Enable Media Replace Plugin: Easily Change Images on Your Site
See how to quickly swap out an image on your site without having to manually delete the original image or update the post/page where it is used.
Related Post
You may also be interested in seeing this tutorial for Change Last Modified Date to control it as well since updating a post can change its ranking now too.
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The Advantage of This Method
Image file storage takes up a LOT of disk space at your host. It’s not just the original image, it’s also the 2-3 thumbnails that WP creates every time you upload an image.
So, if you want to change an image on one of your posts or pages, you could just use the Replace feature on the Gutenberg image block, but you would also need to go into your Media Library and find the original image and then delete it too – which will also delete all of its thumbnails.
Who has time for all that extra manual labor?
That’s where the Enable Media Replace plugin comes in.
It can replace the original image while simultaneously deleting the old one and all of its thumbnails.
Plus, using the Enable Media Replace plugin means that you don’t have to update the post or page where the image was used either, and that preserves your Last Modified date on that post or page as well.
Install the Enable Media Replace Plugin
Here’s a quick way to do that.
Go to Plugins > Add New.
In the tabs at the top, click Favorites.
Type in blogaid, all lower case.
Here you will see most of my favorite free plugins.
Install Enable Media Replace and activate.
Replace an Image
Go to Media > Library.
Switch to List view.
Now when you hover over an image you will see a link to Replace Media.
Click it.
You will be taken to the Replace Media Upload admin page.
Choose the New Image
Here you can see the current image along with its display size and its file size.
Click the Browse button to upload another image. FYI, you can’t choose one from your Media Library that you have already uploaded. You have to upload a new image.
Replacement Options
You have the choice to just replace the file, meaning that you must use an image format that is the same as the one you are replacing.
For instance, if the original image is a .jpg, then the new image must also be a .jpg.
And, the file name on the site will remain the same regardless of what file name you used for your new image.
So, if your original image file is apple-pie-1.jpg and the new file is apple-pie-2.jpg, with this option selected, when you upload apple-pie-2 it will replace the original apple-pie-1 image, but the file name will remain apple-pie-1.
Your other choice is to replace the image and the filename with the new one.
So, let’s say you didn’t know much about SEO when you made the original image and you named it apple-pie-1. And now you have a better image and you want more SEO on it so you want to upload the new image and use it’s file name that is gluten-free-apple-pie-slice or such.
Now, this note they have about all links to the original breaking is a little misleading. When they say Point what they really mean is the actual path to the image in the code will be changed from one image to the other. There is no redirect.
For the most part, you link to your post or page where this image is used, not to the image itself. So, there really is no need for a redirect on the link path to the image itself.
FYI, either of these options will also replace the featured image if that is the one you are replacing.
Date Options
You can also elect to replace or keep the date of the upload.
This is important as you will not be hitting Update on any posts or pages where these images will be replaced.
I suggest that you Keep the date so that it is equal to or older than the post publish or last modified date.
In the Replacement Options section, if you choose to replace the file and file name, then in the Date Options you will also see a checkbox for whether you want to put the new upload in the current year/month folder or not.
A nd then leave this box unchecked, then the new image will be put in the same year/month folder as the original image, which is likely preferred.
Do the Upload
Once you have finished making your selections, at the bottom, click the Upload button.
Edit Media
Next you will be taken to the Edit Media page.
Here you can Change the title of the media, if you like. This is only used internally.
But, you may want to scroll down and update the Alt Text as that is required for Accessibility now, and you may want to describe the image better for SEO too.
When you are finished, click the Update button on the right.
Check in Posts
You can check your media library and your posts/pages where the image was used to ensure it has been replaced.
But, keep in mind that you likely have several caches in play and you may or may not see the change.
Those caches include:
- Host server side caching
- Local caching plugin
- CDN like Cloudflare
- Your browser cache
You can try a quick refresh of your browser first if you’re checking in the Media Library.
And if you are checking the actual link to the post, you may want to try it in a different browser.
If that doesn’t work, then purge all of those caches and check again if you can’t see your changes while logged into your site.
That’s it!
Now you can easily replace images on your site with new ones without all the extra work of deleting the old ones.
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