Move WordPress uploads out of date-based folders afterwards

An alternative plugin solution is Media File Renamer (by developer Jordy Meow). Its Pro version also allows you to rename media files and move them to other folders. You can proceed as follows:

• Preparation: First disable date-based uploads in WordPress as described above so new files don’t end up in subfolders again.
• Plugin use: With Media File Renamer Pro you can now reorganize your existing media. The plugin offers, for example, a bulk function to rename and move multiple files at once. You could move all files from a monthly folder to the main upload folder. In the plugin interface select the relevant media and either assign new filenames or keep them and use the option to move them to the main directory.
• Update references: Media File Renamer updates references in posts automatically when renaming. So if you move files to a different path, the plugin should adjust all occurrences of the URL in posts accordingly. Check the result spot-check: does the image still display in the post? Is the URL correct?
• Redirects: As far as we know, Media File Renamer does not create automatic redirects from old to new URLs. That means external links or direct calls to the old paths would produce a 404 error. You would therefore need to handle redirects separately (e.g. with a redirect plugin or via .htaccess).

Assessment: Media File Renamer Pro is powerful and can also accomplish renaming/moving. However, it requires more manual steps and oversight. You may need to proceed folder by folder and monitor the result. With many media files this can be time-consuming. Also be careful: if two files from different monthly folders have the same name, moving them into a common folder would cause a conflict. In such cases you would first have to rename one file to ensure unique names. Make sure there are no duplicate filenames before merging everything into one folder.

Conclusion: For advanced users Media File Renamer Pro is an option to get the “remove month folder” job done. If you already use the plugin you can try the manual way. Otherwise neo Rename offers a specifically tailored, simpler solution.

If you want to get rid of date folders but still keep a real directory structure, Media Library Folders (MLF) is a pragmatic compromise. The plugin adds a left folder sidebar to the WordPress Media Library and moves files physically on the server instead of just creating virtual categories. This keeps URLs clean while still logically sorting by topic.

Features at a glance:

• Create folders by drag & drop: A folder manager similar to Windows Explorer.
• Physical moving: When moving, MLF corrects all references in posts & pages automatically.
• Undo & bulk actions (Pro): Undo last action; move multiple files/folders at once.
• Multiple assignment (Pro): An image may appear in multiple folders.
• Server sync (Pro): FTP-created folders show up in the backend – practical for very large libraries.

The biggest advantage compared to purely “virtual” folder plugins: the folders really exist on the filesystem. That way you can back up images via FTP or copy them to CDN storage without losing the folder structure. For editorial teams that like thematic folders ("/products/", "/team-photos/", etc.) this is a familiar workflow and prevents filename collisions.

However, MLF does not create 301 redirects for old paths. If you come from the year/month structure you must add redirects yourself via a redirect plugin or .htaccess — or go straight for the one-click neo Rename solution, which includes redirects. Also, drag-and-drop sorting for thousands of images takes some time; automatic tagging like in neo Library is not available here.

The plugin WP Original Media Path follows a slightly different approach. It allows you to change the WordPress uploads folder — something that used to be possible in core until WordPress 3.5. With this plugin you can, for example, set your media to live under "wp-content/media/" instead of "wp-content/uploads/", or even use a subdomain for media. This affects the base uploads path. Important to know: WP Original Media Path is not retroactive — it does not automatically adjust existing entries. But you can use it to establish a new uniform structure and then switch manually. A possible procedure:

• Install the plugin and set the new path/URL. You could e.g. keep wp-content/uploads (if you only want to remove the subfolders) or specify a completely new path (e.g. wp-content/uploads_all or wp-content/media). Save the setting. WordPress writes the new path to the options (database) — all future uploads will go there.
• Move files: Now move the contents of the old uploads folder to the new location via FTP or shell. If you only want to dissolve the year/month folders and stay in the same main path, this means: move all files from the uploads/YYYY/MM/ subdirectories directly into uploads/. (You can delete the empty year folders afterwards.) If you chose a completely new path, move the entire directory accordingly.
• Database replace: Now you must update all references in the DB so WordPress finds the media under the new path. As described in the plugin docs, a search-and-replace operation is unavoidable. You search for the old base path (e.g. wp-content/uploads/2025/08/) and replace it with the new path (e.g. wp-content/uploads/). Practically this can be done with a plugin like Better Search Replace or with WP-CLI. Remember to account for serialized data.

After these steps all media are available under the new path. Existing content points to the new URL. WP Original Media Path has told WordPress the changed path; you have to do the rest yourself as with manual methods.

Use case: This plugin makes sense if you want, for example, a completely different storage location for uploads, such as another directory or a separate domain/CDN. For simply removing the date folders while keeping the same main folder it may be overkill, since the standard path (uploads) is retained. You could use WP Original Media Path to move all uploads into a subfolder “media” instead of “uploads”. Important: the plugin does not work with Multisite.

