Media Organizer (EN)

• Media Organizer at a glance
• Requirements and installation
• Download key and updates
• Quick start: the first scan
• The review view
• Reading the evidence: why is a file considered orphaned?
• Quarantine, restoring, deleting for good
• Common questions and troubleshooting
• How the detection works
• Extension profiles and the coverage gate
• Configuration reference
• Reports: duplicates and broken references
• Optimisation and image editor
• Automation: scheduled scans and 404 monitoring
• The command line
• Permissions, export and privacy
• Large websites and tight time limits
• Changelog

Media Organizer at a glance

Media Organizer finds media files that are no longer used on your Joomla website and helps you remove them safely. For every file the extension shows where it looked, what it found and why the file counts as orphaned. So you decide on the basis of evidence — not on a guess.

Media Organizer is a pure administrator extension for Joomla 6 and produces no output in the frontend whatsoever.

Why cleaning up is safe here

Deleting media files is irreversible. The whole extension is therefore built around a single rule:

That rule is not a promise but anchored in the code. In practice it means:

• Quarantine is the normal case. Files are moved to a protected folder and can be brought back at any time. Deleting for good is a separate, deliberate step.
• A single gate protects deletion. Before the final removal, twelve independent conditions are checked, plus a one-time confirmation token that binds action, user, scan and the exact file list together. There is no switch that bypasses it.
• There is evidence for every classification. For each file you see which search areas were checked, where the search happened and with what result — including links straight into the content that uses the file.
• The extension knows its own limits. If an installed extension is not covered, Media Organizer blocks the final deletion instead of risking a wrong one.
• Nothing runs by itself. The scheduled scan and the command line can find and report, but never delete. A scan writes nothing to the file system, ever.
• Strictly local. No external services are contacted. No data leaves your website.

What Media Organizer finds

The search for references covers the usual hiding places:

• Articles and core content, including custom fields
• Modules — including the HTML of mod_custom, module parameters and folder parameters
• The version history of articles
• Templates and image paths hard-coded in CSS files
• Third-party extensions through vetted profiles
• A deep scan across the database as a safety net for everything else

What else belongs to it

• Duplicates — files with identical content, detected by checksum
• Broken references — dead image links in your content
• Optimisation report and image optimisation — near-lossless, optionally through external encoders, every change reversible
• Image editor — crop, scale, rotate, convert to WebP
• Command line for scans, reports and maintenance
• Scheduled scans through the Joomla task scheduler, with email notification
• 404 monitoring, which records accesses to files in quarantine — additional evidence before deleting for good

How to read on

If you are starting out, this order works best:

1. Requirements and installation
2. Download key and updates
3. Quick start: the first scan
4. The review view
5. Reading the evidence
6. Quarantine, restoring, deleting for good

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

Requirements and installation

System requirements

Joomla	6.0 or newer
PHP	8.3 or newer
Database	MySQL 8.0.13+ or MariaDB 10.4+

A backward compatibility plugin (plg_behaviour_compat) is not required. Media Organizer runs exclusively on the current Joomla 6 interfaces.

Installation

Media Organizer ships as a single package:

1. Open System → Install → Extensions.
2. Upload the file pkg_jimgo-<version>.zip.
3. The installation runs through without further questions.

The package contains:

Part	Purpose	After the installation
Component com_jimgo	The application itself in the backend	active
Console plugin	Provides the jimgo: commands	enabled automatically
Task plugin	Scheduled scans through the Joomla task scheduler	enabled automatically
System plugin (404 monitoring)	Records accesses to files in quarantine	disabled — deliberately your decision
Extension profiles	Vetted knowledge about third-party extensions	installed

Enabling the 404 monitoring

The 404 monitoring is switched off by default because it runs along with every page view. It is useful but not mandatory: it logs accesses to files you have already moved to quarantine. If a hit turns up there, the file was in use somewhere after all — a very strong reason not to delete it for good.

To switch it on: System → Plugins → search for Media Organizer → enable the system plugin.

After the installation

You find Media Organizer under Components → Media Organizer. Nothing has been scanned and nothing changed yet — the extension is waiting for your first scan.

Before you start, a look at Options is worthwhile: there you define which areas are searched and which folders stay untouched in principle. The defaults are deliberately cautious and suitable for most websites.

Where to go from here

• Download key and updates — so that you receive updates
• Quick start: the first scan

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

Download key and updates

Media Organizer is a commercial extension. After the installation it works completely — even without a key. The download key is needed for updates only.

1. Create the key

Log in to your account on graup-it.de. There you find your personal download key.

The key belongs to your subscription. Treat it like a password: whoever has it can download your updates. Do not pass it on and do not publish it in screenshots or support requests.

2. Enter the key in Joomla

1. Open System → Update → Update Sites.
2. Find the entry Media Organizer.
3. Enter the key into the field Download Key and save.

3. Updating

From now on Media Organizer appears like any other extension under System → Update → Extensions. Select the entry and click Update — Joomla downloads the package and installs it.

While downloading, Joomla verifies a SHA-256 checksum of the package. If it does not match the one stored on the update server, the installation stops instead of installing a possibly damaged or manipulated package.

When no update is offered

Observation	Cause and remedy
"The download key is missing"	The key is not stored (or not at this update site). See step 2.
Media Organizer does not appear in the update list at all	Click Check for Updates. Joomla caches results; only then is it asked again.
The update appears but stops with "checksum verification failed"	The downloaded package does not match the stored checksum. Try again; if the error persists, contact support — do not install anything manually past Joomla in that case.
"Update site not reachable"	Your server cannot reach the update server. Check outgoing HTTPS connections and any firewall.

