WP Media Folder Review – Powerful Media Library Plugin

WordPress’ default media gallery is great and all but if you own a website that uses a lot of media content, then things could get a bit annoying. If you often find yourself in the situation where you’re about to post something and need an image that you’re sure you have uploaded previously, and you vigorously start searching for it among months’ worth of media files, then the default WordPress media gallery is simply too weak for you. You need something better, something more powerful. What you need is one of the best media library plugins for WordPress – WP Media Folder.

Also read: How to Hide Featured Image in Post WordPress

This powerful, multi-function media management tool lets you take control of all the media file you have on your WordPress website. It not only saves your valuable time but also keeps you from going insane when searching for a media file. If you don’t believe me, read further as I prove how highly I think of the WP Media Folder plugin.

WP Media Folder Overview

Before we get into the details, let’s talk about the plugin in brief. As I’ve mentioned earlier, the WP Media Folder is a premium media management plugin that makes it easier for you to manage all your media content with the help of folders and more. This is just on the surface; the WP Media Folder plugin is much more than just a glorified media manager. It also helps you with things like:

• Bulk file transfer
• Drag and drop media transfer
• Advanced filtering and sorting
• Advanced search
• Easy media navigation
• Import media files using FTP
• Media upload
• Cloud drives integration (Google Drive, Dropbox, and more)

There are a lot more features than just the one mentioned above. Let’s get into it in detail.

How to use WP Media Folder?

After you install and activate the WP Media Folder plugin on WordPress, you will be greeted with a configuration wizard that will help you set up the core plugin features. It also performs an environment check that ensures you have what the plugin needs to run properly.

However, this wizard won’t be enough to get everything set up as per your preference. We will get into the plethora of settings that come with WP Media Folder shortly; let’s see how the plugin works first.

Media Library

The WP Media Folder plugin upgrades your traditional WordPress media gallery and adds a couple of useful features. When you click on Media on the WordPress dashboard, you’ll be taken to your brand new upgraded media gallery. At the first glance, you will notice a couple of new buttons.

On the left side, you will find a media files tree that lets you see the media folders you currently have. There will probably only be one folder name “Gallery Upload” when you install and use the plugin for the first time. As you continue to use the plugin and add more folders to manage your media file, this tree will be populated with those folders.

You will also find the buttons to add a new folder, add a new media file, and add a new remote video if you enabled it on the configuration wizard. Just below the “Add New” buttons are the buttons to select bulk, filter, sort, and display all files.

Media Management

That is what the WP Media Folder plugin is all about. Let get into the core features starting with folder creation.

Adding New Media Folder

It is as simple as it can get. All you have to do is click on the Add New Folder button located on the top left. Clicking on the bottom will display a popup where you enter the new folder’s name and create. The folder you create will be shown in the Media Library located on the left side.

Bulk Select

Clicking on the bulk select button will reveal 3 additional buttons – Delete permanently, Media folders selection, and cancel. The Delete permanently button will remain inactive until you select some of the media on your gallery. After you select a couple of media files, you can delete them or move them to a different media folder. Just select the folder and click on Apply.

Filtering

The filter function that the Wp Media Folder plugin provides is pretty straightforward and easy to use. It lets you filter media based on type, date, size, and weight (refers to the bytes used by the media). You can also choose to see only the media file that you’ve uploaded. This is particularly useful when you have multiple authors. Alternatively, you can choose to display all files from all the users. Or, you can clear the filters.

Sorting

This feature is exactly like you’d expect. It lets you sort media folders based on name and ID or a custom method. You can also sort individual media files based on their date of upload, title, size, file type, or a custom order.

Folder Colors

If you prefer visual organization, then this will come as a treat. WP Media Folder lets you color-code individual folders. Right-click on a folder under Media Library, and then choose a color. There are 24 different colors and an option to add custom colors using hex.

Moving Files

As mentioned previously, you can move files by bulk selecting them and choosing a folder. however, there is an alternate way. You could drag and drop the files into desired folders. You can do this with individual files, or use the bulk select feature.

Update, Replace and Duplicate

Updating and Replacing existing media files is a piece of cake with WP Media Folder. You need to enable the Override File option for this to work. You can simply right-click on the image and click on replace. Make sure the files are of the same format. This means if you want to replace a png file, make sure the replacement file is png too. This feature ensures no links get broken during replacement and it replaces the thumbnails too.

The plugin also allows easy duplication of any media files. Just right-click on the files and click duplicate.

Using Media Files on Posts

Not only does the WP Media Folder plugin makes media management easier, but it also improves the media usage experience. This media management plugin integrates seamlessly with Gutenberg Editor and also adds two different blocks. However, if you install its addons, you will get additional 5 widgets that include WPMF Gallery Addon, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and OneDrive Business.

The WP Media Folder Gallery widget lets you add images straight from a gallery folder. You can choose to keep showing all the images in the particular folder or choose the ones you want.

Have a look how the Gallery manager works in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8aaUIlX_eQ&t=1s

The WPMF Gallery Addon is the upgraded version of the WP Media Folder Gallery widget. When you add the widget and click on Select or Create gallery, a popup containing a couple of features will open. These features include the usual ones like adding a new gallery and selecting from an existing gallery. However, this addon comes with a selection of themes to choose from. When selecting images from a gallery or creating a new gallery, the plugin gives you the option to choose from 6 different gallery themes.

