WiscWeb - Redirecting media

• Considerations
• Steps

Considerations

• This process requires use of the Redirection plugin, which may need to be activated in your project. For this, see WiscWeb - Redirection plugin setup
• We strongly recommend leaving the old media file in the Media Library until you have successfully created a redirect in the Redirection plugin. 
• In WiscWeb, deleted media can exist for up to 6 days after it is deleted. Deleted media will still be visible by users until the media cache expires. 

Steps

Caution: It is best to do this prior to deleting the media as once the media is deleted there is no easy way to find the URL of the media in WordPress.

• In the Media Library, locate the media you wish to redirect
• Click into the media and locate the “File URL”
  • Example: https://mysite.wisc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/123/2025/10/my-image.jpg
    
    
    
    
• Copy everything after ".edu" (including the /)
  • Example: /wp-content/uploads/sites/123/2025/10/my-image.jpg
    
    
    
    
• With the Redirection plugin active, navigate to Tools > Redirect 
• Click Add New
• In the Source URL field, paste in the relative file path
  • This should be the file URL minus the site domain
  • Example: /wp-content/uploads/sites/123/2025/10/my-image.jpg
    
    
    
    
• Under “Query parameters,” select “Ignore all parameters” from the dropdown
  
  
• In the Target URL field, enter the relative path of the new file URL
  • This should be the file URL minus the site domain
  • Example: /wp-content/uploads/sites/154/2026/2/a-new-image.jpg
    
    
    
    
• Click Save

After implementing the redirect, any requests for the old media file get redirected to the new file.