Media Library Categories

Description

Adds the ability to use categories in the WordPress Media Library. When activated a dropdown of categories will show up in the media library.
You can change / add / remove the category of multiple items at once with bulk actions.
There is even an option to filter on categories when using the gallery shortcode.

Features WordPress Media Library Categories

• add / edit / remove categories from media items
• change the category of multiple items at once with bulk actions
• category options & management in the Media Library
• filter on categories in the media library
• filter on categories in the gallery shortcode
• taxonomy filter
• support for WordPress 4.0 – 6.6

Try Premium version – 100% money back guarantee
WordPress Media Library Categories Premium adds the option to filter on categories when inserting media into a post or page.
Try now – 100% money back guarantee

Screenshots

Installation

For an automatic installation through WordPress:

1. Go to the ‘Add New’ plugins screen in your WordPress admin area
2. Search for ‘Media Library Categories’
3. Click ‘Install Now’ and activate the plugin
4. A dropdown of categories will show up in the media library

For a manual installation via FTP:

1. Upload the ‘Media Library Categories’ directory to the ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ screen in your WordPress admin area
3. A dropdown of categories will show up in the media library

To upload the plugin through WordPress, instead of FTP:

1. Upload the downloaded zip file on the ‘Add New’ plugins screen (see the ‘Upload’ tab) in your WordPress admin area and activate.
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ screen in your WordPress admin area
3. A dropdown of categories will show up in the media library

FAQ

How to use separate categories for the WordPress Media Library (and don’t use the same categories as in posts & pages)?

By default the WordPress Media Library uses the same categories as WordPress does (such as in posts & pages). If you want to use separate categories you can use a custom taxonomy, this can be set under Settings → Media (or click on the settings quicklink on the WordPress plugins overview page).

How to use category in the [gallery] shortcode?

To only show images from one category in the gallery you have to add the ‘category‘ attribute to the [gallery] shortcode.
The value passed to the ‘category‘ attribute can be either the category slug or the term_id, for example with the category slug:

[gallery category="my-category-slug"]

Or with term_id:

[gallery category="14"]

If you use an incorrect slug by default WordPress shows the images that are attached to the page / post that is displayed. If you use an incorrect term_id no images are shown.

Aside from this behavior, the [gallery] shortcode works as it does by default with the built-in shortcode from WordPress (see the WordPress gallery shortcode codex page). If you only want to show attachments uploaded to the page and filtered by category than use the ‘id‘ in combination with the ‘category‘ attribute. For example (the id of the post is 123):

[gallery category="my-category-slug" id="123"]

Or leave id empty for current page / post:

[gallery category="my-category-slug" id=""]

In this example the slug is used, but you could also use the term_id.

How can I filter on categories when inserting media into a post or page?

This feature is only available in the premium version

I want to thank you, where can I make a donation?

Maintaining a plugin and keeping it up to date is hard work. Please support me by making a donation. Thank you.
Please donate here

Reviews

Not working anymore

annzo February 2, 2024 2 replies

Actually a helpful plugin. But has not been working with WPBakery Page Builder for some time now. Among other things, it blocks adding new images to a gallery.

Simple and great

strarsis July 9, 2023

Simple and great plugin for adding category taxonomy to WordPress media.

Works Great

jeffkaiser June 14, 2023

This plugin is great, super helpful. I have been using it to create categories for media items that I then use with Loopers in Theme.co’s Pro theme with Grids and Sliders. Saved me tons of work.

Great plugin

Marko6548 August 5, 2021 3 replies

Thank you, a great plug-in. With almost 14,000 photos and after I lost all my categories with Enhanced Media Library plugin which I used for 6 years, this plugin (Media Library Categories) gave me a chance to make new categories again. Hope there will be a choice to remove the appearance of number of photos in each category. Cheers

Fantastic utility

todindiana November 23, 2020

After using the free version for an evening, I popped for the pro version. I found this to be a terrific addition to my media library toolkit as it provides good options for categorizing images. This is helpful when I’ve uploaded dozens of images and categorized them, and I’m ready to create topic-based sliders or galleries. I can now easily select a category, then choose images within that category without scrolling through 100’s of unrelated images. The developer is responsive and helful to questions.

Is not useful

kylomylo May 8, 2020 1 reply

So the plugin imports all categories from posts to media categories. So that isn’t right. Why is that? Then if you delete a category from media then automatically delete the category from posts. So all is a mess. Disappointed.

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

2.0.1

• Fix XXS vulnerability

2.0.0

• Add escape function for input field custom taxonomy slug

1.9.9

• Fix ‘jQuery.fn.load() is deprecated’ warning

1.9.8

• Remember selected category in dropdown when filtered

1.9.7

• Add autocomplete search to the category dropdown in Media Library list view (which can be turned on under Settings → Media)
• Add usability fix to highlight media library settings section when directly linked

1.9.6

• Fix taxonomy checkbox on media modal (when using custom taxonomy)

1.9.5

• Add autocomplete search to the category dropdown in Media Library grid view (which can be turned on under Settings → Media)
• Fix some translation strings

1.9

• Add interface (located under Settings → Media) to separate the media categories from the default WordPress categories

1.8

• Indent child categories in checklist media popup

1.7

• Support WordPress 5.0
• Support multiple slugs and id’s in gallery shortcode
• Support WordPress Coding Standards 1.1.0
• Add support for Dark Mode in WordPress

See complete changelog for all versions.