WordPress Media Library Guide: Tips, Tools & Plugins
A complete walkthrough of the WordPress media library, including built-in image editing, upload size limits, alt text best practices, and three plugins that make managing media much easier.
What Is the WordPress Media Library?
The WordPress media library is your central hub for every file you upload to your site — images, PDFs, audio files, and even video. You'll find it in the left-hand sidebar under "Media," and it gives you two viewing options: a grid mode with visual thumbnails and a list mode for a more detailed, spreadsheet-style layout.
For most site owners, the media library will primarily house images: featured images for blog posts, logos, icons, and any photography you use throughout your pages. You can also store downloadable files like ebooks or lead magnets that you deliver to visitors. Understanding how this library works is essential before you start uploading hundreds of files, because a little organization upfront saves a lot of headaches down the road.
Uploading is straightforward — just drag and drop files into the upload area, and WordPress handles the rest. You can upload multiple files at once, and each one will process sequentially until they're all added to your library.
How to Increase the Maximum Upload Size
One of the most common frustrations new WordPress users hit is the maximum upload file size. By default, many hosts set this to something modest like 10 MB, which is fine for compressed images but falls short if you're uploading podcast episodes, large PDFs, or uncompressed photography.
The good news is you can change it. There are code-based methods involving your php.ini or .htaccess file, but the easiest approach is to ask your hosting provider. If you're on Cloudways, for example, there's a dedicated setting under Settings & Packages in your server management panel. You can bump the upload limit to 256 MB or whatever suits your needs — just save the change and reload your WordPress dashboard to confirm the new limit is active.
Keep in mind that a higher upload limit doesn't mean you should upload massive unoptimized files. Always compress your images before uploading (tools like ShortPixel, covered elsewhere in this series, can handle that automatically).
Alt Text, Captions, and Image SEO
Every image in your media library comes with a set of attachment details that are worth filling out. The most important field is alternative text (alt text). This serves two critical purposes: it tells search engines what the image depicts, which helps with SEO, and it provides a text description for visitors using screen readers or who have images disabled in their browser.
Good alt text is descriptive but concise. Instead of "image1.jpg," write something like "person experiencing hip pain with highlighted joints." It should describe what's actually in the image in a way that makes sense if you can't see the picture at all.
You'll also find fields for captions and descriptions. Captions are visible to visitors when you choose to display them alongside an image on your page. Descriptions are primarily for your own internal reference. The title field is auto-populated from the file name, so it's worth naming your files descriptively before you upload them — "hip-pain-skeleton.jpg" is far better than "IMG_4532.jpg."
Built-In Image Editing Tools
WordPress includes a surprisingly capable built-in image editor that most people never discover. Click on any image in your media library, select "Edit Image," and you'll get access to cropping, scaling, rotation, and flipping tools — all without leaving your dashboard.
Scaling is particularly useful if someone uploads an oversized image. Enter either the width or the height (not both), and WordPress will automatically calculate the other dimension to maintain the correct aspect ratio. This prevents stretched or distorted images. For example, scaling a wide image down to 1500 pixels wide will automatically adjust the height proportionally.
The crop tool gives you draggable handles to isolate a section of the image, and you can choose whether the crop applies to all image sizes, just thumbnails, or all sizes except thumbnails. If you ever make a mistake or want to start over, there's a "Restore Original Image" button that reverts everything back to the file you originally uploaded.
That said, you'll get better results if you prepare your images at the correct dimensions before uploading. The built-in editor is great for quick fixes, but dedicated image editing tools will always give you more control.
Understanding WordPress Image Sizes and Settings
When you upload a single image to WordPress, it doesn't just store that one file. It automatically generates multiple versions at different sizes: a thumbnail, a medium version, and a large version, plus the original. You can configure these dimensions under Settings > Media in your WordPress dashboard.
