Pro
Usage Intelligence: where is an image used?
See which images are used and which are not, and open the exact pages, posts or templates that use an image. Used, No usage, Live, Not live and Unknown explained.
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On this page
Usage Intelligence answers a question WordPress cannot: is this image used anywhere on my site?
It is part of CICO Media Pro. A background process builds a persistent index of the places where your media is used (see The Usage Index), so the answer is instant and the Media Library never has to scan your site when you open it.
The usage badge
Every media card shows a badge below the file name:
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Used · 1 | CICO Media found the image in that number of places (pages, posts, templates, fields…). |
| No usage | No reference was found in the locations CICO Media currently supports. |
See where an image is used
Click the Used badge, or open the image and click View all usage. The Where used drawer opens.
For every place it shows:
- the title of the post, page or template;
- its type (for example Post or Page) and the source (for example Gutenberg, Elementor or ACF);
- the frontend status (see below);
- how the image is used, for example Image block;
- an Edit → link that opens the item in WordPress (or in its builder).
Live, Not live and Unknown
Next to every place, the frontend status tells you whether the image is really shown to visitors:
- Live. CICO Media is confident that the image is displayed. Examples: an image block in a published post, the featured image of published content, an active WooCommerce product image, or a builder element that is present in the rendered output.
- Not live. The image is referenced but is not shown. Examples: the post or page is a draft, scheduled or private, or the builder stores the image in a setting that is not part of the rendered output.
- Unknown. CICO Media found the reference but cannot verify it with enough confidence. Examples: images in reusable templates (the plugin cannot know where the template is applied), ACF fields (your theme decides whether to print them) and builder background settings.
CICO Media prefers Unknown to guessing. Each place in the Where used drawer shows the reason for its status.
You can filter the library by frontend status. See Smart Filters.
Find unused images
-
In the CICO Filters bar open All usage and choose No usage found.
-
Review the images shown. Open the Quick Info drawer or the attachment details if you want to double check.
-
Use the normal WordPress tools to delete the ones you no longer need.
CICO Media never deletes anything for you.
Reanalyze a single image
If you have just added an image to a page and the badge has not changed, open the image and click Reanalyze this media. CICO Media re-checks the places where that image is already known to be used, and the posts that use it as their featured image, straight away instead of waiting for the next background update. It is limited to that image and never scans the whole site.
Settings
In Media → CICO Media → Usage:
- Usage status. Show Used / No usage found on media cards and in the details.
- Frontend visibility intelligence. Always active in Pro, so Live, Not live and Unknown stay reliable without manual refreshes.
Everything related to how the index is built is explained in The Usage Index.