Disable Media Permalink by Hardweb.it

Most reviewers say it does exactly what it promises, removing attachment pages in one click, though one says the permalinks still loaded for them and another points out it only hides the links without blocking direct access to uploaded files.

How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.

Directory searches this plugin turns up in, and which way each one is moving. WordPress.org publishes no history of search positions, so this starts the day we first tracked a keyword and never backfills.

wp.org is where the directory puts the plugin for that search. On merit is where it would sit if results were ranked on rating, support and updates, without the install boost. The last column is how far the wp.org position moved, from our first reading in the last 90 days to the latest.

12 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 2 listed. 10 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words). 4 of its tags aren't in the top 24 for their own search.

Directory rank vs rivals

wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you

How often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.

Share of active installs on each version of this plugin · 100% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.

Crossed into this band 5 days ago and a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, so the real count is still just under 900.

1. ★★★★★ David Brown

   3.3y ago

   This plug-in disables the generation of the HTML of the media permalink within a page. It does not disable the underlying functionality where, e.g., /wp-content/uploads/2023/07/nonpublic.pdf might become accessible as an automatically generated link in the page at /nonpublic/ (an “attachment post”). (I’ve already restricted access to wp-content/uploads using mod_rewrite to require a HTTP_REFERER from the same site; this allows me to allow links only when I create them on private pages. Except that there’s no way in the UI to set an attachment post to private, so I want to get rid of them entirely. Perhaps I can do that by mangling image.php in the theme.) The code itself is very nicely concise and easy to understand and confirm it’s not a security threat, so I’m leaving half stars for that, but at least for me, it’s just a security-through-obscurity solution to the underlying issue of attachment posts for media.

   Read on wp.org ↗
2. ★★★★★ thatgrrl

   3.7y ago

   Something caused all the media/ image links on the site to be broken. I noticed the permalinks were not the same as the file links. But, I could find nothing that would let me change the permalinks. With over 500 images I did not want to go through and fix them one by one. Plus, I just hate the new WordPress block editor. It drives me crazy just to add any content at all. So, fixing more than 500 image links was far more than I wanted to do. I managed to fix one but it took several minutes for just that one. I tried various other plugins to do with after migrating a site and… I don’t even remember what else now. I tried at least half a dozen different things and nothing worked. I was about to give up. I tried one more search in plugins for something that would help and I found “Disable Media Permalinks”. I didn’t think it would work. I read the FAQ, not really 100% understanding it. But, I thought I didn’t have much to lose at that point. If it didn’t work I would be no better or worse off, in theory. But… it did work!!! Perfectly, and easily. I only had to install it, then save the settings (without making any changes) to Settings>Media. I checked the media library and the images were back!!! Not just there but in all the posts on the live site too. Thank you so much for this plugin! How wonderful to find such an easy fix for a problem with WordPress. Thank you, again!

   Read on wp.org ↗
3. ★★★★★ Morphy99

   5.6y ago

   Installed and activated yet my media permalinks are still loading

   Read on wp.org ↗
4. ★★★★★ Jose Mortellaro

   6.8y ago

   This plugin is perfect. You have just to install it to solve a big problem. Thank you for giving the possibility to disable the media permalinks created by WordPress just with one click!

   Read on wp.org ↗
5. ★★★★★ altworks

   7.5y ago

   The simplest and most effective way to get rid of annoying media permalinks and the garbage pages they create. I’m very happy to find this!

   Read on wp.org ↗
6. ★★★★★ Giulian

   8.0y ago

   a great plugin, thank you! it was nos easy to find it! This topic was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by Giulian.

   Read on wp.org ↗
7. ★★★★★ giangel84

   8.5y ago

   This helps you to remove the media/attachment permalink, so Cookiebot will never crawl every image as single page. For example you have 50 posts with 1 image on each one, then Cookiebot count 50 urls + 50 media urls = 100 pages. Using this plugin can save you for the 50 media attached url, keeping cookiebot working on your blog as free version.

   Read on wp.org ↗

Translated into 1 language, 1 at 90% or more

Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.

Not measured yet for this plugin’s topics. Its tracked searches are not among the measured topics. See the topics measured so far.

Growth timeline

Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow

1. 2026-10-28 900+ → 800+ down after 176 days in tier
2. 2026-05-05 1K+ → 900+ down

Competes with

The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).

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Drop a live Pulse card for Disable Media Permalink by Hardweb.it into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.

Disable Media Permalink by Hardweb.it: 800+ active installs, 4.1★ (7 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-02. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/disable-media-permalink-by-hardweb-it