Mediamatic Review: Add Folders to the WordPress Media Library

There’s a lot to like about WordPress, but the WordPress Media Library isn’t always the high point.

While your desktop lets you organize files with simple folders and drag-and-drop, the WordPress Media Library just throws everything together in a mish-mash of different files.

Mediamatic is a freemium WordPress plugin that lets you change that by bringing drag-and-drop folders to the WordPress Media Library.

Much like you do on your computer, you’ll be able to drag-and-drop files around to various folders to stay organized. What’s more, this won’t break any of the URLs of files that you’ve already embedded, so you can safely drag-and-drop to your heart’s content.

Keep reading our full Mediamatic review for a hands-on look at this plugin.

Mediamatic Review: The Feature List

Mediamatic’s feature list is super simple, which I consider to be a good thing.

The core feature is that it adds folder functionality to your WordPress Media Library. You can create as many folders and sub-folders as you want to organize your media files.

Then, you can use drag-and-drop to move individual files or bulk move files to a different folder.

One of the nice things is that Mediamatic does not completely replace the native WordPress Media Library interface like some media folder plugins.

Instead, it lets you use the normal list or grid views…just with the addition of a sidebar for folders. Personally, I find the list view more convenient, so I like this approach.

Finally, it’s important to note that these are virtual folders. That has two important implications:

• Moving a file between different folders will not change its actual URL. This means you can safely move files included in existing content without breaking anything.
• It doesn’t change the file structure on your server. This means that if you connect to your server via FTP, you’ll still see the regular WordPress media library structure, rather than the folders that you’ve organized with the plugin.

Specifically, Mediamatic uses a WordPress custom taxonomy to manage the folders. So if you edit an image, you can actually see and manage its folders much like regular WordPress categories, which I’ll show you in the hands-on section.

Some Example Use Cases for Mediamatic

While anyone can benefit from Mediamatic’s simple folder functionality, here are a few specific use cases where it can help you out:

• Bloggers – keep track of all the images and media files you use in your content.
• Web Developers – keep your design assets organized for easy retrieval. It will also make it easier for clients to upload their content.
• eCommerce – use separate categories to manage all of your product images.

Going Hands-On with the Mediamatic Plugin

Now that you know what the plugin is doing, let’s go hands-on and I’ll show you how everything works.

Mediamatic is super simple to use which, again, is one of its strong points.

Once you install and activate the plugin, there’s nothing to configure. Instead, you can go right to the regular Media area to see the new folder functionality:

As you can see, Mediamatic uses the normal WordPress Media Library interface – the only new addition is that sidebar with the folders.

This means that you can switch between the grid view and the list view:

No matter which view you’re in, you’ll still get the same drag-and-drop functionality, which is a nice feature.

Creating a New Folder

To create a new folder, you just click the Add New button next to the Folders heading:

This creates a new folder inside the current folder you’re browsing in. So if you want, you can also create as many sub-folders as you’d like:

You can also use the toggle to hide the subfolders, which is helpful to keep things organized, especially if you have a ton of different folders:

Moving Files Between Folders

To move files between different folders, you just drag-and-drop:

You can also use the Bulk Select tool to select multiple images and move them all at the same time:

Again – super simple, and just like you do things on your desktop.

Renaming and Deleting Folders

If you want to rename or delete existing folders, you just click on the drop-down menu next to each folder.

Resizing the Sidebar

Another nice feature is the ability to resize the folder sidebar.

You can use drag-and-drop to resize it:

And if you drag it all the way to the left, you can even completely hide the folder sidebar. If you do that, you’ll get a toggle to turn it back on when needed.

Exploring the Taxonomies

As I mentioned above, Mediamatic actually uses a custom WordPress taxonomy to manage the folders for each file.

If you edit an individual file, you can see this:

By manually editing these taxonomies, you can make the same image show up in multiple folders, which is helpful if you want it to be accessible in multiple spots.

It’s not the most user-friendly way to add a file to multiple folders because you do need to open the image’s detailed settings, but it is convenient to have access to this feature.

I think a simpler way to do this would be an option to “copy” files to other folders, instead of moving them.

Mediamatic Pricing

Mediamatic comes in both a free version at WordPress.org, as well as an affordable premium version.

At the time that I’m writing this Mediamatic review, I don’t see any major feature differences between the two versions, but that might change as the plugin grows and matures.

Currently, the premium version costs just $9, which is quite affordable.

Final Thoughts on the Mediamatic WordPress Plugin

That wraps up our Mediamatic review!

In conclusion, Mediamatic is a simple way to add some extra organization to your WordPress Media Library.

The fact that it’s using virtual folders/taxonomies means that you can safely move files around as much as needed without breaking any embeds. Of course, if you do specifically want a plugin that syncs with your server and uses “real” folders, Mediamatic isn’t the best choice.

But I think most people really just want an easier way to organize files in the in-dashboard Media Library, and Mediamatic definitely delivers on that front.

So if you want to add simple folders and drag-and-drop to your Media Library, definitely give Mediamatic a look.

Get Mediamatic Visit WordPress.org