Furthermore, after the creation of the gallery, you can edit the details. Depending on the theme you choose, the addon lets you edit the number of columns, media orders, lightbox size, and tons of other theme-specific options.

The addon also includes a couple more additional features. It integrates Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive and allows you to embed PDFs on posts. The cloud integration needs a further configuration which we will discuss soon.

The WP Media Folder plugin is compatible with other page builders that include Elementor, DIVI, WooCommerce, Beaver Builder, WPBakery, and more.

Settings

There are a lot of settings you can tinker around. All the settings are neatly organized into respective tags and displayed on a simple yet elegant interface. You can access the WP Media Folder plugin settings from the WordPress sidebar. It is under Settings > WP Media Folder. When click, you will see a number of different sub-settings that can be accessed using the settings title located on the left side.

General

The first one is the General setting. It comes with 2 sub-settings – Main Settings and Media Filtering. The main settings deal with the general functionality of the plugin. Here, you can enable or disable a number of core features such as folder tree, filters, remote video, downloaded media, and more. If you didn’t enable WP Media Folder on the frontend on the configuration wizard, you can do that from here. You can choose to load gif on page load, enable duplicate files, and display folder ID among a couple more settings.

The Media Filtering tab deals with the size and weight of the uploaded media files. Here, you can choose the filter sizes and weights that you wish to display on the media gallery filter and sort menu. There is also an option to add custom sizes and weights to the list.

Gallery Features

The gallery features settings can be sued to alter and upgrade the default WordPress gallery. The first entry is the gallery features. If you choose to enable this feature, it will upgrade the default gallery by adding themes and other additional parameters. You can also enable or disable the lightbox feature. Additionally, there are options to alter list filter size and padding space on Masonry and Portfolio themes.

The WordPress Gallery sub-setting is where you modify the gallery themes. You can change the number of columns, image size, lightbox size, click action, order, and other theme-specific settings here.

There’s also a shortcode section where you can create gallery shortcodes by specifying various parameters.

Galleries Addon

This entry is for the addons. There are 3 different sub-settings inside it and the first one lets you configure the gallery themes along with the image behavior. You can change the themes’ appearance by changing the default number of columns, display image size, lightbox size, and other theme-specific options.

The second one is for generating gallery shortcodes based on the provided parameters.

The third one is to enable and configure social sharing. You can add your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest profile links.

Access & Design

This is where you configure the media access and file design. Under Media Access, you can set up automatic folder creation based on roles or users. This means you can choose to let other users have their own media folder, or sort the uploaded files based on the user roles. You can also configure the root media folder and more.

File Design setting lets to enable the media download button. This converts all the media links into a button to let users download the files. You can configure the appearance of the download button too. You can change the color theme, icon, border, margin, and padding of the icons.

Server Folder Sync

The folder sync option allows you to sync external folders and WordPress media library when enabled. You can configure sync delay, and choose server folders to sync.

On the Filters tab, there is a text box where you can add or remove the media file types from the sync procedure. If you want to, you can choose to keep the metadata of the media files during sync.

Cloud

Cloud integration comes with add-ons and lets you enhance the overall functionality of your media library. You can integrate Google Drive, Google Photo, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Amazon S3.

For Google Drive and Google Photos, you need to configure the type of drive, media link types, Google Client ID, and Client Secret ID. You can find the IDs on your Google Developers Console.

For Dropbox, you need the App Key, App Secret, and Auth Code.

OneDrive is similar to Google Drive in terms of requirements so it requires Client ID and Secret.

Amazon S3 comes with a bit more options. This feature allows you to send a copy of the uploaded media to the Amazon bucket and load the frontend images from the Amazon server. This is what the Server Folder Sync setting does but more.

You can also choose the Synchronization methods and the delay.

Additional Settings

The Rename & Watermark settings do exactly what it says it does. It lets you rename media files during upload based on the pattern you specify. There are also options to format titles using special characters and capitalize titles automatically. The Watermark sub-setting has a bunch of options that you can use to configure the watermark you add to your media files.

The Import/Export settings let you import and export media files and folders. You can also import server folders.

The Regenerate Thumb setting has a single button made for one single purpose – to regenerate thumbnails of images. The required time will depend on the number of images you have on your WordPress gallery and you can stop the process anytime.

There’s also an option for image compression but you need to install the Image Recycle plugin to activate this.

Pricing Plans

The WP Media Folder plugin is a very useful plugin and I think you’ve realized that. So, a plugin this useful surely won’t come for free. However, that doesn’t mean it has to be expensive. There are 3 pricing plans and they are all affordable.

The Start plan comes for $29 with 6 months of support and update. This comes with a core plugin only. The $59 plan is what I would go for as it is the one with all the features including cloud integration and gallery addon. All the plans come with detailed documentation and video tutorials in case you get stuck.

Conclusion – WP Media Folder Review

I cannot stress enough how useful the WP Media Folder + Addons plugin is. With the ability to create beautiful-looking galleries with just a few clicks, to managing your entire WP media library without any hassle, the WP Media Folder plugin is a must-have tool if you deal with tons of images regularly. It is only a matter of time until you get overwhelmed with all those images if you use the default WP gallery. And it will only get worse if you ignore your media gallery altogether.

The whole plugin is user-friendly, all the settings have descriptions on all the options, it works with all the popular page builders, and it is updated regularly. Over the course of the updates, this plugin has only proved its worth as one of the best media management plugins for WordPress. Although there is no free version, you will definitely not regret buying it. Instead, you will probably upgrade your plan.