First-time setup

4 min readUpdated June 28, 2026

This document walks through configuring WP Media Cloud for the first time after installation and licence activation. By the end you will have a storage provider connected, a test upload confirmed, and a clear understanding of which optional settings to consider before going live.

Before starting, make sure you have completed Installation and Activating your licence.

Step 1: Choose a storage provider#

In your WordPress admin, go to WP Media Cloud > Settings > Storage. Select your storage provider from the dropdown. The settings panel will update to show the fields required for that provider.

If you are not sure which provider to use, consider the following:

Bunny Edge Storage — best for global edge delivery with low bandwidth cost. Native integration, not S3-compatible.
Cloudflare R2 — best for zero egress fees. Requires a Cloudflare account with R2 enabled.
Amazon S3 — the most widely supported option. Higher egress costs than R2 or Bunny.
Wasabi — flat-rate pricing with no egress fees. S3-compatible.
Other providers — see the Storage Providers documentation for full setup guides per provider.

Step 2: Enter your credentials#

Each provider requires different credentials. The settings panel shows only the fields relevant to the provider you selected. Refer to the relevant storage provider doc for where to find each credential in your provider’s dashboard:

Step 3: Test the connection#

After entering your credentials, click Test Connection. WP Media Cloud will attempt to connect to your storage bucket and confirm that it can read and write files. A green success message confirms the connection is working. A red error message will include a description of what went wrong.

Common reasons a connection test fails:

Incorrect credentials — copy and paste directly from your provider dashboard rather than retyping
Wrong bucket name — bucket names are case-sensitive
Wrong endpoint URL or region — check the storage provider doc for the correct format
Insufficient permissions — the API key or IAM user must have read and write access to the bucket
Outbound connections blocked by your host — see Requirements

Step 4: Save settings#

Once the connection test passes, click Save Settings. From this point on, every new file uploaded to the WordPress media library will be automatically offloaded to your configured storage bucket.

Step 5: Upload a test file#

Go to Media > Add New and upload any image. After the upload completes, click on the image in the media library and check the file URL shown in the attachment details panel. It should show a URL beginning with your storage bucket or CDN hostname, not your WordPress site URL.

If the URL still shows your site URL, the offload did not complete. Check the connection test again and review the storage provider doc for your chosen provider.

Step 6: Decide on optional settings#

With offloading confirmed, consider the following settings before going live. These can all be changed later.

Local file removal — removes local copies of files from wp-content/uploads after offloading. Frees up server disk space. Recommended for production sites where disk usage is a concern. Disable on staging environments where you may need local copies for comparison or rollback. Found in Settings > Storage.

Mirror deletion — deletes files from cloud storage when they are deleted from the WordPress media library. Enable if you want your bucket to stay in sync with your media library. Disable if you want to retain files in cloud storage even after removing them from WordPress. Found in Settings > Storage.

CDN — if you want to serve files from a CDN rather than directly from your storage bucket, configure your CDN hostname in Settings > CDN. See the CDN documentation for setup guides.

Step 7: Migrate your existing media library#

New uploads are now offloaded automatically. Files uploaded before WP Media Cloud was configured remain on your server. To move them to cloud storage, run the bulk migration tool from WP Media Cloud > Tools > Bulk Migration.

The bulk migration tool runs in the background and handles libraries of any size. See Bulk migration tool for full instructions.