Where Media Is Used

MediaFlow already works out which content uses which file in order to name an automatic folder. Used on is that same answer, shown to you directly.

What it does

For any attachment, MediaFlow tells you the pages, posts and products that use it. And in the other direction, it can list the files that nothing on your site references — the ones worth looking at when your uploads directory has grown past explaining.

Where to find it

Used on appears in three places, all of them Media Library screens you already use:

The no-known-usage list lives in two places: a view in the folder sidebar, and a card on Media → MediaFlow → Tools.

Reading the answer

A file’s Used on panel shows one of four things:

• A list of content — the posts, pages and products that reference it, each linked.
• “Not scanned yet.” — this attachment has not been through a scan. Run a refresh, or edit a page that uses it.
• “Used by the site itself — a logo, icon or theme option.” — it is your logo, site icon, header, background or a theme option holding an image.
• “No known usage.” — nothing MediaFlow checked references it.

It never says “unused”

That wording is deliberate, and the plugin’s own integrity tests fail the build if any shipped string calls a file unused.

MediaFlow cannot see every way a file might be referenced. A stylesheet, a hard-coded template URL, or a plugin nobody has written a provider for can all use a file invisibly. So the interface states what was checked and what was not, right beside the number:

Checked

• Featured images
• Blocks, including nested and reusable blocks
• Classic editor content, galleries and captions
• Elementor layouts (when Elementor is active)
• WooCommerce galleries and variations (when WooCommerce is active)
• ACF image, gallery and repeater fields (when ACF is active)
• Theme options, logo and site icon
• Divi, Bricks, Beaver Builder and Breakdance layouts (when one is active)

Not checked

• CSS background images and hard-coded template URLs
• Anything referencing the file from outside this site
• Any of the above whose plugin is not active on this site

A source moves from Not checked to Checked simply by activating the plugin it belongs to. Full detail in What gets detected.

The no-known-usage list

On Media → MediaFlow → Tools, the Files with no known usage card reports:

• how many files nothing references;
• how much disk space they hold;
• how many files are used by the site itself, never listed here;
• the Checked and Not checked lists above.

Site-wide media is excluded from this list entirely. Without that, a logo no page happens to reference would be offered to you as a spare file.

The two actions

• View them in the Media Library — opens the list, filtered.
• Collect them into a folder — moves the candidates into a folder named No known usage for review.

Tips

• Run a scan before you judge the number. A library that has never been scanned reports everything as unscanned, not as unused.
• Activate the plugins that hold your content first. A site whose Elementor is switched off while you scan will report every Elementor image as unreferenced.
• Treat the folder as a waiting room. Leave the collected files there for a release cycle and see whether anything breaks before you remove anything.

Limitations

• A file referenced only from CSS, a theme template or an external site is not detected, and will appear as having no known usage.
• Collecting is capped per run, so a very large candidate list takes more than one pass.
• The answer is only as fresh as the last scan of the content that uses it.

Frequently asked questions