By default, thumbnails are 150×150 pixels and are cropped to a perfect square. Medium images are constrained to 300 pixels on their longest side, and large images max out at 1024 pixels — both maintaining their original aspect ratio without cropping. This system means WordPress always has an appropriately sized version of your image ready to use, whether it's a tiny thumbnail in a widget or a full-width hero image.
There's also a setting for how WordPress organizes files on the server. By default, uploads are sorted into folders by year and month (e.g., /2024/01/ for January 2024). This keeps things tidy on the backend, though you'll rarely interact with this folder structure directly.
Organizing Your Media Library with HappyFiles
As your site grows and you accumulate hundreds or thousands of media files, the default WordPress media library can feel like a cluttered junk drawer. HappyFiles is a plugin that adds a folder-based category system to your media library, letting you organize files the same way you would on your desktop.
Once installed and activated, you'll see a new sidebar in your media library where you can create categories like "Icons," "Blog Images," "Podcast Episodes," or whatever makes sense for your site. Dragging and dropping files into these categories is intuitive, and clicking on a category instantly filters your library to show only those files.
The free version limits you to 10 categories, which is plenty for smaller sites. The pro version unlocks unlimited categories along with priority support. If you're running a content-heavy site with lots of different media types — photography alongside podcast audio alongside PDF downloads — this kind of organization becomes essential rather than optional.
Adding Free Stock Photos with the Pexels Plugin
Not every blog post needs custom photography, and hunting for stock images outside of WordPress can slow down your writing workflow. The WP Pexels plugin connects your media library directly to the Pexels free stock photography repository, so you can search for and import images without ever leaving your WordPress dashboard.
After installing and activating the plugin, you'll notice a new "Pexels Photos" tab in your media library. Type in any search term — landscapes, technology, coffee, whatever your post needs — and browse through the results. When you find an image you like, one click adds it directly to your media library, ready to use in any post or page.
This eliminates the tedious workflow of opening Pexels in a separate tab, downloading an image to your computer, and then re-uploading it to WordPress. It's a small time savings per image, but it adds up quickly if you're publishing content regularly and need featured images for every post.
Creating Featured Images with Stencil
Stencil takes things a step further than simple stock photography. It's an image creation tool that lets you design polished featured images, social media graphics, and blog post headers with text overlays, filters, and professional templates — all without needing Photoshop skills.
The tool includes built-in access to stock photography libraries (including Pexels), so you can search for a background image, add your blog post title as a text overlay, apply color tints or vintage effects, adjust fonts and sizing, and export a finished graphic at the exact dimensions WordPress expects for featured images.
What makes Stencil especially convenient is its WordPress plugin. Once connected, you can access your Stencil designs directly from the WordPress media uploader. When you're editing a post and need a featured image, click the Stencil tab, design or select your image, and hit "Add to Media Library." It imports directly into WordPress at the recommended dimensions, ready to set as your featured image.
Stencil isn't free — it requires a paid account — but for bloggers who publish frequently and want consistent, professional-looking featured images without hiring a designer, it's a worthwhile investment that pays for itself in time saved.
Media Library Best Practices
Getting the most out of your WordPress media library comes down to a few habits that are easy to build. First, prepare your images before uploading: resize them to the correct dimensions, compress them for web use, and give them descriptive file names. The less cleanup you have to do inside WordPress, the better your results will be.
Always fill in your alt text. It takes a few seconds per image but pays dividends in search engine visibility and accessibility compliance. If you're managing a site with a lot of media, consider a folder plugin like HappyFiles early on — it's much easier to organize as you go than to sort through a thousand unsorted files later.
Finally, take advantage of tools that reduce friction in your workflow. Plugins like Pexels for stock photos and Stencil for designed graphics keep you inside WordPress instead of bouncing between multiple browser tabs and download folders. The less friction between you and publishing, the more consistently you'll create content.
Watch the Full Video
Prefer watching to reading? Check out the full video on YouTube for a complete walkthrough with live demos and commentary.
