Media Title & ALT Fixer (CLI)

A WordPress plugin that provides a WP-CLI command to audit and bulk-fix image attachment titles and ALT text without breaking URLs.

This is useful for cleaning up media libraries where many images have no title or generic names (e.g. IMG_1234, shutterstock_12345), ensuring better SEO and accessibility.

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Features

• Detects and fixes attachments with empty or "weird" titles.
• Updates the title to match the parent post’s title.
• Fills the ALT text automatically when missing.
• With --update-alt, also replaces ALTs considered "weird".
• Keeps the slug (post_name) intact to avoid broken URLs.
• Can attempt to find a parent post reference for unattached images (--search-parent).
• Supports filtering by MIME type and upload date.
• Runs in dry-run mode by default (safe preview).

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Installation

1. Copy the plugin file into your WordPress installation, e.g.:

   • As a normal plugin:

     wp-content/plugins/media-title-alt-fixer-cli/media-title-alt-fixer-cli.php

     then activate from the WP admin.

   • Or as a MU-plugin (always enabled):

     wp-content/mu-plugins/media-title-alt-fixer-cli.php

2. Ensure WP-CLI is installed and accessible on your server.

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Usage

Run the command inside your WordPress installation:

Dry run (default)

Preview what would be changed without saving:

wp media-fixer fix --update-alt --search-parent

Execute changes

Apply the updates:

wp media-fixer fix --execute --update-alt --search-parent

Options

--execute Persist changes (default is dry-run).

--update-alt Update ALT text when missing or weird. Without this flag, only empty ALTs are filled.

--search-parent For unattached images, attempt to discover a parent post by scanning content (wp-image-ID references or filename matches).

--include-keyword= Append a keyword to new titles (e.g. Fresh Dog Food).

--food-cats= Restrict keyword appending to parent posts within these categories.

--limit= Maximum attachments to process.

--batch-size= Batch size per query (default 500).

--min-title-length= Minimum title length to consider valid (default 3).

--mime-include= Only process these MIME types (comma separated).

--mime-exclude= Skip these MIME types.

--uploaded-after= Only attachments uploaded after this date.

--uploaded-before= Only attachments uploaded before this date.

Weird title/ALT patterns

The plugin considers the following as "weird" (and will fix them):

Pattern example Reason detected as weird IMG_1234 Camera-style generic filename shutterstock_456789 Stock image reference 123456 Only numbers abcdef1234 Long hex string 20240708_123456 Timestamp-like pattern untitled Placeholder text copy of something Auto-generated duplicate title photo_001, dsc_0098 Generic photo/camera output Empty string No title/ALT at all

If an attachment’s title or ALT matches any of these patterns, it will be replaced with a more meaningful one (usually the parent post title).

Examples

Dry run to see what will change:

wp media-fixer fix --update-alt --search-parent

Execute changes for all attachments:

wp media-fixer fix --execute --update-alt --search-parent

Restrict to JPEG and PNG images uploaded in 2025:

wp media-fixer fix --execute --update-alt --mime-include=image/jpeg,image/png --uploaded-after=2025-01-01

License

MIT License.