Announcing Duplicator WP-CLI Commands (And How They Speed Up Backups)
Looking for a smarter way to manage site backups? Explore Duplicator's new features, including customizable WP-CLI commands and permission settings!
Announcing Duplicator WP-CLI Commands (And How They Speed Up Backups)
Joella Dunn
Joella Dunn
John Turner
John Turner
Your WordPress media library holds important images, videos, and files for your website.
What if you need these assets offline or want to migrate them to a new site?
You won’t want to manually download each file. You can save time by doing a full media library download.
Downloading your media library will give you a copy of your media files. You can use this as a backup or upload it to another site to easily transfer your images.
In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to download the WordPress media library!
As a website owner, you’ll regularly upload lots of images, videos, and other media files to your site. In WordPress, these are stored in the media library.
Sometimes, you might want to download these files. By exporting the media library to your computer, you’ll have a saved backup of all your images and videos.
Here are a few more reasons why it can be helpful to back up your WordPress media library.
Occasionally, accidents happen. You might accidentally delete something or your website might face technical issues.
After downloading the media library, you’ll have a copy of all your files stored safely on your computer. This way, even if something goes wrong on your website, you can easily restore your media files later.
When you migrate your WordPress website to a new host or domain, it’s essential to have a copy of all your media files. This way, your new site is set up with all its old images.
With a media backup, you’ll ensure nothing gets lost during the transfer.
You might want to access your media files when you don’t have an internet connection. By downloading the media library, you can have all your files stored locally on your computer. This allows you to view, edit, or use your media files even when you’re not connected to WiFi.
Now that you’ve decided to download your WordPress media library, let’s show you how to do it!
To download the media library, you can use a WordPress backup plugin that supports media-only backups. The right tool will allow you to select your media files and then back them up into a single zip file.
Not many backup plugins allow you to create media-only backups. Often, they back up your entire website, without much more customization.
You could manually download your media library using cPanel or a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client. Keep in mind that this requires some technical expertise and can be time-consuming.
Fortunately, Duplicator Pro is a powerful WordPress backup plugin with flexible customization options. Using Duplicator, you can back up your whole website, or choose the specific data that is saved.
Along with media-only backups, here are some additional helpful features that come with Duplicator Pro:
To start downloading your media library, select either the Pro or Elite subscription. Although Duplicator offers a free version, the higher plans will enable you to fully customize your backups.
After your purchase, copy your license key. You’ll need to use this later to activate Duplicator Pro.
Then, sign into WordPress and install Duplicator Pro.
Now you’ll need to find the Settings page and click on the General tab. Here, paste your license key and activate it.
At this point, you’ll have everything you need to download your WordPress media library!
Duplicator works by backing up all of your website’s files, plugins, themes, and database tables into a single zip file.
However, you can easily pick and choose exactly what information is saved in this backup. This way, you can download just the WordPress media library.
First, go to Duplicator Pro » Backups » Add New.
On this page, you’ll see that Duplicator automatically named your backup. However, you can customize this with dynamic tags.
Next, choose a storage location. Here are all of the different storage integration options available:
If you already connected your third-party storage location, you’ll see it listed under Storage. Alternatively, hit Add Storage to connect a new one.
After this, expand the Backup section. You’ll see options to back up different site data.
Click on the Media Only preset. Duplicator will automatically filter out everything except the uploads in your wp-content folder.
Then, hit Next. You’ll see a full scan of your website. Review any notices and click Create Backup.
Now, Duplicator will download your WordPress media library and store it on your local server or your preferred cloud storage location.
To make sure you can always access your media library files, it’s a good idea to download this backup. Once you hit Download, you’ll have the option of saving the archive file, the installer.php script, or both.
By clicking Archive (zip), just your media library will be downloaded. However, you’ll need the installer if you plan to unpack the backup on a different server.
If you ever need to restore your media backup, simply find it on your Backups page and hit Restore.
Duplicator will then walk you through the restoration process.
Backups are an important part of keeping your website data secure.
If you don’t regularly save copies of your site (including the media library), you may lose important information to server crashes, bugs, or cyber attacks.
Duplicator can be your WordPress maintenance service. It allows you to set up automatic backups, so you can sit back and know your data is always safe.
To create your first backup schedule, find Duplicator Pro » Schedule Backups » Add New.
By default, Duplicator will run a full backup of your site. However, you may want to add a separate backup schedule to save just your media library. In this case, you’ll need to create a new backup template.
Name the new template. Then, choose Media Only in the Backup section.
Save the template and go back to the new schedule page. Use the Backup Template dropdown menu to find the template you just created.
Next, select a storage location for your automatic backups.
You can also set a start time and interval for the schedule. Duplicator supports hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly automatic backups.
Enable the schedule at the bottom of the page. Then, save it. The media files in your uploads folder will now be automatically backed up!
WordPress has a built-in way to export your media library. To use this, head over to Tools » Export.
Choose the Media option. If you only want a limited number of images, specify the time frame when you uploaded them.
Finally, click on Download Export File.
You can download your entire WordPress media library by creating a media-only backup with Duplicator Pro. Using this backup plugin, simply specify that you only want to download media files in your backup.
To do this without a plugin, you can go to Tools » Export in the WordPress sidebar and export your media library as an XML file.
You can also connect your site to an FTP client like FileZilla and navigate through this folder structure: public_html » wp-content » uploads. Right-click on the uploads folder and download it.
Alternative: The Export Media Library plugin specializes in exporting the WordPress media library. However, it doesn’t have any additional functionality like creating full site backups or automatic backups. It also hasn’t been updated recently, so it may pose a security risk.
You can download your WordPress site locally by installing Duplicator Pro and creating a backup of your live site. Then, build your local site and drag and drop your archive file into it. Duplicator will automatically replace your default local WordPress installation with a copy of your production site.
Yes, you can bulk download media from WordPress. Rather than using your hosting account’s control panel or FileZilla to manually download every media file in your root directory, you can install a plugin like Duplicator. This tool allows even beginners to easily create media-only backups.
Yes, you can clone an entire website. Using the Duplicator plugin, create a zip archive of your current site. Then, use the drag-and-drop migration feature to easily clone your site to a staging area, another server, or a new domain name. Since there’s no downtime, Duplicator can move a copy of your website to another WordPress installation, all without impacting your SEO.
To get to the media library, open your WordPress dashboard and find the Media tab. Here, you can view all of the media files uploaded to your site. You can also add new ones.
You’ve just downloaded your WordPress media library!
While you’re here, you may also like these WordPress tutorials and plugin reviews:
Do you want to start backing up your WordPress media library? Download Duplicator Pro to instantly save copies of your media files!
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