For technically savvy users there is the option to remove the date folders without special plugins. For this you must move the files manually and adjust all database entries:

• Database backup: Always create a DB backup first! A wrong search & replace can make the database unusable. Safety first.
• Move files manually: Use FTP with FileZilla or SSH with Termius or a script to move the files from the year/month folders into the main uploads/ folder. Pay very close attention to filename conflicts. If two files share the same name (e.g. image.jpg in "2023/03/" and again in "2025/12/"), they cannot both coexist in "uploads/".
• Database search & replace: Now all places in the DB that point to the old paths must be rewritten. This mainly affects the post_content column of posts and pages where images are embedded via img tags. Additionally, the attachment metadata in wp_postmeta or _wp_attached_file entries must be adjusted, which store the path relative to the uploads folder, e.g. "2025/12/image.jpg". In rare cases widgets, menus or theme options also reference images whose path must be adjusted.
  The most convenient way is with the Better Search Replace plugin or via the WP-CLI command. Example WP-CLI command:

  wp search-replace '/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/' '/wp-content/uploads/' --skip-columns=guid

  This would replace occurrences of the path string in all tables while skipping GUIDs. You would need to run this command per year/month combination or with regex (WP-CLI supports --regex). Alternatively use Better Search Replace in the WP backend, select all relevant tables and search e.g. for /wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ and replace with /wp-content/uploads/. Repeat for all existing year/month combinations. Serialized data: Better Search Replace handles serialized PHP data, which is important so that e.g. widget configurations or _wp_attachment_metadata are not broken. WP-CLI's search-replace also respects serializations (as long as you don't use regex mode).
  In the wp_posts table every attachment post has a GUID entry with the original URL. It is recommended not to change these GUIDs, since they serve only as internal unique identifiers (and are e.g. important for RSS feeds). If you run a general search & replace operation you would, however, also hit the GUIDs. If possible, exclude the GUID column (Better Search Replace does this automatically in a standard run). WP-CLI offers --skip-columns=guid for that. If in doubt it's not the end of the world if the GUID is changed, it should just remain consistent and unique.

• Clear cache: If you use a caching plugin like WP Fastest Cache or a CDN, clear the cache so the newly linked images are delivered immediately.
• Check: After the run verify that the media now load correctly without date folders. Especially in posts: do all images work? A quick way is to open the page and check the browser console for 404 errors. Thumbnails should still be visible in the media library. Also disable the browser cache in the developer console.

This manual method ultimately achieves the same result as the plugin solutions but requires great care and experience. Advantage: You don't need extra plugins (except possibly Better Search Replace, which you can remove afterward) and you have full control. Disadvantage: It is error-prone — a wrong search term or forgotten step can lead to broken images. And it is time-consuming, especially if many folders and files are affected.

If you do not want to move the files but still want to change the URL structure externally, you can work with rewrite rules. One solution is to automatically redirect visitors from a requested URL with a date path to the corresponding URL without the date path or vice versa. Two approaches:

• Variant A: files were moved, redirect old URLs: This corresponds to the manual method supplemented by a .htaccess redirect rule. Assume you moved all files into the main directory. Now create a .htaccess in wp-content/uploads/ with the following content:

  RewriteEngine On
  RewriteBase /wp-content/uploads/
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
  RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
  RewriteRule ^([0-9]{4})/([0-9]{2})/(.*) /wp-content/uploads/$3 [L,R=301]

  This rule causes: if under uploads/YYYY/MM/filename no real file is found, send a 301 redirect to /uploads/filename. The placeholders ([0-9]{4}) and ([0-9]{2}) capture year and month numbers, $3 stands for the filename possibly with a following path (in case there are subdirectories in the filename in the future). For example, calls to /uploads/2025/12/menue.pdf are redirected to /uploads/menue.pdf. The [R=301] status ensures it’s a permanent redirect (good for SEO). This solution is very elegant to catch existing external links or search engine index entries of the old URLs and route them to the new paths. It should be placed in the uploads directory (not in the main .htaccess) so it takes effect before WordPress.

• Variant B: Keep files in subfolders, internally rewrite to new short URLs: This is the opposite case: you keep the files physically where they are (in 2025/12 etc.) but want to show “short” URLs on the site and to visitors. That means you’d have to change the content so links point to images without the date path. To make those links work without moving files, you need an internal rewrite rule that resolves a request to /uploads/image.jpg to the actual file location /uploads/2025/12/image.jpg. This is more complicated because the server must somehow determine which year folder the file is in. Writing a global rule for that isn’t trivial — you’d either have to try all year/month combinations or have a fixed logic. If filenames are unique, you could try using RewriteMap or a script to find the correct path, but that goes beyond standard .htaccess rules. In short: this variant is doable but complex and error-prone. In practice it’s rarely used. It’s simpler to move the files or choose one of the other approaches above.

Use .htaccess redirects mainly as a complement to catch old URLs after a restructuring (Variant A). That preserves your images’ SEO juice and prevents 404s. If you use neo Rename, you don’t have to worry about this — the plugin can add redirects automatically.