Not a Real File Manager

I’ve been looking for a real file manager for WordPress ever since starting to use it for two sites about two years ago. I was surprised that WordPress core does not have one. I quickly found the Media File Manager Advanced plugin but had to abandon it as it was not really a file manager.

I have since occasionally looked for real file manager plugins that were new or that I might have missed. I recently found Media File Manager and it looked as if it might fill the bill.

Having four documents to upload and link to, as I do every week, I installed and activated this plugin. When I opened Media File Manager, I saw all of the sub-folders of the Uploads folder as expected, and was able to navigate to the desired folder and see all of the files. But then I found it was impossible to upload my new files. Thinking I had to use the editor to do the uploading I next went there. But when I clicked on the Media Selector button, my folders didn’t even show. The only sub-folders that appeared were the year and month folders that WordPress insists on generating whether you want them or not. And I rarely use or want them.

So I had to revert to my usual procedure of logging on to the host server and using its file manager to upload the files.

And then I had to continue typing in the url of each file to the editor’s create link window – the Select Media button doesn’t even appear there. This is an serious omission – I do much more linking to pdf and mp3 files than I do picture inserting.

I moved to WordPress because the programs I had been using were either obsolete or becoming so. But both had excellent file managers which allowed me to upload and then link to or insert, by pointing and clicking.

Why WordPress lacks a file manager puzzles me. If a plugin exists, I have not been able to find it. I gave this Media File Manager plugin one star hoping this is just a premature look at a work in progress. What it does do, it doesn’t do very conveniently. I rarely have a need to move files. And why would I use this plugin to create a new folder when I then have to go to the server’s file manager to upload files into it?

I’ll keep looking for plugin I can use. Fortunately I have workarounds.