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Media Library Categories

By jeffrey-wp

Content Management / Media Library & Asset Management

Reviewed by Abdul Hameid

Trusted WordPress expert with 20+ years of experience evaluating plugins for the WP ecosystem.

Media Library Categories Review - In-Depth Analysis

Enhance your WordPress Media Library by adding category support. Easily manage and filter media items with categories.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.97/10

User Rating

4.2/5 (based on 52+ reviews)

Active Installations

20,000+

Update Frequency

Below Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

3 / 10 (Low Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

This plugin adds the ability to use categories in the WordPress Media Library. When activated, a dropdown of categories will show up in the media library.

You can change, add, or remove the category of multiple items at once using bulk actions. There is even an option to filter on categories when using the gallery shortcode.

Features include adding, editing, and removing categories from media items, changing the category of multiple items at once, and category management in the Media Library. You can also filter on categories in the media library and the gallery shortcode.

Comparing to Alternatives

Media Library Categories offers a focused solution for categorizing media items in WordPress, with several alternatives available that provide similar or expanded media management features.

Top alternatives

Strengths

Provides category taxonomy for media items, enhancing organization.
Pro version offers advanced categorization features.
Developer is responsive and helpful to user inquiries.
Simplifies selection of media items by category for galleries and sliders.
Helps recover media categorization after issues with other plugins.

Weaknesses

Imports categories from posts to media, which can cause confusion.
Deleting a media category also deletes the category from posts, leading to unintended consequences.
Compatibility issues with WPBakery Page Builder, blocking gallery image additions.
Has had security vulnerabilities in past versions, though fixed in updates.

User Sentiment Analysis

With a strong majority of 5-star ratings, users appreciate the plugin's utility and ease of use, though a notable minority report significant issues.

Positive highlights

'Fantastic utility' with good categorization options, praised by todindiana.
'Great plugin' that helped recover media categories after other plugin failures, noted by Marko6548.
'Works Great' for creating media categories used in themes, according to jeffkaiser.
'Simple and great' for adding category taxonomy to media, as per strarsis.

Common complaints

Imports all categories from posts to media categories, causing confusion.
Deleting a media category deletes it from posts as well, creating a mess.
Not working properly with WPBakery Page Builder, blocking adding new images to galleries.

Weaknesses

Past security vulnerabilities related to stored XSS, though fixed in recent updates.
Some users find the category import and deletion behavior problematic.
Compatibility issues with certain page builders affecting functionality.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Users seeking a straightforward way to categorize media items in WordPress, especially those who want to organize large media libraries and create category-based galleries or sliders.

Not ideal for

Users who rely heavily on WPBakery Page Builder or who need strict separation between post and media categories, as well as those concerned about past security issues despite fixes.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version provides basic media categorization features sufficient for organizing media items and improving media library management.

Pro version

Offers enhanced categorization options and additional tools to better manage and utilize media categories, improving workflow for advanced users.

Final Verdict

Media Library Categories is a valuable plugin for users needing to organize their WordPress media library with categories. It boasts a high satisfaction rate for its core functionality and responsive support, making it a solid choice for media management.

However, users should be aware of its past security vulnerabilities, which have been addressed, and some compatibility issues with popular page builders. Those requiring seamless integration with WPBakery or strict category separation may want to consider alternatives.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Media Library Categories plugin.

Media library

Screenshots

FAQ

By default the WordPress Media Library uses the same categories as WordPress does (such as in posts & pages). If you want to use separate categories you can use a custom taxonomy, this can be set under Settings Media (or click on the settings quicklink on the WordPress plugins overview page).

To only show images from one category in the gallery you have to add the ‘category‘ attribute to the [gallery] shortcode.
The value passed to the ‘category‘ attribute can be either the category slug or the term_id, for example with the category slug:

[gallery category="my-category-slug"]

Or with term_id:

[gallery category="14"]

If you use an incorrect slug by default WordPress shows the images that are attached to the page / post that is displayed. If you use an incorrect term_id no images are shown.

Aside from this behavior, the [gallery] shortcode works as it does by default with the built-in shortcode from WordPress (see the WordPress gallery shortcode codex page). If you only want to show attachments uploaded to the page and filtered by category than use the ‘id‘ in combination with the ‘category‘ attribute. For example (the id of the post is 123):

[gallery category="my-category-slug" id="123"]

Or leave id empty for current page / post:

[gallery category="my-category-slug" id=""]

In this example the slug is used, but you could also use the term_id.

Contributors and developers

“Media Library Categories” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

jeffrey-wp

Pro version Free Version

WPS

6.97

Average

Pro version

Ratings

4.2 out of 5 | 52

Version

2.0.2

Last updated

1 month ago

Active installations

20,000+

WordPress version

7.1.3 or higher

PHP version

or higher

Languages

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Media Library Categories Review - In-Depth Analysis

Performance Overview

What It Does

Comparing to Alternatives

User Sentiment Analysis

Who Should Use This?

Pricing & Value

Final Verdict

Other Notable Features

Screenshots

FAQ

Contributors and developers

Ratings

Reviews (52)

Sort by:

Contributors & Developers

Interested in development?

Changelog

Security Status

Secure

No Unpatched Vulnerabilities

Known Vulnerabilities (2)

Previous Versions

WPS

6.97

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