How To Easily Download WordPress Media Library

I recently needed to download the entire media library from client’s WordPress website without access to FTP. If you search WP directory you’ll see that there aren’t many free plugins available for this.

And if you manually want to download images from wordpress site it can take your hours downloading them individually. There a a couple quick solutions.

Solution 1 – Export Media Library Using WordPress Plugin

One of the most popular plugins for downloading WordPress library is downML – Download Media Library.

Unfortunately it hasn’t been updated in a while and many people are getting an error when they try to download the library using this plugin.

Here is the error message: “Sorry Sonny! Something went wrong. Reason: zip open failed. “

After some research, I found a solution on one of the forums. (Credit).

Step 1.

Simply go to your plugin list after downloading downML. Then click edit right under downML – Download Media Library plugin title and find following file: downml_settings_page.php

Step 2.

Find and replace following line:

if($zip->open($destination,$overwrite ? ZIPARCHIVE::OVERWRITE : ZIPARCHIVE::CREATE) !== true) {

with this

if($zip->open($destination, ZIPARCHIVE::CREATE) !== true) {

That’s all you need. You might also need to change plugin permission folder to 777, but for me, it worked without it.

Final tip: Once you download the library, don’t forget to deactivate and delete this plugin. Any plugins you’re not using should be removed, to ensure your WordPress website loads fast. Also be careful with any plugins that haven’t been updated for awhile, they’re more likely to have security bugs and issues.

Solution 2 – Download from your Hosting Control Panel.

If you have access to hosting where the site resides you can simply navigate to wp-content folder where you will find uploads folder with all your images and media files categorized by year they were uploaded. Rightclick upload folder with all its content and select download.

Solution 3 – Use FTP Plugin to Get Access to Your Media Library

If you have neither access to the website hosting nor ftp information, there is another easy way to export media library inside WordPress. You need to download File Manager plugin.

The nice thing about this plugin is that you don’t need FTP info. It accesses wordpress folders and files without asking for FTP logins.

After you install this plugin inside your WordPress, you’ll be able to access all your files and folders. Navigate to wp-content > uploads. Right click and download the entire “uploads” folder to your hard drive or wherever you need to save it. This plugin will help you download all your files without getting access to hosting control panel or knowing ftp, which can be extremely useful in situations when you’re missing essential login information.

Hopefully, one of these methods will speed up a process of getting all the images and help you download your entire WordPresss media library.