Install and first run

Five minutes, and nothing is deleted at any point.

Requirements #

Multisite is supported, including network activation. See Multisite below.

Before you start #

• Take a backup, or at least export your database. You will not need it. It is what professionals do.
• If you are running another media folder plugin, read Migrating first. Two folder plugins active at once will show you two copies of the same taxonomies.

Install #

1. Download the zip from the install page, upload it under Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, then Activate.
2. A new top-level menu appears: VergeLabs Library.
3. Open it. The Dashboard tells you what state your library is in and what the next useful thing to do is.

Activation creates the media_category taxonomy if it does not already exist, registers the default MIME type map, and writes the plugin's own options. It does not touch a single media file.

The first five minutes #

1. Check your folders exist. Go to Media → Library. The folder tree is on the left. If you already had media_category terms — from Enhanced Media Library, from FileBird's export, from a theme — they are already the tree.

2. Make a folder. Right-click in the tree, or use the New folder button. Drag a few files onto it. Dragging moves; hold Ctrl while dropping to add without removing it from where it was.

3. Run the library scan. The Unused media and Large files smart folders need one pass over your posts to know which files are genuinely referenced. It is a click and a progress count. Everything else works immediately.

4. Decide about the AI. It is off. It stays off until you enter a licence key (a free trial key, with 25 credits, counts). If you want to see the shape of it first, turn on Demo mode under VergeLabs Library → Settings → Licence (shown while no licence is set) — it invents captions locally from filenames and sends nothing anywhere.

Page builders #

There is nothing to switch on. When a supported builder's editor is open, the folder tree is added to its media popup.

The full list, and which ones were verified in a browser rather than wired to a documented hook, is in Compatibility.

Multisite #

Network activation provisions every existing site, and any site created later — a new site is provisioned by a one-off scheduled event a minute after creation, so it comes up already configured.

Three things behave differently on a network:

• A network-wide licence key. A network administrator can set one key for every site. A site's own key still wins, unless the network locks it — an agency runs one licence across client sites and does not want fifty people pasting keys.
• Per-site safe mode. One subsite's fatal error puts that subsite into safe mode. It does not deactivate the plugin network-wide.
• A network settings screen decides which options individual site admins may change. It requires manage_network_options.

Updating #

The plugin updates through WordPress in the normal way. Updates are not gated on a licence: gating a free plugin's updates would strand anyone whose subscription lapsed on an old version with known bugs.

Options migrations run on activation and on version change. They are guarded by a version comparison and never touch a taxonomy you registered yourself — a taxonomy the plugin did not create is marked as the site's, not ours, and is left alone.

Uninstalling #

Deactivating changes nothing. Your folders are terms in WordPress's own tables.

Deleting the plugin removes its caches and scheduled tasks. Your folders, your term assignments, and any alt text already written into your images stay exactly where they are. Reinstalling picks them up as you left them, and so does any other plugin that reads the media_category taxonomy.

If you genuinely want everything gone, that exists in two forms under Settings → Media Utilities:

• Complete Cleanup — wipes the plugin's own data immediately.
• Also remove all folders, settings and the AI index when the plugin is deleted — a switch that makes deleting the plugin from the Plugins screen take its data with it.

Neither is ever the default, and neither touches a media file.

Verifying the install #

Three quick checks:

If a page builder's media popup shows no tree, check that the builder is on the list in Compatibility. If something else looks wrong, Troubleshooting starts with safe mode.