File Groups
WordPress’s built-in file-management is built primarily for handling “media”. But sometimes there’s a need for curating collections of files within WordPress, not necessarily as media which will be displayed, but simply…
Consider an alternative
File Groups shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 14 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.
- Small user base (10+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
- No update in 13 years
- Only tested up to WordPress 3.3 (latest is 7.1)
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where File Groups stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| attachment | >100 |
| file | >100 |
| file group | >100 |
| file groups | >100 |
| files | >100 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About File Groups
From the official readme · v1.1.5Description
WordPress’s built-in file-management is built primarily for handling “media”. But sometimes there’s a need for curating collections of files within WordPress, not necessarily as media which will be displayed, but simply as files.
This plugin adds an abstraction called “file groups” to WordPress. Each file group can contain multiple files, which are presented elegantly to the user. All files in a file group can be downloaded together as a zip archive as well.
In addition, file groups can be tagged and these tags are used to associate particular file groups to your posts. Two widgets, “related file groups” and “upload related file group”, are supplied to make it easier to integrate the display of related file groups with your posts.
The plugin currently uses the PHP ZipArchive extension to support the batch download functionality.
This plugin is a component of the MIT Educational Collaboration Space project.
Migration
File Groups has some tools which make it easy for you to migrate files which are not in file groups (known as “orphans”) into file groups.
First things first, you will need to (temporarily) unhide the native Media Library from your admin by adding the following to your wp-config.php file:
define( 'FILE_GROUPS_HIDE_NATIVE_MEDIA', false );
In the Media Library, you will now see a drop down which will let you “show only orphans”. Select any collection of files there which you would like to migrate into a file group, and then select the “create new file group” action from the “Bulk actions” menu and click “apply”. A new file group will be created for the files you selected.
Alternatively, individual orphan files have an action called “create singleton group” available to them if you hover over its row in the table.
Installation
- Upload the
file-groupsfolder to the/wp-content/plugins/directory - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
- Optionally activate the “related file groups” and/or “upload related file group” widgets.
You should now see a new item in your WordPress admin menu called “File Groups”. By default, File Groups will hide the native Media Library. You can keep the native Media Library around by adding the following to your wp-config.php file:
define( 'FILE_GROUPS_HIDE_NATIVE_MEDIA', false );
If your WordPress installation has some files uploaded from before File Groups is installed, you will most likely want to migrate these files into their own file groups. See the “Migration” section under “Other Notes” for more information.
Changelog
1.1.5
- related file groups widget (widgets.php) defaulted to showing only first five groups because numberposts was not set. numberposts set to -1 to show all related groups
1.1.4
- At some point in time between WP 3.1 and WP 3.3.1, WP changed the id of the #media-buttons div on the editing interface to #wp-content-media-buttons. file-groups.js has been updated to reflect this change.
1.1.3
- Immediate security fix for documented SQL injection vulnerability.
1.1.2
- add capability to store a “file group description” as post meta along with the file group
- add description column to edit.php?post_type=file_groups
- enable category taxonomy for file groups post type
- remove_menu_page made conditional so as not to break wp ver < 3.1.0
1.1.1
- Fixed a bug with the “create related file group” button.
1.1
- Added tools for migration of files into file groups. See “Migration” section of the readme.
- Fixed a bug where the “files in group” column was showing up in other list tables.
Screenshots
For developers
Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.
Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.
Best File Groups alternatives
All attachment plugins →
FAQ
File Groups: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 1, 2026
Is File Groups free?
Yes. File Groups is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is File Groups safe to use in 2026?
File Groups shows warning signs in 2026 — compare the alternatives below before installing. It runs on 10+ sites and was last updated 14 years ago, and scores 23/100 on our health check.
How many websites use File Groups?
File Groups is active on 10+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 9,230 times since it launched in February 2011. It was downloaded 58 times in the last 30 days.
Does File Groups work with WordPress 7.1?
File Groups is officially tested up to WordPress 3.3.2, while the latest release is 7.1.2. It may still work, but try it on a staging site first.
When was File Groups last updated?
The latest version, 1.1.5, was released on October 15, 2012 (14 years ago).
Who makes File Groups?
File Groups is developed and maintained by mitcho (Michael Yoshitaka Erlewine).
What are the best alternatives to File Groups?
The most popular alternatives to File Groups are Fluent PDF Generator (20K+ installs), Attachment Pages Redirect (10K+ installs) and Disable Media Pages (10K+ installs).
Powered by PageForge
Want thousands of pages that rank like these? Build them in an afternoon.
This directory runs on the same engine as PageForge. Turn any spreadsheet, CSV or API into thousands of fast, SEO-ready WordPress pages — with schema, internal links and AI-written copy baked in.
- CSV, Google Sheets & API data sources
- AI content, schema & internal links per page
- Works with Elementor, Gutenberg, Yoast & Rank Math
- Free on WordPress.org — no credit card
