail per file – size, dimensions, upload date – easier when working with documents).

Tip: Give files sensible, descriptive names before uploading (e.g. safeguarding-policy-2026.pdf rather than Document(3).pdf) – renaming after upload doesn’t change the underlying file URL in most setups, so it’s much easier to get this right from the start. Sensible names also make searching much easier later, and help accessibility/SEO since filenames can be picked up by search engines and screen readers in some contexts.

Removing media

1. Select the file in the Media Library (grid or list view).
2. Click Delete Permanently.

Careful: Deleting a file from the Media Library removes it everywhere it’s used – any page or post that had that image or file embedded will show a broken link/image afterwards, with no automatic warning in most WordPress setups. Before deleting, it’s worth checking whether the file is still in use – the Media Library doesn’t always show this clearly, so if a file might be shared across multiple pages (a logo, a commonly-linked PDF), it’s safer to check with the wider team before removing it, rather than assuming it’s unused.