See only “unfeatured” images in Add Media modal?

Thanks for your question. You don’t say exactly how you generated the column; are you using the Where-used “Featured in” feature or another method?

Your real question looks something like “how can I display only those images not already used as a Featured Image?” Is that right? If so, this came up a long time ago in an earlier topic:

Filter by featured images

My research back then failed to find a solution. I will have another look at the WordPress code to see if anything has changed, but I am not optimistic. In the interim, you might find the “MLA Not Featured View Example” plugin described in that topic useful. I will also have another look at that example plugin to see if it can be used to add its view to the Media Modal (popup) windows.

Thanks for your understanding and your patience while I investigate further. Thanks, too, for your interest in MLA.

I’ll admit to being a little overwhelmed by all the features of MLA, but I did find that tick box under Where Used for Featured Images and made that the only tick in that section.

With that set, I was able to adjust the Media Assistant view to show me a column that tells me where (if anywhere) an image is featured. This is an excellent tool as is, because WordPress cannot tell me this on its own without opening every post!

However, it would be most useful if I could determine the ‘non-featured’ status when adding a Featured Image to a new post. The purpose of my site is to showcase the images with a little text, so my ideal workflow is to open a new post and first pick a Featured Image that I know has not been used as such, then do the writing and post it.

With the Media Assistant view I can at least make the determination on which image there and just note which it will be for when I add the new post. Another approach might be to be able to “create post with featured image” from the image itself, but that seems like a niche way of doing things.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by zkarj.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by zkarj. Reason: Typo

Thanks for your patience while I worked on a solution for your application. I am happy to report that I found a way to add a “Not Featured” custom view to the Media/Library grid view and the Media Manager Modal (popup) Window “Set Featured Image” Images dropdown list.

I have uploaded a new MLA Development Version dated 20230317 that contains the enhancement. You can find step-by-step instructions for using the Development Version in this earlier topic:

PHP Warning on media upload with Polylang

Once the Development Version is installed you must install and activate the example plugin. Navigate to the Settings/Media library Assistant Documentation tab and click the “Example Plugins” button. Type “featured” in the text box and click “Search Plugins” to filter the table.

You are looking for the “MLA Not Featured View Example” plugin. Find that plugin and hover over the title in the left-most column. Click the “Install” (or “Update”) rollover action, then go to the WordPress Plugins/Installed Plugins submenu and activate the example plugin as you would any other plugin. Make sure you have the latest version, 1.02, installed.

Once the Development Version and updated example plugin are installed and active you can test the addition of the “Not Featured” custom view. It is available on the Media/Assistant screen, the Media/Library grid view and the MMMW popup windows such as “Add Featured Image”.

This MLA enhancement and example plugin will be part of my next MLA version, but in the interim it would be great if you could install the Development Version and the example plugin and let me know if it works for you. Thanks for inspiring this long-wanted MLA improvement.

I have released MLA version 3.07, which contains the enhancements and new example plugin required for this topic.

I am marking this topic resolved, but please update it if you have any problems or further questions regarding MLA’s support for “unfeatured images” filtering and viewing. Thanks for inspiring this MLA improvement.