Where to go from here

• Quick start: the first scan

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

Quick start: the first scan

A scan rebuilds the inventory of your media files and searches for references to them. It is harmless:

Starting the scan

Open Components → Media Organizer and click Scan. The scan runs in steps and shows its progress; on larger websites you can abort it and continue later.

How long it takes depends mainly on the number of media files and the size of your database. On a typical medium-sized website it is seconds to a few minutes.

Reading the dashboard

Figure	Meaning
Files	All media files recorded in the configured media folders.
Referenced	Files for which at least one occurrence was found. These are in use.
Files without a reference	Files for which no occurrence was found. These are candidates — not a verdict. Check them before you act.
Reclaimable	How much space the unreferenced files occupy together.
In quarantine	Files already moved, waiting to be restored or deleted for good.

The three reports

• Duplicates — files with identical content (same checksum), images uploaded more than once, for instance.
• Optimisation — images that are considerably larger than necessary.
• Broken references — content pointing to a file that does not (any longer) exist. Dead image links, in other words. Nothing is deleted here; the list is for repairing.

What you should do now

Resist the temptation to push everything unreferenced into quarantine straight away. A sensible first pass looks like this:

1. Open Files without a reference.
2. Look at a few files in detail — the evidence shows you everywhere that was searched. That gives you a feel for whether the coverage fits your website.
3. Watch out for a notice about incomplete coverage. If it appears, an installed extension is not covered yet — then the list has to be taken with care, and deleting for good is blocked anyway.
4. Start with a small, unambiguous selection and move it to quarantine. Watch your website for a few days. Then the rest.

Automating scans

Scans can run regularly through the Joomla task scheduler and inform you by email. The scheduled scan can only find and report — it never moves or deletes anything. There is deliberately no automatic cleanup.

Where to go from here

• The review view
• Reading the evidence

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

The review view

The review view is your workplace. Here you go through the inventory, filter it and select what is to be cleaned up. You reach it through All files or directly through Files without a reference.

Grid or table

The button Table or Grid switches the presentation:

• The grid shows thumbnails — good for recognising images.
• The table shows more entries per screen and sorts better — good for large collections.

The status indicators

Status	Meaning
Referenced	At least one occurrence found. The file is in use.
Without a reference	No occurrence found. A candidate — check the evidence before you act.
In quarantine	Already moved, restorable at any time.
No longer present	The file is not where it used to be — deleted or renamed without Joomla being involved (over FTP, for instance).

In addition, every tile shows dimensions and file size. Sorting by size descending is a good start: the largest unreferenced files bring the most space.

Filtering and searching

• Search path — full-text search over the file path.
• Filter options — narrow down by status, media type and folder. A folder filter includes subfolders.
• Sorting — by size, name or modification date, among others.
• Reset — restores the initial state if you have filtered yourself into a corner.

Selection across pages

The selection is kept server-side. So you can filter, page through, keep selecting — the files marked earlier stay selected. That matters when you are picking out specific files from several hundred.

With all on this page / none you mark the current page at once.

The coverage notice

Export

With Export CSV or Export JSON you take the inventory out — useful for agreeing things with clients or for a second opinion before anything happens. The export respects the filters currently set.

Where to go from here

• Reading the evidence
• Quarantine, restoring, deleting for good

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

Reading the evidence: why is a file considered orphaned?

The detail view is the heart of Media Organizer — and the reason you can trust a classification without having to believe it. You open it by clicking the file name in the review view.

The header area

Status	Referenced, without a reference or in quarantine.
Classification confidence	How solid the classification is. "Certain" means: the search areas relevant for this file ran through completely.
Type, size, dimensions, modified	The usual key data.
SHA1	The checksum of the content. Media Organizer detects duplicates by it — and by it the deletion gate notices when a file has changed since the scan.

"Referenced by" — the occurrences

Here you see who uses the file. The occurrences are grouped by search area, for example:

• Articles (com_content) — the article the file appears in
• Modules — module HTML, parameters or folder parameters
• Version history — older versions of an article
• Deep scan (database) — the safety net that searches the database broadly
• Extension profiles — occurrences in third-party extensions

Every row shows the source (for example "Article #3 'Welcome to your blog'"), the table and the record, the column as well as the reference found in the original text. On the right an edit link leads straight to that content — useful when you want to remove or correct a reference.

Why a file counts as "without a reference"

If none of the enabled search areas finds a reference, the file counts as unreferenced. The detail view then shows which areas were checked — and thereby also what was not checked.

This is exactly where a second look pays off:

• Are all relevant search areas enabled? Switching off the deep scan gives you more candidates — and less certainty.
• Is there a coverage notice? Then knowledge about an installed extension is missing.
• Might the file be used outside Joomla, in a newsletter, a PDF or from another website? No software can know that. That is what quarantine and the 404 monitoring are for.

Folder references: the most important special case

Some extensions do not point to a file but to a whole folder — a random-image module showing "all images from images/banner", for instance.

Media Organizer treats such a folder reference as fully valid: all files below it count as used, even if none is named individually. Otherwise a single module would be enough to make half an image directory look orphaned by mistake.

Derivatives

Many images have automatically generated variants — thumbnails, scaled-down versions, responsive sizes. Media Organizer recognises such derivatives and treats them like the original: if the original is in use, the derivative counts as used as well. That way no thumbnail disappears whose original is still needed.

Where to go from here

• Quarantine, restoring, deleting for good
• Common questions and troubleshooting

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

Quarantine, restoring, deleting for good

Cleaning up in Media Organizer always runs in two separate steps: first quarantine (reversible), then — much later and only if you want it — deleting for good (irreversible). This separation is the core of the safety concept.

