While many of the initial concerns that you might have when you set up a WordPress site involve things like getting your theme installed and configured, eventually, you will be creating content. Some of that content will invariably include pictures and other files that you upload.
These files will be stored on your hosting servers, where you can access them via FTP, or through the Media tab in your admin section.
By default WordPress will organize these uploads based on when they were uploaded, placing them into folders based on the month and date they were uploaded.
While this can be convenient for some users, others might prefer not to use this folder structure.
Our guide below will show you how to disable this setting so that uploads are no longer sorted like this.
How to Stop Putting Uploads into Month and Date Folders in WordPress
- Sign in to your WordPress admin section.
- Hover over Settings and click Media.
- Uncheck the Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders box.
- Click Save Changes.
Our guide continues below with additional information on getting your WordPress site to stop putting your image and other files into month and year folders.
How to Turn Off the Upload Organization Option in WordPress (Guide with Pictures)
The steps in this article were performed in the 5.1.1 version of the WordPress application.
By completing the steps in this guide, you will change a setting that stops WordPress from organizing your uploads into folders by month and year.
Step 1: Sign into the admin section of your website at (yourdomain.com)/wp-admin.
Step 2: Hover over the Settings option in the left column, then choose the Media option.
Step 3: Click the box to the left of Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders to remove the check mark.
Step 4: Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the window to apply this change.
Our tutorial continues below with additional discussion about the organization of uploads on a self-hosted WordPress site.
More Information on the WordPress Automatic Upload and Media Organization Setting
In the guide above we showed you how to enable or disable the setting that causes WordPress to organize your uploads into a series of folders on your hosting server based on the current month and date.
While this can be useful when you need to find an uploaded file based on when it was uploaded, it makes it pretty difficult if you need to manually change or do something with all of the files on your server at once.
When you disable the organizational option then all of your files are simply going to go into the “Uploads” folder, which can make it a lot easier to do something with all of the files at once.
Note that changing this setting won’t affect the organizational structure of the files that you have already uploaded. It will only affect future uploads.
Do you have a logo for your site but having trouble adding it? Find out how to add a logo to the header in WordPress and replace the existing site name or placeholder logo with your own.
Additional Sources
Matt has been working with WordPress and creating content using this powerful content management system for years. While he has written about many other tech topics, WordPress is one of his favorites.
You can read his full bio here.
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