How Folders Work
A folder in MediaFlow is a label, never a location. Nothing moves on disk and no URL changes — one rule that explains almost every other behaviour.
On this page
This is the one idea the whole plugin is built on, and it is worth reading twice.
Folders are metadata, not locations
Moving an attachment into a folder changes where it appears in the library and nothing else:
- The file stays exactly where WordPress put it in
wp-content/uploads/. - The attachment ID does not change.
- Every URL, thumbnail, image size, gallery, featured image and page-builder reference keeps working.
Folders are stored as a hierarchical taxonomy on the attachment — the same mechanism WordPress uses for categories on a post.
What MediaFlow will never do
Because nothing ever depended on a folder, removing the plugin cannot break a link.
Two kinds of folder
MediaFlow has manual folders and automatic ones. They sit beside each other at the top level, and they behave differently on purpose.
| Manual folder | Automatic folder | |
|---|---|---|
| Created by | You | The content on your site |
| How many per attachment | At most one | Any number |
| Answers | “Where did I file this?” | “Where is this used?” |
| Rename, move, delete | Yes | No — change the content instead |
| Accepts dropped media | Yes | No |
| Badge in the tree | None | Auto, with the source named in its tooltip |
An automatic folder carries an Auto badge whose tooltip names the page, post or term it mirrors.
Why automatic folders are read-only
Source-derived data is regenerable; data you manage is not.
An automatic folder mirrors a page, a post or a term. Renaming it by hand would put it out of step with its source until the next refresh undid the rename. Dropping a file into it would claim the file is used somewhere it is not, and the next refresh would remove it again.
So those actions are refused, each with a message naming the source. See Editing automatic folders.
Why a manual folder cannot sit inside an automatic one
For the same reason. A refresh that deletes a derived branch must never have to decide what to do with something you made inside it.
There is no separate “Automatic” root
Automatic roots are named after the post type — pages, posts, products —
and manual folders sit beside them. A forced split was evaluated and rejected:
it adds a level of nesting to every path in order to state something the badge
already says.
What this means in practice
- Deleting a folder is safe. Its media returns to Unorganized and its child folders move up to its parent. No attachment is touched.
- Uninstalling is safe. Folders are metadata; the files are untouched.
- A lapsed licence is safe. MediaFlow stops writing, but nothing is deleted or hidden — see Working without a licence.
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