Step 1: move to quarantine

Select the files in the review view and click Quarantine. They do not go straight into quarantine but first into a confirmation dialogue.

The dialogue shows you:

• Scope — how many files and how much space.
• Safety checks — among them that a valid confirmation token exists for exactly this set of files.
• Target folder — where they are moved to.
• The complete file list — every path individually, so that you can check it.

What happens in quarantine

The files are moved to a protected folder. They can no longer be reached from the web — so your website behaves as if they had been deleted. That is exactly the point: you see the effects without losing the files.

Every tile shows the remaining retention period ("30 days left"). The thumbnails keep working although the files sit outside the web root — Media Organizer streams them for administrators only.

Restoring

If you notice that a file is needed after all: select it, Restore. It moves back to its original place. At the next scan it is classified anew as normal.

That is the whole trick of it — the worst case is a brief scare, not data loss.

Step 2: delete for good

Only this step really removes files. It is deliberately inconvenient.

Before deleting, Media Organizer checks twelve independent conditions. All of them have to be met. There is no switch that bypasses this — not even for administrators. Among them are:

• The retention period has expired.
• The file is unchanged since the quarantine (checksum and modification date).
• A valid, one-time confirmation token exists for exactly this file list.
• The user has the necessary permission.
• The coverage is complete — no installed extension without a profile.
• Since the quarantine no 404 accesses to the file have been recorded (if the 404 monitoring is active).

If a condition fails, Media Organizer names all violations at once — not just the first. That way you know everything that is in the way.

A proven approach

1. Move a small, unambiguous selection to quarantine.
2. Keep running the website normally. Let the 404 monitoring run along.
3. After a few weeks: have any 404 hits turned up? Then restore and look for the reference.
4. If all stayed quiet and the period has expired: delete for good.
5. Next batch.

Where to go from here

• Common questions and troubleshooting

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

Common questions and troubleshooting

Classification

A file is shown as "without a reference" although it is in use. Why?

Because none of the enabled search areas found a reference. Open the detail view: it says where the search happened. Typical causes:

• A search area is switched off (Options → scan areas), the deep scan for instance.
• An extension is not covered — then the coverage notice appears and deleting for good is blocked anyway.
• The file is used outside Joomla: in a newsletter, a PDF, another website. No software can detect that. That is exactly what quarantine and 404 monitoring are for.

Why is deleting for good blocked?

Because at least one of the twelve conditions is not met. Media Organizer names all violations at once. The most common:

• The retention period is still running. Wait, or adjust the period in the options.
• Incomplete coverage. An installed extension has no profile.
• The file was changed. Checksum or modification date differ from the scan — scan again.
• 404 hits. The file was accessed since it went into quarantine. A strong reason to restore it.

What does "incomplete coverage" mean?

Media Organizer knows for many third-party extensions where they store media — that knowledge sits in vetted profiles. If an installed extension is not among them, it cannot be ruled out that it uses files. That is why deleting for good is blocked.

Quarantine and restoring stay possible — both are reversible. So you can still clean up safely, just not permanently.

Why does the same occurrence appear more than once?

Because several search areas searched independently and found the same thing. That is not a fault but a confirmation.

Operation

Can a scan damage my website?

No. A scan never writes to the file system. It reads and puts the result into the database.

The scan aborts or runs into a timeout.

The scan runs in steps, and its progress is kept in the database. A step that was cut short therefore does not cost the whole run: click Resume scan and it carries on from the same place.

If it happens again, reduce the step size under Performance in the options. If that does not help either, run the scan as a scheduled task or from the command line — both share their progress with the backend and can finish what was started there.

There is a page on this in full: Large websites and tight time limits — including which of your server's time limits actually bites.

How much memory does Media Organizer need?

The extension is built to process even very large collections with tight PHP memory. Results are not loaded into memory in full but processed step by step.

Does the scheduled scan delete automatically?

No — and that is not a setting but a deliberate product decision. The scheduled scan and the command line can find and report. Moving and deleting always requires a human who selects and confirms.

Does data leave my website?

No. Media Organizer contacts no external services. The only exception is the update process, which Joomla itself performs when you trigger it.

Restoring and deleting

I moved too much to quarantine. What now?

Select it and Restore. The files move back to their original place. As long as nothing was deleted for good, nothing is lost.

I deleted for good and need the file after all.

Then only your backup helps. Deleting for good is irreversible — that is why the retention period comes before it and why quarantine is the normal case.

What happens with duplicates?

The duplicates report only displays them. Cleaning up runs through quarantine and confirmation here as well — you decide which copy stays.

More questions?

If you are stuck here, get in touch through the product page. Helpful for a quick answer: the Joomla and PHP version, what you expected and what happened instead — and, if it is about a classification, a look at the detail view of the file concerned.

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

How the detection works

This chapter explains how Media Organizer arrives at its verdict. You do not need it for everyday work — but if you want to follow a classification or judge how well your website is covered, it is exactly the right place.

Two separate steps

A scan consists of two parts that are deliberately kept apart:

1. Build the inventory. Which media files exist at all? Read from the configured media adapters.
2. Collect references. Who points to which file? That is done by several independent search areas.

Only then does Media Organizer compare the two. A file without a matching reference becomes a candidate — no more than that.

The search areas

Area	What it searches
Articles and categories	Articles (intro and full text, article image) and categories, including custom fields.
Modules	The HTML of "custom HTML" modules, the module settings and folder entries. Unpublished modules and those in the trash count as well (configurable).
Version history	Older versions of articles. Whoever restores an old version needs its images.
Template files	CSS and template files with image paths hard-coded in them — background images, for instance.
Extension profiles	Third-party extensions for which a vetted profile exists.
Deep scan	The safety net: searches all database tables for image references — including those of extensions without a profile of their own.

