Trashes or deletes an attachment.
Description
When an attachment is permanently deleted, the file will also be removed.
Deletion removes all post meta fields, taxonomy, comments, etc. associated with the attachment (except the main post).
The attachment is moved to the Trash instead of permanently deleted unless Trash for media is disabled, item is already in the Trash, or $force_delete is true.
Parameters
$post_idintrequired- Attachment ID.
$force_deletebooloptional- Whether to bypass Trash and force deletion.
Default:
false
Source
function wp_delete_attachment( $post_id, $force_delete = false ) {
global $wpdb;
$post = $wpdb->get_row( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT * FROM $wpdb->posts WHERE ID = %d", $post_id ) );
if ( ! $post ) {
return $post;
}
$post = get_post( $post );
if ( 'attachment' !== $post->post_type ) {
return false;
}
if ( ! $force_delete && EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS && MEDIA_TRASH && 'trash' !== $post->post_status ) {
return wp_trash_post( $post_id );
}
/**
* Filters whether an attachment deletion should take place.
*
* @since 5.5.0
*
* @param WP_Post|false|null $delete Whether to go forward with deletion.
* @param WP_Post $post Post object.
* @param bool $force_delete Whether to bypass the Trash.
*/
$check = apply_filters( 'pre_delete_attachment', null, $post, $force_delete );
if ( null !== $check ) {
return $check;
}
delete_post_meta( $post_id, '_wp_trash_meta_status' );
delete_post_meta( $post_id, '_wp_trash_meta_time' );
$meta = wp_get_attachment_metadata( $post_id );
$backup_sizes = get_post_meta( $post->ID, '_wp_attachment_backup_sizes', true );
$file = get_attached_file( $post_id );
if ( is_multisite() && is_string( $file ) && ! empty( $file ) ) {
clean_dirsize_cache( $file );
}
/**
* Fires before an attachment is deleted, at the start of wp_delete_attachment().
*
* @since 2.0.0
* @since 5.5.0 Added the `$post` parameter.
*
* @param int $post_id Attachment ID.
* @param WP_Post $post Post object.
*/
do_action( 'delete_attachment', $post_id, $post );
wp_delete_object_term_relationships( $post_id, array( 'category', 'post_tag' ) );
wp_delete_object_term_relationships( $post_id, get_object_taxonomies( $post->post_type ) );
// Delete all for any posts.
delete_metadata( 'post', null, '_thumbnail_id', $post_id, true );
wp_defer_comment_counting( true );
$comment_ids = $wpdb->get_col( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT comment_ID FROM $wpdb->comments WHERE comment_post_ID = %d ORDER BY comment_ID DESC", $post_id ) );
foreach ( $comment_ids as $comment_id ) {
wp_delete_comment( $comment_id, true );
}
wp_defer_comment_counting( false );
$post_meta_ids = $wpdb->get_col( $wpdb->prepare( "SELECT meta_id FROM $wpdb->postmeta WHERE post_id = %d ", $post_id ) );
foreach ( $post_meta_ids as $mid ) {
delete_metadata_by_mid( 'post', $mid );
}
/** This action is documented in wp-includes/post.php */
do_action( 'delete_post', $post_id, $post );
$result = $wpdb->delete( $wpdb->posts, array( 'ID' => $post_id ) );
if ( ! $result ) {
return false;
}
/** This action is documented in wp-includes/post.php */
do_action( 'deleted_post', $post_id, $post );
wp_delete_attachment_files( $post_id, $meta, $backup_sizes, $file );
clean_post_cache( $post );
return $post;
}
Hooks
- do_action( ‘deleted_post’,
int $post_id ,WP_Post $post ) Fires immediately after a post is deleted from the database.
- do_action( ‘delete_attachment’,
int $post_id ,WP_Post $post ) Fires before an attachment is deleted, at the start of wp_delete_attachment() .
- do_action( ‘delete_post’,
int $post_id ,WP_Post $post ) Fires immediately before a post is deleted from the database.
- apply_filters( ‘pre_delete_attachment’,
WP_Post|false|null $delete ,WP_Post $post ,bool $force_delete ) Filters whether an attachment deletion should take place.
Changelog
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 2.0.0 | Introduced. |
This function does approximately the same as if you would go the Media Library and trash or delete an attachment and cleanly remove the associations from posts (or other objects) to which they were associated, and subsequently remove the files from the files system (if case you choose to delete the attachment, rather than trashing it):
$force_delete = false, the attachment gets moved to Trash, eventhough by default, there is no button at the media library to access Trash – This can be confusing$force_delete = false, the attachment files (the actual files under wp-content/uploads) are kept as they are$force_delete = true, the attachment files (the actual files under wp-content/uploads) are removedExample (1) – Trash one attachment:
Example (2) – Delete multiple attachments:
This function calls wp_delete_attachment_files() but does not actually check for its return
=> successful return does not really promise files were actually deleted!
To delete an attachment with an ID of ’76’:
wp_delete_attachment( 76, true );