Learning Center

Which Storage to Use for Which Media Types

• Website photos, website graphics, small pdf’s (KB to low-MB file size range) –> upload to website
  [Note that there is a max upload range on your website usually between 25-30 MB, seen when you click on Upload Media – if a file is bigger than that, you CAN’T upload it to the website; but even if you’re close to that, be careful about adding too many; with just 100 20MB PDFs, say for a weekly newsletter with lots of images, you’ll hit your storage quota in a year]
• Audio, large PDFs,  and other large files (low- to mid-MB file size range) –> upload to Amazon S3
  [Watch our video on how to use Amazon S3 – https://learning.worshiptimes.org/wt-guide/use-amazon-s3-to-store-audio-files-video/]
• Videos (mid- to high-MB and GB range) –> upload to YouTube or Vimeo
  [Note that videos on either YouTube or Vimeo are easily embeddable on your website, which means they appear as if they are on your website even though the actual files reside elsewhere]

How to Save Large Image and PDF Files for Web

Before uploading any media file to your website, take a look at the file size. If you are in the MB range (as opposed to the KB) range, then use caution before uploading to your website. The more files you upload that are bigger, the quicker you’re going to eat through your storage capacity. However, there are ways to reduce the file size for nearly every file type, but since you should only be adding smaller files to your site anyways, we’re going to focus on images and pdf’s.

Images/Photos

Photos and images used on websites do not need to be print-quality, and shouldn’t be. So the first thing you can do is open up your image in just about any photo editing software and check the dpi/ppi. (Photoshop is common, but GIMP is free; there are also numerous online tools). 300 dpi is standard for print, but you only need 72 dpi for web. Changing the dpi of your image to 72 dpi will considerably lower the size of your file.

It is also a good habit to pre-edit your images before uploading them. Crop and scale your images to the size and shape that you will be using on your website. Again, any photo editor, even some photo storage tools, like Google Photos, are capable of minimal editing. If you’re using the image as a full-width image, it’s probably okay to leave it where it’s at. But if you’re using an image within the content of a page or post or in a small feature box on your home page, you can adjust the width and height to be something around 600-800 pixels. This is generally a good size for non-full-width images.

Photo editing recommendations – Photos (Mac) and Google Photos can crop images, but they can’t scale, which is the important one for file size. If you want a quick resizer that doesn’t do anything else, there is a free online tool by Adobe – https://www.adobe.com/express/feature/image/resize (you have to sign up for a free trial). (After uploading, select Custom from the dropdown to change the pixel width). This keeps the ratio the same as the original image (no cropping) but lowers the file size. After you resize your photo, then you can use Photos on Mac, Google Photos, or this free online tool by Adobe – https://www.adobe.com/express/feature/image/crop (you have to sign up for a free trial) – to crop it so that it’s exactly the right size for your website. You can also use any photo editing software to achieve the same thing – Photoshop, GIMP, Canva, etc.

PDFs

PDFs are a weird cross between an image and a document, so they have some of the characteristics of both. You can technically change the dpi of a PDF just like you would for an image, but often, it’s easier to open a PDF editor or viewer and re-save or re-export it by selecting something that usually says “Optimize for Web” or “Reduce File Size.” Exactly how to do this looks different depending on which program you are using, so reach out to us or Google or your nearest tech guru to get more details, but the end result is that the program you use will adjust the content within the PDF to decrease the file size while maintaining readability. Generally, re-saving the PDF using this method is enough to decrease the file size for uploading to the website.

Cleaning Out Your Media Library

It is a good idea to dedicate time to cleaning out your Media Library. How often you do this will vary depending on your website usage and the types and sizes of the media you upload. You could just wait until your storage is full, but you could also plan on doing an annual spring cleaning.

How do you know if your storage is full and it’s too late? You may notice that you can’t upload anything at all, no matter how small it is. If that happens, go to your Dashboard and look at your site’s quota in the At a Glance box. Contact us, and we can increase your storage a little bit to buy you some time while you clean out your media library.

Delete Old, Unused, or Large Files

Use the list-view instead of the gallery/thumbnail view to see more images and to bulk edit them.

• In your Media Library, to the left of where it says “All media items” (top, left-hand corner of the library), click on the “List” icon.
• In the very top right-hand corner, click on the “Screen Options” tab.
• Put a large number next to “Number of items per page” (something like 100). This will give you a paginated list of your library and makes bulk editing much easier.
• You can select multiple images and then select “Delete permanently” from the “Bulk actions” drop-down at the top of the list.
• To get to the “end” quickly (your oldest files), click on the double-right arrows, next to the pagination on the top, right-hand corner of the library.

Large Files

• While in the list-view of your Media Library, click on the File Size field to sort by file size (click again to sort in the opposite direction).
• Tip: If you aren’t seeing all of your files after sorting, go back to your main Media Library page, and navigate through each page of your Media Library – this reloads the image size in the database. After doing that, you should be able to sort the entire library.
• If you feel like the file is large and could be made smaller via one of the methods above, then download the file (right-click and Save As).
• Proceed with editing and re-saving it to try to get a smaller file size.
• If you succeed in getting a significantly smaller size, re-upload to your Media Library.
• Find where that file is attached, and replace it with the new, smaller image.
• Re-check the original image in the Media Library to see if it is attached elsewhere.
• If it is not, delete the old, larger image.

Duplicates

• Find duplicates by simply scrolling through and viewing your Media Library.
• AND/OR search for duplicates by typing in a simple title/name into your Media Library’s search (top-right corner of the library above the pagination).
• AND/OR in the list view, click on “File” at the top of the first column to sort your library alphabetically and scan through for visual duplicates with matching file names.
• If there is an attachment page listed for one and not listed for the other, then delete the one that says “Unattached.”
  [Do note that WordPress can’t necessarily catch every place a file might be attached, so absolutely do NOT delete every single file that is unattached. Those files might not be in a post or page and could be in a publication or event or in a widget].