All six can be switched off individually (Options → scanning). That is rarely a good idea: every area switched off makes the list of candidates longer and the conclusion weaker.

The deep scan

The specialised areas know exactly where to look. The deep scan does not — it goes broadly across the database and searches for everything that looks like a media reference.

That makes it slower but indispensable: it catches references from extensions for which there is (as yet) no profile. If you switch it off, you lose exactly that safety net.

Folder references

Some references point not to a file but to a folder — a random-image module with the parameter "folder: images/banner", for instance.

Media Organizer counts that as a full reference to all files below it, including subfolders. Overlooking that would make a whole image directory count as orphaned, just because no image is named individually.

Normalisation: why paths get straightened out

The same reference can be written in many ways: with or without a leading slash, as an absolute URL, with Joomla's internal #joomlaImage:// suffix, URL-encoded. For a comparison to succeed at all, Media Organizer reduces everything to one uniform form.

One special case deserves attention: Unicode normalisation (NFC). Uploads from a Mac encode umlauts technically differently from Windows or Linux — ä can be one character or two. Without normalisation such files would wrongly count as "without a reference". The option is active by default; when in doubt, leave it on.

With known website URLs you additionally tell Media Organizer which absolute URLs count as local — useful when content is linked with full addresses.

Derivatives

Many images have automatically generated variants: thumbnails, scaled-down versions. Media Organizer recognises this relationship and passes the classification on: if the original is in use, the derivative counts as used as well.

What is never recorded

Certain top-level folders are off limits in principle and are not inventoried at all — among them administrator, libraries, templates, plugins, cache and the quarantine folder itself. That protects Joomla system files from being touched, even if a media adapter is configured wrongly.

The folder media/ is deliberately not protected — on many websites real uploads live there.

Where to go from here

• Extension profiles and the coverage gate
• Configuration reference

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

Extension profiles and the coverage gate

Joomla extensions store media references in very different ways: sometimes as a path in a column, sometimes deep in a JSON parameter tree, sometimes as a folder entry. For Media Organizer to search a foreign extension reliably, it has to know where that extension keeps its references.

This knowledge sits in profiles.

Profiles are data, not code

A profile describes, for exactly one extension, which tables and columns can contain media references and how they are to be read. It is a data file — not program code.

That has a practical advantage: profiles can be updated independently of the extension. When knowledge about another third-party extension is added, you do not need a new program — only new data.

Which profiles are currently available is shown in Options → scanning under available profiles.

The coverage gate

Now the decisive question: what happens with an installed extension for which there is no profile?

Media Organizer could ignore it and hope. It does not. Instead it states: "for this extension I cannot rule out that it uses media" — and blocks deleting for good.

The notice appears at the top of the review view and names the extension concerned.

How to establish coverage

There are three clean ways:

1. Wait or ask. For common extensions, profiles arrive with updates. If one you need is missing: report it.
2. Register the extension as media-free. If an extension demonstrably stores no media references, enter its element (for example com_example) under Options → scan – advanced → media-free extensions. It then counts as covered.
   Under detected media-free extensions you find those already verified — you do not have to enter those yourself.
3. Uninstall the extension if you no longer need it anyway.

The override — and why you should avoid it

There is a switch that lifts the block: Options → security & retention → override the deletion block on incomplete coverage.

It is deliberately built to be inconvenient:

• Only super users may set it.
• A reason is mandatory — no text, no override.
• The override is recorded in the audit log together with the reason.

It exists for the case where you know better than the software and stand behind that. It is not a shortcut for clicking the notice away. If you need it, the more honest question is usually: why is the profile missing — and would the route via "register as media-free" not be the right one?

Custom fields: a common stumbling block

Custom fields can contain media. Which field types those are is defined under Options → scan – advanced → custom field media types. The default covers Joomla's own media field as well as common field plugins.

What matters is the automatism behind it: if media fields are used but not searched, deleting for good stays blocked. So if you use another field plugin that stores media, add its internal type name to this list.

Where to go from here

• Configuration reference
• Quarantine, restoring, deleting for good

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

Configuration reference

All settings are reached through the Options button at the top right of every Media Organizer view. This page lists every option with its default.

Scanning

Here you switch the search areas on and off. All of them are active by default.

Option	Default	Meaning
Articles and categories	Yes	Articles (intro/full text, article image) and categories.
Modules	Yes	Module HTML, module settings and folder entries.
Scan version history	Yes	Count hits in the version history as referenced.
Template files	Yes	Images hard-coded in CSS and template files.
Extension profiles	Yes	Third-party extensions with a profile.
Deep scan	Yes	Catch-all scan across all database tables.
Active media types	Image	Which types are inventoried: image, document, video, audio, font, archive, other.
Available profiles	—	Display only: which profiles exist.

Scan – advanced

Option	Default	Meaning
Root directories	empty	Which media adapters are inventoried. Empty = the default adapter local-images. For media under media/, create a directory there in the media component and enter the adapter here.
Excluded paths	empty	One entry per line. A folder path excludes the folder including subfolders; glob patterns such as *.tmp work too.
Protected core folders	administrator, api, bin, cache, cli, components, includes, installation, jimgo_quarantine, language, layouts, libraries, modules, plugins, templates, tmp	Never recorded. Protection against deleting system files. media/ is deliberately not among them.
Deep scan: excluded tables	empty	In addition to the built-in exclusions.
Media-free extensions	empty	Components without media references. They count as covered.
Detected media-free extensions	—	Display only: extensions already verified.
Count the trash	Yes	Items in the trash reference their files as well.
Count unpublished items	Yes	Unpublished items likewise.
Count module folders	Yes	Treat folder parameters as folder references.
Custom field media types	media, imagelist, mediajce, mediafile, acfgallery, acfupload, acfdownloadbutton, acfhtml5audio, acfvideo	Which custom field types contain media. Used but not searched ⇒ deleting stays blocked.
Normalise Unicode (NFC)	Yes	Unifies umlauts before comparing. Leave it on when in doubt.
Known website URLs	empty	One URL per line. Absolute URLs on these hosts count as local.

