Background of the issue:
We have stopped using media translation in WPML to handle custom PDFs and images for different languages. Instead, we are duplicating English to Italian using the 'independent' feature. This is working well so far.
Here is a video to help you understand. hidden link
Symptoms:
Our media library is too busy and is overrun with duplicates. We have three different media library folders (eng, es, and it) when we only need one folder.
Questions:
Can you tell us please how to rationalise WordPress media folder so we can consolidate and clean up our assets?
I'm afraid what you experience is expected if you don't use Media Translation. By default WPML makes all media available in all languages when they're uploaded. So if you upload a file in Italian, WPML creates database entries for the file in English and Spanish as well. When then you duplicate the post and change the file, the new files gets entries in all languages, thus the "duplicate" files.
You can uncheck this option in WPML > Settings > Media Translation but be aware that media will appear in other languages only after you duplicate the post they belong to.
WPML doesn't use different folders, it just attaches language information to database entries. Files are never duplicated.
Unfortunately, the only way to "clean up" is to manually delete entries from the libraries.
