Virtual Media Folders brings virtual folder organization to your WordPress Media Library. Organize your media files into hierarchical folders without moving files on disk—folders are virtual, so your URLs never change.

Features

Virtual Folders – Create hierarchical folder structures to organize media
Drag & Drop – Easily move media between folders with drag and drop
Sticky Sidebar – Folder navigation stays visible while scrolling through media
Gutenberg Integration – Filter media by folder directly in the block editor
Bulk Actions – Move multiple media items at once
Keyboard Accessible – Full keyboard navigation support
Internationalized – Ready for translation (Norwegian Bokmål included)

Free add-ons

Add-On Manager lets you easily install and manage add-ons that extend Virtual Media Folders with powerful new features:

AI Ability – Registers MCP tools for AI agents via the WordPress Abilities API.
AI Organizer – Uses vision-capable AI models to analyze actual image content and automatically organize your media library into virtual folders. This is add-on functionality requiring an API key from a supported AI service provider, or a local LLM.
Editorial Workflow – Role-based folder access, move restrictions, and Inbox workflow.
Folder Exporter – Export folders (or subtrees) as ZIP archives with optional CSV manifests.
Media Cleanup – Tools to identify and clean up unused or duplicate media files.
Migrate – Migrate folder structures from other media folder plugins to Virtual Media Folders.
Rules Engine – Rule-based automatic folder assignment for media uploads, based on metadata, file type, EXIF or IPTC data.

How It Works

Virtual Media Folders uses a custom taxonomy to assign media to folders. This means:

Your media files stay exactly where they are on the server
URLs never change when you reorganize
Folders can be nested to create hierarchies

Usage

Organizing Media

Go to Media > Library
Click the folder icon to show the sidebar
Use + to create folders
Drag media onto folders to organize / Bulk select media and use the “Move to Folder” action
Click a folder to filter the view

Settings

Go to Media > Folder Settings to configure:

Show “All Media” – Display “All Media” option in sidebar
Show “Uncategorized” – Display folder for unassigned media
Jump to folder after move – Navigate to target folder after moving
Default folder for uploads – Auto-assign new uploads to a folder

Block Editor

When inserting media from a block (Image, Gallery, etc.):

Open the Media Library modal
Use the folder sidebar to filter
Select your media as usual

AI Abilities

With the AI Ability add-on installed, the following Abilities API tools are available for AI agents and MCP adapters:

vmfo/list-folders (read-only) – Lists folders with id, name, parent_id, path, and count.
vmfo/create-folder (write) – Creates a folder with name and optional parent_id.
vmfo/add-to-folder (write) – Adds one or more attachments to a folder using folder_id and attachment_ids.

Recommended AI flow:

Call vmfo/list-folders to resolve folder names/paths to a stable id.
If needed, call vmfo/create-folder to create the target folder.
Call vmfo/add-to-folder with that folder_id and one or more attachment_ids.

This avoids ambiguity when duplicate folder names exist.

Permission model:

vmfo/list-folders and vmfo/add-to-folder require the upload_files capability.
vmfo/create-folder requires the manage_categories capability.

See the MCP Integration guide for client configuration (Claude, GitHub Copilot, Cursor) and a full usage walkthrough.

Documentation

Accessibility – Keyboard navigation and screen reader support
Development – Setup, API reference, hooks, and contributing
MCP Integration – MCP client configuration, upload flow, and AI agent usage using the AI Ability add-on
Add-on Development – Guide to building add-on plugins

Free add-ons

Use the add-on manager to easily install and manage add-ons that extend Virtual Media Folders with powerful new features:

Virtual Media Folders – AI Ability – Registers MCP tools for AI agents via the WordPress Abilities API.
Virtual Media Folders – AI Organizer – Uses vision-capable AI models to analyze actual image content and automatically organize your media library into virtual folders.
Virtual Media Folders – Editorial Workflow – Role-based folder access, move restrictions, and Inbox workflow.
Virtual Media Folders – Folder Exporter – Export folders (or subtrees) as ZIP archives with optional CSV manifests.
Virtual Media Folders – Media Cleanup – Tools to identify and clean up unused or duplicate media files.
Virtual Media Folders – Migrate – Migrate folder structures from other media folder plugins to Virtual Media Folders.
Virtual Media Folders – Rules Engine – Rule-based automatic folder assignment for media uploads, based on metadata, file type, EXIF or IPTC data.

Privacy Policy

Virtual Media Folders does not:

Track users
Send data to external servers
Use cookies
Collect any personal information

All data is stored locally in your WordPress database.