Security & retention

Option	Default	Meaning
Retention: images	30 days	For this long a file of this type has to sit in quarantine before it may be deleted. 0 = never released automatically. The period is a precondition, not a trigger — after it expires, nothing happens by itself.
Retention: documents	180 days
Retention: video	90 days
Retention: audio	90 days
Retention: fonts	0 (never)
Retention: archives / other	180 days
Require a super user for deleting	Yes	Restrict deleting for good to super users.
Maximum scan age	7 days	An older scan cannot authorise deleting.
Minimum number of consecutive scans	2	A file has to have been a candidate this many times in a row before it may be deleted.
Validity of the confirmation token	300 seconds	How long a confirmation token stays valid.
Override the deletion block	No	Super users only. Allows deleting despite incomplete coverage. Is recorded.
Reason for the override	empty	Mandatory reason, stored along with it.
Quarantine root	jimgo_quarantine	Where files are moved to. Protected with deny files on first use. Do not use the cache folder — it gets emptied. A warning appears if it is inside the web root.

Optimisation

Thresholds for the report — they only decide what is reported:

Maximum file size	500 KB	Larger files are flagged. 0 = off.
Maximum edge length	2500 px	Larger images are flagged. 0 = off.
Outdated formats	bmp, tif, tiff	Are flagged as outdated.
Modernise from	150 KB	Raster images above this count as WebP/AVIF candidates. 0 = off.
Raster formats to modernise	jpg, jpeg, png, gif	Which formats could change.

How optimisation works:

Image library	Automatic	Prefers Imagick, falls back to GD.
Maximum edge length (px)	2560	Scale down from this edge. Never scales up. 0 = off.
JPEG quality	82	1–100. Around 80 is a good compromise.
PNG compression	8	0–9, lossless. Higher = smaller and slower.
WebP quality	82	When the source is already WebP.
Remove metadata	Yes	Remove EXIF, ICC and comments.
Minimum saving	10 %	Below that the original stays untouched.
Maximum source pixels	0 (automatic)	Skip images that are too large, so that decoding stays within memory. 0 derives the limit from the PHP memory limit — recommended.
Images per step	5	How many images are optimised per request.
Editor export quality	82	Default quality for images from the editor.
Backup location	jimgo_optimize_backup	Where originals are backed up before optimisation. Is protected.

External optimisers (optional, see the chapter of its own):

Use external optimisers	Yes	Uses pngquant, oxipng, jpegoptim, cwebp, gifsicle where available. Falls back automatically when a tool is missing.
Optimiser directory	empty	Empty = search the system PATH. Nothing is downloaded or shipped along.
Available optimisers	—	Display only: what was detected.
JPEG / PNG / WebP / GIF optimiser	Automatic	Which tool per format. For PNG: pngquant is lossy (the biggest saving), oxipng and OptiPNG are lossless.
PNG minimum / target quality	60 / 82	pngquant limits. If the minimum quality is not reached, the PNG stays unchanged.

Reports & view

Entries per page	50	Default page size of all lists. The selection in the page footer takes precedence.
Hide providers from broken references	history	Their hits never appear as a broken reference.
History tables	#__history	Deep scan hits in them do not count as a broken reference.

Performance

Files per scan step	200	How many files one scan step records and checks. Smaller = shorter steps, needed with a tight time limit. See Large websites and tight time limits.
Records per scan step	500	How many articles, modules and other records one step searches for references.
Maximum time per scan step	10 s	Safety net: a step ends after this time at the latest, even if the configured amount has not been reached. 0 disables the time limit.
Database chunk (rows)	500	How many rows the scan reads at once. Smaller = gentler on memory.
Keep scan detail data	2	For how many of the last scans the occurrence details are kept. Only the latest scan is ever displayed anyway; higher values grow the database without showing you more. The scan overview is kept regardless.
Calculate file hashes	Yes	Needed for duplicates and to detect changes. Switching it off makes the scan minimally faster — and the deletion gate blinder.
Cache thumbnails	Yes	Creates scaled-down previews under media/com_jimgo/thumbs. Requires PHP GD.
Thumbnail size	360 px	Longest edge of the thumbnails.

Permissions

The standard Joomla tab. See Permissions, export and privacy.

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

Reports: duplicates and broken references

Besides the unreferenced files, Media Organizer provides two more reports. Both are pure displays: they delete nothing and change nothing.

Duplicates

The report finds files with identical content — detected by the checksum (SHA1), not by the file name. Two files can therefore have completely different names and sit in different folders; what counts is that their content is the same byte for byte.

Every group shows:

• how many copies there are and how large each of them is,
• how much space would be freed if one copy each stays,
• the beginning of the checksum,
• the status of every single copy (referenced or without a reference).

Cleaning up runs through quarantine and confirmation here as well. The report is the magnifying glass, not the broom.

With Hide you take groups out of the report that you deliberately want that way — images maintained twice on purpose, for instance. That keeps the list useful over time.

Broken references

This report turns the direction of view around: it shows content pointing to a file that does not exist. Dead image links, in other words — the broken image icon in the frontend.

