# Find & Remove Unused Images Safely > Scan your site for images not used in any post, page or product and safely remove them. WooCommerce, Elementor and ACF aware. Clean your library safely. - Canonical URL: - Markdown URL: Category: Storage feature Your media library fills up with images that aren't used anywhere - leftover uploads, replaced graphics, one-off test files. ThumbPress finds them, and lets you trash them without touching anything that's still in use. ## Half Your Media Library May Be Dead Weight Images accumulate for years - most sites have no idea which ones are actually used. ### Orphaned Uploads Every draft, replaced graphic, and abandoned test image stays in your library forever. You can't tell by looking which ones a page still depends on. Impact: Years of uploads no page references ### Builder Blind Spots Naive cleanup tools only check post content and miss images used in WooCommerce, Elementor, ACF, and Gutenberg blocks - so they flag in-use images as "unused" and break your pages. Impact: False "unused" hits break live designs ### Backup & Storage Drag Dead images inflate your disk usage and every backup you take, so you pay to store and copy files no visitor will ever see. Impact: Wasted disk on every single backup ## How Unused-Image Detection Works It checks every place an image could be referenced before calling it unused. ### Steps 1. **Scan** — ThumbPress walks your media library and looks for each image across posts, pages, products, featured images, and builder content. 2. **Match** — You pick which sources to include - WooCommerce, Elementor, Gutenberg, ACF - and it only counts the ones you enable, with careful exclusions to avoid false "used" hits. 3. **Trash** — Anything referenced nowhere is listed for you to trash, so you free space without guessing. ### Find Unused Images Safely Scan your entire media library thoroughly and remove unused images with confidence. #### Compatibility-aware scan Choose exactly which sources to check - WooCommerce galleries, Elementor designs, Gutenberg blocks, ACF fields, logos and category thumbnails - and ThumbPress only counts the enabled ones. That precision is what keeps genuinely-used images off the unused list. #### One-Click Cleanup Select and remove unused images in bulk without manually searching through your entire media library. #### Trash with recovery Removed images go to the ThumbPress trash first, tagged with where they came from. Restore anything you removed by mistake and it goes right back to its original list. ## Clean Up with Confidence Delete dead weight, keep everything that matters. - Scans posts, products, and builder content - WooCommerce, Elementor, ACF, and Gutenberg aware - You choose which sources count as "used" - Careful exclusions prevent false "unused" hits - Removed images go to trash, not gone for good - Scanning stays on your server - no cloud service ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How does ThumbPress know an image is unused? It scans the sources you enable - posts, pages, products, featured images, builder content and more - and flags only images that aren't referenced in any of them. If nothing points to an image, it's listed as unused. ### Does it detect images used in Elementor and ACF? Yes. It's compatibility-aware: you choose whether to include WooCommerce, Elementor, Gutenberg, and ACF, and it only counts the sources you enable, with exclusions designed to avoid false "used" results. ### Is it safe to delete unused images? Yes. Removals go to the ThumbPress trash first rather than being permanently deleted, so nothing is lost immediately and you can review before clearing anything for good. ### Can I recover an image I removed by mistake? Absolutely. Each trashed image is tagged with where it came from, so restoring it sends it straight back to its original list. ### What about images referenced only in my theme or CSS? A content scan cannot see a path hard-coded into a template file or a stylesheet, so those images can show up as unused. That is exactly why removals go to the trash first - skim the list before you clear it. ### Why does an image I know is used show up as unused? Usually because the source it lives in was not enabled for the scan, or it is stored somewhere the scan cannot read - a hard-coded template path, an external cache, or a plugin that keeps its own table. Enable the relevant compatibility sources and re-run. ### How often should I run a scan? Once a quarter is plenty for most sites, or after a big content cleanup, a theme change, or a bulk import - the moments when large numbers of images tend to become orphaned. ### Does removing unused images break old posts? No. By definition nothing on the site links to them, and the trash step means that if the scan was wrong about a particular file you can put it straight back. ## Ready to Clean Your Library? Get started today. Love it or get a refund within 30 days. ## About ThumbPress ThumbPress is a WordPress plugin for image optimization and thumbnail management, built by Codexpert. It runs on your own server: compression, WebP/AVIF conversion and cleanup all happen locally, with no third-party image API and no per-image credits. - All features: - Pricing: - Documentation: - Blog: - Support: - WordPress.org listing: