How to export the Media Gallery

Jul 3, 2025

🔄 Re-evaluating Your WordPress Media Library? Generate a CSV Export in One Click!

As WordPress sites grow, so does the media library… and let’s be honest, it can become a bit of a jungle. Between outdated images, bloated PDFs, and unused assets, it’s easy to lose track of what’s actually useful.

That’s why I built a simple but powerful custom action hook in WordPress that exports all your media files into a clean CSV file. Why? Because sometimes you need to audit your uploads, understand what’s taking up space, or just get a bird’s eye view of what lives in your library.

What Does the CSV Include?

Every row gives you:

🖇 File Title (with link) – Click directly to edit each file in your WordPress admin.
📦 File Type – Whether it’s an image, video, document, etc.
📏 File Size in MB – So you know what’s hogging space.
🔗 “Uploaded To” URL – See which post or page the media is attached to (or not).

🛠️ How It Works

Here’s the core function that makes the magic happen:

add_action('admin_post_exportar_media_csv', 'exportar_media_csv');

function exportar_media_csv() {
    if (!current_user_can('manage_options')) {
        wp_die('Unauthorized');
    }

    header('Content-Type: text/csv; charset=utf-8');
    header('Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=media-export.csv');

    $output = fopen('php://output', 'w');
    fputcsv($output, ['File Title (linked)', 'File Type', 'File Size (MB)', 'Uploaded To (URL)']);

    $media_query = new WP_Query([
        'post_type'      => 'attachment',
        'post_status'    => 'inherit',
        'posts_per_page' => -1,
    ]);

    foreach ($media_query->posts as $media) {
        $id = $media->ID;
        $title = get_the_title($id);
        $edit_link = admin_url("post.php?post={$id}&action=edit");
        $linked_title = "=HYPERLINK(\"{$edit_link}\", \"{$title}\")";

        $mime_type = get_post_mime_type($id);
        $file_path = get_attached_file($id);
        $file_size = $file_path ? round(filesize($file_path) / 1048576, 2) : 0;

        $parent_id = $media->post_parent;
        $used_url = $parent_id ? get_permalink($parent_id) : '—';

        fputcsv($output, [$linked_title, $mime_type, $file_size, $used_url]);
    }

    fclose($output);
    exit;
}

✅ Why This Is Useful

Want to clean up unused media? You can easily spot items with no “Uploaded To” post.
Need to report large files or export metadata? Done in seconds.
Working on content audits or migrations? This gives your team a solid reference point.

📥 How to Use It

Set up a link or button that triggers a request to:

/wp-admin/admin-post.php?action=exportar_media_csv

Just make sure the user is logged in and has the right capabilities (manage_options) to avoid unauthorized access 🔐.