The columns:

Referenced path	The file that is missing.
Found in	Where the reference sits, for example "Article #3 'Welcome to your blog'".
Search area	Which area reported the reference.
Edit	Jumps straight into the content to repair it.

The same missing path appearing more than once is normal: several search areas found it independently.

Why the version history is hidden

By default, hits from the version history are not listed as broken references. The reason is practical: old article versions naturally point to images that were replaced long ago. Those hits would flood the report without there being anything to repair.

You control this under Options → reports & view with hide providers from broken references (default history) and history tables (default #__history).

A typical workflow

1. Open the report and see whether the missing file was merely moved or renamed.
2. If so: jump into the content via Edit and correct the path.
3. If the file is really gone: remove the reference or put a replacement image in.
4. Scan again — the entry disappears.

Where to go from here

• Optimisation and image editor
• Automation: scheduled scans and 404 monitoring

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

Optimisation and image editor

Besides cleaning up, Media Organizer can also shrink and edit images. Both are reversible and run strictly locally — no image is sent to an online service.

The optimisation report

The report shows images with optimisation potential, measured against the thresholds from the options. It is a recommendation — nothing is changed until you trigger it.

Typical reasons:

• Too large (file size) — exceeds the configured maximum file size (default 500 KB).
• Too large (dimensions) — exceeds the maximum edge length (default 2500 px).
• Not a modern format (WebP/AVIF) — a raster image that would be considerably smaller as WebP or AVIF.
• Outdated format — BMP or TIFF, for instance.

Two groups — and the difference matters

The report deliberately separates them:

Triggering optimisation

Select the files and click Optimise. Before that the following applies:

• The original is backed up (default: jimgo_optimize_backup, outside the web).
• Nothing is ever scaled up — only down.
• If the optimisation brings less than the minimum saving (default 10 %), the original stays untouched. No loss of quality for a few kilobytes.
• Very large images are skipped so that decoding stays within memory — they appear as "too large to process".

Via Backups you reach the saved originals and can undo an optimisation.

External optimisers

If specialised encoders are installed on the server, Media Organizer uses them for compression — that brings considerably more than the built-in libraries:

Format	Tools	Note
JPEG	jpegoptim	—
PNG	pngquant, oxipng, OptiPNG	pngquant is lossy (the biggest saving); oxipng and OptiPNG are lossless. Automatic prefers pngquant.
WebP	cwebp	When the source is already WebP.
GIF	gifsicle	Keeps animations.

Media Organizer downloads nothing and ships nothing along — it only uses what is already installed. If a tool is missing, it falls back to the built-in library automatically. Under Options → optimisation → available optimisers you see what was detected.

The image editor

You open the editor from the detail view via Edit.

Possible are:

• Cropping — freely or with a fixed ratio (1:1, 4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 9:16)
• Rotating and flipping
• Scaling to a maximum edge length
• Setting the quality
• Adjusting brightness, contrast and saturation

Here too the original is backed up beforehand; through the backups view you undo the edit.

Saving: two routes with different consequences

Route	What happens	References
Replace the original	Format and file name stay the same.	stay valid ✓
Save as WebP/AVIF	Creates a new file with a different file name. The original remains.	still point at the original — you have to switch them over manually

Where to go from here

• Automation: scheduled scans and 404 monitoring
• The command line

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

Automation: scheduled scans and 404 monitoring

Two parts run in the background. For both of them the same rule applies as for everything else:

Scheduled scans

A scan can run regularly through the Joomla task scheduler. The task plugin is enabled automatically during the installation.

Setting it up

1. Open System → Scheduled Tasks.
2. New task → task type Media Organizer.
3. Choose the interval — weekly or daily is enough for most websites.
4. Optionally set up the email notification.

From the dashboard, Adjust task takes you straight into the settings. The dashboard also shows when the last scheduled run was, whether it succeeded and when the next one is due.

What the scheduled scan gives you

One thing above all: continuity. The deletion gate requires that a file was a candidate in several consecutive scans (default: 2) and that the scan is not too old (default: at most 7 days). A regular scan satisfies both by itself — you do not have to remember to scan manually just before cleaning up.

As a side effect the figures show you how your media library develops.

The 404 monitoring

The system plugin logs accesses to files that sit in quarantine. It is disabled after the installation — switch it on under System → Plugins.

Why this is so useful

Media Organizer can only find what is inside your Joomla installation. An image linked in a newsletter, embedded in a PDF or included from another website is invisible to any scan in the world.

The 404 monitoring closes exactly that gap — but only once the file is in quarantine: if somebody then requests the file, a 404 arises and the plugin records it.

The deletion gate checks these counters too: if there were hits, deleting for good is blocked.

Is this a performance problem?

The plugin runs along with page views but keeps itself tight: it is only interested in 404s on paths it knows to be in quarantine. If you still do not want it running permanently, a good compromise is: switch it on while a batch sits in quarantine — and off again afterwards.

The recommended sequence

1. Enable the 404 monitoring.
2. Move a manageable batch to quarantine.
3. Wait out the retention period and keep running the website normally.
4. Before deleting for good, check the 404 counters. Any hits? Restore and look for the reference.
5. All stayed quiet: delete. Next batch.

Where to go from here

• The command line — for scans without a browser time limit
• Quarantine, restoring, deleting for good

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

The command line

Media Organizer brings commands for Joomla's console. They are useful above all when a scan runs into a time limit in the browser, or when you want to script maintenance.

All commands run through Joomla's CLI entry point:

php cli/joomla.php jimgo:scan

The safety rule

The reason: a typo or an outdated script must not delete something by accident. Whoever has to name the number has looked first.

Read-only commands

jimgo:scan

Runs a complete scan. Purely reading — never writes to the file system.

php cli/joomla.php jimgo:scan

This is the recommended route for large collections: no browser time limit, no clicking to continue. Ideal as a cron job alternative to the task scheduler as well.

jimgo:report

Writes the inventory to standard output.

php cli/joomla.php jimgo:report --format=csv --state=orphan_candidate > orphaned.csv

--format=json|csv	Output format. Default: json.
--state=<state>	Only files in this state, orphan_candidate for example.

jimgo:duplicates

Lists files with an identical checksum.

php cli/joomla.php jimgo:duplicates --limit=100

--limit=<n>

At most this many duplicate groups. Default: 50.

jimgo:optimize

Reports files worth optimising according to the configured thresholds.

php cli/joomla.php jimgo:optimize --limit=100

--limit=<n>

At most this many files. Default: 50.

Changing commands

jimgo:quarantine

Moves the unreferenced files of the last scan to quarantine.

# Dry run — only shows what would happen
php cli/joomla.php jimgo:quarantine

# Execute: the number given has to match exactly
php cli/joomla.php jimgo:quarantine --confirm=42

jimgo:purge

Deletes files in quarantine for good. The same twelve conditions apply as in the backend — the command line is not a back door.

php cli/joomla.php jimgo:purge
php cli/joomla.php jimgo:purge --confirm=17

jimgo:optimize:apply

Optimises the flagged images. Originals are backed up beforehand.

php cli/joomla.php jimgo:optimize:apply
php cli/joomla.php jimgo:optimize:apply --confirm=8

jimgo:profiles:update

Reloads the shipped extension profiles into the store. Useful after an update.

php cli/joomla.php jimgo:profiles:update

Overview

Command	Effect	Needs --confirm
jimgo:scan	reading	no
jimgo:report	reading	no
jimgo:duplicates	reading	no
jimgo:optimize	reading	no
jimgo:profiles:update	writes to the profile store only	no
jimgo:quarantine	moves files	yes
jimgo:optimize:apply	replaces images (with a backup)	yes
jimgo:purge	deletes for good	yes

A word on automation

You can put jimgo:scan into a cron job — that is sensible and recommended.

Where to go from here

• Permissions, export and privacy

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

Permissions, export and privacy

Permissions

Media Organizer brings seven actions of its own, which you assign per user group as usual under Options → Permissions.

Action	Allows
Scan	Start a scan. Purely reading, harmless.
Move to quarantine	Move files into quarantine. Reversible.
Restore	Bring files back from quarantine.
Delete for good	Remove files irrevocably.
Optimise	Have images shrunk (with a backup).
Edit	Use the image editor.
Maintain the safelist	Exempt files from cleanup permanently.

On top of that Joomla's admin login permission (core.manage) applies — without it nobody gets into the component at all.

A sensible split

The actions are deliberately separate so that you can stagger responsibility:

• Editors: scanning. They see what is piling up without being able to touch anything.
• Webmasters: additionally quarantine, restoring, optimising, editing. That is the everyday work — and all of it is reversible.
• Super users: deleting for good.

The safelist

Some files should never be up for debate — logos, images for a newsletter, a folder with material for external purposes. That is what the safelist is for: whatever matches it is no longer reported as "without a reference".

What you enter are patterns, not individual files — checked against the site-relative path:

Pattern type	Example	Effect
Glob pattern	images/keep/*	Protects everything below images/keep/.
Regular expression	—	For cases a glob cannot capture.

A pattern instead of a file list has a practical advantage: put a new file into images/keep/ and it is protected automatically — you do not have to remember to add it.

The safelist is the honest route for "I know this better than the software" — considerably better than softening the deletion gate. It acts specifically on what you name, instead of lowering all safety checks across the board.

Export

From the review view you export the inventory via Export CSV or Export JSON. The filters currently set are respected — so you can pull out "all unreferenced images over 1 MB" specifically.

The same works from the command line:

php cli/joomla.php jimgo:report --format=csv --state=orphan_candidate > orphaned.csv

Typical uses: agreeing things with the client before anything happens. A second opinion. Or simply documenting what you did.

Privacy and data held

In detail:

• No telemetry, no usage statistics, no phoning home.
• Images are not uploaded. Optimisation and the image editor run on your server — the optional external encoders are locally installed programs too.
• The only outgoing connection is the update check. Joomla itself performs that when you trigger it.

What is stored

Inventory	Path, size, dimensions, checksum, timestamps per file.
References	Occurrences: table, record, column, the reference found.
Scan history	When, how long, with what result.
Audit log	Who moved, restored or deleted what and when — including the reason for an override.
404 hits	Accesses to files in quarantine (only with the plugin active).

This is technical data about files, not personal data about website visitors. The audit log records which administrator triggered an action — that is the point of an audit log.

With Options → performance → keep scan detail data (default: 5) you control for how many of the last scans the occurrence details are kept. Older ones are removed automatically so that the tables do not grow indefinitely. The scan overview itself is kept.

What happens when uninstalling

Removing the extension clears its tables. Files in quarantine stay where they are — they are not deleted. So bring back what you want to keep before you uninstall; otherwise you have to go through the quarantine folder by hand afterwards.

Where to go from here

• Common questions and troubleshooting
• Media Organizer at a glance

Applies to version 1.2.0.

Deutsche Fassung

Large websites and tight time limits

On a website with a few thousand media files and a lot of content, a scan is a great deal of work. So that it gets through anyway — including with providers who keep computing time short — Media Organizer does not work in one go, but in steps.

What a step is

When you click Scan, the dashboard keeps asking the server for a small piece of work: a few hundred files, a few hundred records. After every piece the server writes down how far it got and reports back. How long a scan takes therefore shows in the number of steps, not in the length of any one of them. That is the whole point: a server aborts an operation that takes too long, but it does not count how many short ones follow each other.

While the scan runs you can see what it is working on (“Listing files…”, “Collecting references: Articles”), how far the current phase is, what has been found so far, and how long it has been running.

When a step is cut short

If Media Organizer reports that the server cut a step short, the server's time limit has almost always been reached. In that case:

1. Click Resume scan. The run carries on from the same place; the work done so far is kept.
2. If it stops again, reduce the step size under Performance in the options — see below.
3. If that does not help either, run the scan as a scheduled task or from the command line.

Setting the step size

Options → Performance:

Setting	Default	Meaning
Files per scan step	200	How many files one step records and checks.
Records per scan step	500	How many articles, modules and other records one step searches for references.
Maximum time per scan step	10 seconds	A step ends after this time at the latest, even if the configured amount has not been reached.

Smaller values make every step shorter and the whole run somewhat longer. That is the trade this is about: a scan that takes ten minutes but gets through beats one that stops after three.

The maximum time is the safety net for records that turn out to be unexpectedly expensive — an article with a great deal of text, media on network storage. It should sit well below your server's time limit; the default of 10 seconds fits the usual 30.

The second scan is cheaper than the first

Media Organizer computes a checksum for every file — that is how it recognises duplicates and later changes. It is the part that costs the most time, because every file has to be read in full once.

On the next scan that only happens for files whose size or modification date differs. On a website where twenty images were added between two scans, only those twenty are read.

Scanning without a browser

With very large collections the browser is not the best place for a scan. Two ways lead around it:

• The scheduled task. It carries a large scan through several runs: each run works for a while and the next one continues. The e-mail arrives when the scan has finished — not after every run.
• The command line. There is no time limit there; the scan runs in one go and shows its progress as it works.

Both share the same progress with the backend. A scan you started in the backend can be finished by the scheduled task — and the other way round.

The log

When something goes wrong technically — a step that was cut short, a search area that could not be read — Media Organizer writes it to the file jimgo.php in your site's log folder (the path is under System → Global Configuration → System → Path to Log Folder). A line looks like this:

2026-09-12T14:22:31+00:00	ERROR	A scan step failed. [scan=118 phase=providers error=… where=…]

Out of the box only failures are recorded, which in normal operation writes almost nothing. You can change that under Options → Log — “Everything” also records the start and end of every scan and is not meant to be left on.

If you report a problem to us, this file is the most useful thing you can send along.

If it still gets stuck

One point for the conversation with your provider: the PHP setting max_execution_time is often not the cause. It does not count time spent waiting for the database or for file access — and that is most of what a scan does. What usually cuts a scan short is the time limit of the web server in front of it (fastcgi_read_timeout in nginx, request_terminate_timeout in PHP-FPM). That is what to ask about once the step size no longer helps.

Deutsche Fassung

Changelog

This changelog lists every released version of Media Organizer, the most recent first.

Version 1.2.0 – 12 September 2026

Added

• When something goes wrong technically, it is now recorded in the site's log. What gets recorded is set under “Log” in the options.

Changed

• If a scan step fails, the message now points at the log instead of showing a technical error line.
• Detail data of older scans is cleared away sooner. Only the latest scan is displayed anyway, which keeps the database smaller.

Fixed

• A large scan the scheduled task cannot finish in one run is now continued straight away instead of waiting for the next scheduled time.

Notes

• If you run the scheduler from a cron job: a run that could not finish a scan yet reports exit code 123. That is not an error.

Version 1.1.0 – 12 September 2026

Added

• While a scan runs, the dashboard shows what it is working on, what it has found so far, and how long it has been running.
• If a scan stops, its progress is kept: it can be resumed from the same place — in the backend, from the scheduled task, or on the command line.

Changed

• The scan works in small steps and therefore gets through on large websites and with providers that set a tight time limit. The step size is in the options under “Performance”.
• A repeat scan only reads the files that have changed since the last one, and is faster for it.
• The scheduled task carries a large scan through several runs; the notification arrives once it has finished.

Version 1.0.5 – 16 August 2026

Added

• The state "No longer present" shows in the file list which files have vanished. If one comes back, the next scan picks it up again.

Fixed

• Files deleted or renamed outside Joomla stayed in the reports and kept being counted, although they were no longer there.
• The links in the overview panel always led to the German manual. They now follow the configured language.
• The changelog on the dashboard always appeared in German, even with the backend set to English. It now follows the configured language.
• The panel shown after the installation named licence version 2. It now shows the GNU General Public License version 3 or later, as everywhere else.

Version 1.0.3 – 12 August 2026

Changed

• Some of the files shipped still named licence version 2. Everything now uniformly states the GNU General Public License version 3 or later.
• The installation details were cleared of entries that had no effect, so that the package passes the review of the Joomla! Extensions Directory.

Version 1.0.2 – 4 August 2026

Changed

• The extension is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later. All details on licence, author and copyright are consistent.

Fixed

• The licence file shipped contained the text of version 2. It now contains the full text of version 3 with the name of this extension.

Version 1.0.1 – 31 July 2026

Added

• After an installation or update an overview panel appears with version, status and entry points to getting started, download key and manual.
• A click on "Enable updates" leads straight to the update sites, already filtered to missing download keys.
• The extension manager now shows the list of changes behind the version number.

Changed

• The descriptions of the package and of the extension profiles are now translatable.
• The message "installed successfully" is gone; the new overview panel replaces it.

Version 1.0.0 – 13 July 2026

Added

• Initial release.

Deutsche Fassung