Editing image meta data in the Media library doesn't affect images in posts

  • I’m trying to fix it so that if I edit an existing image’s meta data in the Media library, these changes will be reflected across the whole site. So any posts that already have said image attached will include this new meta data, as well as any other post or page’s instance of the image. Right now when you edit an existing image in the Media library, it saves that info for future insertion but doesn’t affect existing instances of that image in existing posts. I do not want to have to edit every single post to change image meta data, it would be much quicker to knock out image after image via the Media library. It’s a shame this isn’t built in to WordPress, and it’s a problem with such a lengthy explanation that all my google attempts yielded nothing useful. I figured there must be a plugin for this but I can’t find anything there either.

    Ideas? Thanks!

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • Please provide us an example of these metadata issues. (Then review what metadata is and how it is apart of your site images)

    Thread Starter earthtojeremy

    (@earthtojeremy)

    If I input text into the description field for an image, it will save that in the Media library, and from then on out if whenever I insert the image, it will include this data. It will not, however, append this new description data to any copy of this image that already exists in posts. This means that I currently have to go back and edit 4 years worth of posts to add a description to an image. I need to be able to edit the description field in the Media library, and have these changes reflect anywhere said image appears in all 4 years of posts.

    I also need to display the description text as a caption on the front end, which is a whole other insanely convoluted can of worms that seems to have no solution.

    I repeat above.

    Thread Starter earthtojeremy

    (@earthtojeremy)

    OK I obviously don’t know what you’re asking then, please elaborate if you can.

    Each of the terms noted can be found using common information searches.

    Please review.

    Thread Starter earthtojeremy

    (@earthtojeremy)

    I don’t know if you’re a bot or what, but please don’t fill this thread with junk posts. I’m trying to address a problem that many WordPress users are also experiencing and your insistence that I should already know how to do the thing I’m telling you I don’t know how to do is as useless as it is condescending.

    Does anyone have any useful help? Thanks!

    First, the digital items being uploaded should already contain the metadata. Second, there are ways to store/manipulate the extracted, attached to Media ID metadata per media item in your database. Several plugins and many themes can include additional metadata fields that can be displayed on your website. Depending on which camera is used, or which image post processor is used (or conjunction thereof), there are differing standards on what metadata is included with each uploaded image.

    Please, per forum rules, search first about a specific issue/item of interest first. I use Google Search and apply a date filter to find newest codex content/related forum posts using good search terms, for example, “WordPress Image Metadata”.

    If you specifically require an image to have another caption or other metadata to display in a specific post, upload that image again to the post and adjust as needed. The same image can be uploaded as many times as you prefer, it is given a unique image ID. I agree this is not optimal for a site that wants to do as you are attempting, but as we know, WP core provides basic functionality, and the more powerful stuff is done in themes and plugins from well respected authors/dev.’s. The basic Media Library works fine for most.

    Image Metadata, not be confused with other post ‘metadata’ or meta tags.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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