Moving Media into Folders

There are five ways to file media into a folder, and none of them is drag-only. Everything you can do with a mouse has a keyboard-accessible equivalent. All of them are free — no licence needed.

Drag and drop

Drag one attachment, or a whole selection, onto a folder row in the sidebar. It works in both grid and list view.

The tree helps you aim:

• Every valid destination is outlined the moment the drag starts, so “where can this go?” is answered before you move the pointer. Automatic folders dim rather than looking like a target that failed.
• The sidebar is sticky and the tree scrolls inside it, so the folders do not scroll away while you look for a file.
• The list scrolls itself when a drag hovers near its top or bottom edge — a drag cannot be paused to scroll, so a folder below the fold would otherwise be unreachable.
• Holding a drag over a collapsed folder opens it after about 600ms, the way every file manager behaves.
• A status line says what is being dragged and what to do with it.

Dropping onto Unorganized takes the media out of its manual folder without putting it anywhere else.

The media modal picker

When you open the media modal — in Gutenberg, Elementor or the Classic editor — the folder picker is there too, so you can file media while you are inserting it rather than coming back later.

The sidebar control

Select media in the library, then use Move selected media to in the sidebar: choose the destination folder and confirm. It is folded into a Move without dragging disclosure, and it remains the keyboard path.

The bulk action

In list view, select the rows you want, choose Move to folder from the bulk actions dropdown and apply. That leads to a picker screen where you choose the destination.

The toolbar filter

The folder dropdown in the list-view toolbar filters the library to one folder. It is a filter rather than a move, but it is often the fastest way to confirm a move landed where you meant.

One manual home per attachment

Automatic folders refuse drops

An automatic folder answers “where is this file used?”. Dropping a file into it would state something untrue, and the next refresh would undo it. MediaFlow refuses the drop and says why. See Editing automatic folders.

Media you cannot edit

MediaFlow checks your permission on each attachment, not just on the screen as a whole, so an author cannot reorganize media belonging to someone else.

See Permissions for the full set of gates.

Frequently asked questions