How to Set Up WordPress Media Settings

When you upload an image to WordPress, it automatically creates multiple resized versions of that image for use in different contexts - thumbnails, medium previews, and large sizes. The Media Settings screen lets you control the dimensions of these generated images.

Accessing Media Settings

Go to Settings > Media in your WordPress dashboard.

Default Image Sizes

WordPress generates three sizes by default when you upload an image:

• Thumbnail - default 150 x 150 pixels (cropped to a square)
• Medium - default max 300 x 300 pixels
• Large - default max 1024 x 1024 pixels

You can change any of these dimensions to match your theme's layout. Set a dimension to 0 to prevent WordPress from generating that particular size.

Organizing Uploads

Below the size settings, you'll find a checkbox labelled Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders. This is enabled by default and helps keep your media library tidy as it grows - dotCanada recommends leaving this on.

Custom Image Sizes

Themes and plugins can register additional custom image sizes beyond the three defaults. You can manage these programmatically using the add_image_size() function in your theme's functions.php, or use a plugin like Regenerate Thumbnails after changing sizes to apply new dimensions to existing uploads.

Regenerating Thumbnails

If you change image size settings after uploading images, existing images won't be automatically resized. Use the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin to batch-process all your existing images with the new dimensions.

Have questions about media management? Contact our support team and we'll be glad to help.