More Media Library quirks – Unattached status

If you view the Media Library with the list option i.e.

Then for each item there is a column Uploaded to:

Uploaded to records the page/post/Group/Event/Venue/Notice or even Contacts the media item was uploaded to (Group Computer in this case).

Note the item has to have been uploaded (Upload or dragged) to the page, post etc. concerned and not pre-exist in the Media Library or be a reference to an image on an external website (Insert from URL).

If an item is loaded directly into the Media Library (Add New Media File) then it will have an Uploaded to status of ‘(Unattached)’.

So far so good, but the only way to Detach a media item is to do it manually. Deleting the item in a block or removing it from a link will not change the status of the item in the Media Library. Once Detached, so made ‘(Unattached)’, it can manually be Attached to a page, post etc.

Relying on manually Detaching media items is clearly not workable. It is also something that needs to be done with caution as a single Media Library item can be used in multiple pages, posts etc.

The recommendation is to never update the Uploaded to status, use it as a record of the page, post etc. the media item was first uploaded to.