Title: Removing outdated thumbnails
Last modified: August 20, 2016

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# Removing outdated thumbnails

 *  [Qliphoth](https://wordpress.org/support/users/qliphoth/)
 * (@qliphoth)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/removing-outdated-thumbnails/)
 * I’ve been having problems with this one for quite some time now, but thanks to
   several slight redesigns and various things that I’ve tested, I’m now sitting
   with a bunch of thumbnail files in my uploads directory, sometimes up to 30 different
   ones for every single image ever uploaded, most of which I no longer need. It’s
   beginning to become noticable on my webhost and I’m looking for ways to clean
   it all out and start over without losing the original images.
 * So here’s my question.
 * Is there any way of removing the files from my /uploads directories without touching
   the original images and then having one of the addons that do this simply regenerate
   the thumbnails in the sizes that I need? Surely I’m not expected to do this manually?

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

 *  Moderator [cubecolour](https://wordpress.org/support/users/numeeja/)
 * (@numeeja)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/removing-outdated-thumbnails/#post-2460363)
 * What I usually do is connect using transmit (any ftp app would do), backup the
   images directory & then manually delete all the image files which are appended
   with dimensions, just keeping the one for each image which is at the original
   size as uploaded. Then run the operation provided by the [regenerate thumbnails](http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/regenerate-thumbnails/)
   plugin which does exactly what its name suggests.
 * There may be a way to automatically delete the unwanted sizes, but I’ve never
   looked for one as its usually early enough in a project that I decide on the 
   sizes I need, so I usually only have fewer than a dozen images.
 *  Thread Starter [Qliphoth](https://wordpress.org/support/users/qliphoth/)
 * (@qliphoth)
 * [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/removing-outdated-thumbnails/#post-2460529)
 * Yeah; that’s not going to be a realistic option for me, as we’re up on somewhere
   north of 15,000 images at this point, all thumbnails included. I need an automated
   way – a plugin, for example – to find all the files named ABCDEFG-###x###.extension
   files.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The topic ‘Removing outdated thumbnails’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [thumbnails](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/thumbnails/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 2 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Qliphoth](https://wordpress.org/support/users/qliphoth/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/removing-outdated-thumbnails/#post-2460529)
 * Status: not resolved

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