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Media Library size

The Media Library size is the total size of the files you uploaded to WordPress: images, videos, PDF files, audio. It adds up the file sizes the Media Library shows for each item.

Why it matters

Section titled “Why it matters”

Media files take up most of the storage of a typical WordPress site. The size affects the space on the server, how long backups take and how large they are, and how long a move to another server takes.

The space actually used on the server is usually several times larger. For every image, WordPress creates smaller copies in several sizes for the theme to use. And since WordPress 5.3, very large photos are scaled down on upload, with the original kept as well. None of these extra files appear in the library’s size; the directory sizes show the full amount.

A large library doesn’t slow down pages by itself. What visitors download depends on the images a page shows and on the sizes it uses.

What influences it

Section titled “What influences it”

WordPress: The most common cause of a fast-growing library is photos uploaded straight from a camera or phone, at full resolution, and videos uploaded to WordPress instead of a video platform. Images that are uploaded again instead of reused, and files left over from old pages, add up over the years.

In Permo

Section titled “In Permo”

The Media library card is in System info, tab Content, with the note Original files and a line of the last 3 months below it, one value per day. The directory sizes in the same tab show the full space of the uploads folder, all image sizes included.

Permo adds up the file size of each item in the Media Library, the way the library shows it: the main file only. The smaller copies WordPress creates and the originals of scaled-down images aren’t included, so the value is smaller than the space the files take up on the server. Permo records it once a day in its daily run. The value gives context; Permo doesn’t rate it.

Section titled “Related”

Sources