Media Library – Attach & detach what is the point?

  • I’m learning WP and I really don’t see the point of attach/detach in the media library. If in the media library I attach say a jpg to a page or post I still have to go into the editor and place it. If I detach an existing image for a post/page I again have to go into the editor to get rid of it otherwise it remains visible.

    So what am I missing here??

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Attachment is valuable, but mostly to plugins. Under WordPress itself, it does two things:

    1. When you create a gallery for a post/page or simply insert the [gallery] shortcode, it automatically includes all attached images for that post/page.

    2. If you were to export your blog’s content via Tools -> Export and import that file elsewhere, there will be an option during import to automatically copy over all attached media (since the export file itself is basically just post/page text and meta data).

    Thread Starter GusGF

    (@gusgf)

    1. When you create a gallery for a post/page or simply insert the [gallery] shortcode, it automatically includes all attached images for that post/page.

    This I didn’t know, thank you for that invaluable insight.

    2. If you were to export your blog’s content via Tools -> Export and import that file elsewhere, there will be an option during import to automatically copy over all attached media (since the export file itself is basically just post/page text and meta data).

    Okay so the export contains media (but only the attached media), text and meta-suff. So when you import you will only be importing media that was attached.

    Media by default is attached. Are there any detrimental effects to detaching all media for my blogs and posts for a site if I’m not doing any exporting. As from what I’ve seen it doesn’t seem to have any effect.

    Thanks

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    There’s no detrimental effect. The only downside is that if you ever did get a plugin that only worked with attached media, you would have to re-upload the media to re-attach it.

    Thread Starter GusGF

    (@gusgf)

    There’s no detrimental effect. The only downside is that if you ever did get a plugin that only worked with attached media, you would have to re-upload the media to re-attach it.

    Thanks James, sorry but why would I have to reupload the media if it’s already in my media library, it’s just unattached. All I assume I would have to do is re-attach it?

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    While it’s easy to detach media, the only way to re-attach media is to re-upload it while editing the post/page you want to attach it to.

    Thread Starter GusGF

    (@gusgf)

    While it’s easy to detach media, the only way to re-attach media is to re-upload it while editing the post/page you want to attach it to.

    That’s not been my experience so far oddly. When I’ve detached media from a page or post I’ve additionally had to go into the page/post and actually delete it. And to re-add it I simply select it back from the library.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    Excellent, things must have changed around since I last needed to poke at that system. ??

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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