Offloading media
Offloading copies an attachment and its image sizes to your bucket, records where they went, and points WordPress at the new location. This page explains when that happens and how to control it.
When new uploads move
New uploads are marked as pending the moment WordPress finishes processing them. What happens next depends on the off-hours batch, which is on by default.
- Off-hours batch on (default). Pending uploads wait and are offloaded in one run at the Batch Time, which defaults to
03:00in your site’s timezone. See nightly batch. - Off-hours batch off. Plume schedules a WP-Cron event for each upload. It copies the files to storage, then updates the attachment URLs in post content.
To offload right after upload, go to Media → Plume → Settings, open Off-hours Batch Offload, turn off Enable Off-hours Batch, and select Save Settings.
Offloading only runs when Enable Offloading is on and the credentials are complete. If you try to enable it with missing fields, Plume turns it off and tells you which fields are missing.
What gets stored
For each attachment Plume uploads the original file and every generated image size. The object key is the file’s path under wp-content/uploads, with your Path Prefix in front. For example, 2026/11/photo.jpg with the prefix media becomes media/2026/11/photo.jpg.
Plume records the result in the _nimbus post meta of the attachment.
Offload Status in the Media Library
The Media Library list view has an Offload Status column and an All Plume states filter.
| State | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Local only | Not offloaded. |
| Pending | Queued, waiting for the next run. |
| Processing | An offload is running. |
| Offloaded | Stored remotely. |
| Needs attention | The last attempt failed. Check Logs. |
| Ignored | Excluded from offload. |
Row actions depend on the state: Offload now, Retry offload, Retry, Restore local and View status. The bulk actions menu has Offload to storage, Restore local copies and Retry failed offloads.
Choose what is offloaded
Under Media → Plume → Advanced → Path Filters you can limit offloading by folder.
- Allowed Paths: when not empty, only matching files are offloaded.
- Ignored Paths: matching files are never offloaded. Ignored wins over Allowed.
Patterns are relative to the uploads folder. * matches within one folder, ** matches across folders, ? matches one character, and {year}, {month} and {day} match digits. Type a pattern and press Enter.
{year}/**
private/**
**/*.pdfTwo more rules have no screen in the admin. Set them with WP-CLI or a config import:
wp nimbus config --offload_min_size_kb=50
wp nimbus config --offload_allowed_mime_types="image/*,application/pdf"offload_min_size_kb skips files smaller than that size. offload_allowed_mime_types is a comma separated list, and wildcards like image/* work. Both are empty by default, which means no limit.
Local copies
Remove Local Copies is off by default, so the files stay on your server after offload. When it is on, Plume deletes the local files a few minutes after a successful offload. It only does this when your credentials are valid.
You can bring files back with restoring files.
Deleting media
When you delete an attachment in WordPress, Plume also deletes its objects from the bucket. This is controlled by delete_remote_on_wp_delete, which defaults to on and has no screen. To keep remote files, run:
wp nimbus config --delete_remote_on_wp_delete=0Tip: Turn on Remove Local Copies only after you have run Test Connection and offloaded a few files you can open in the browser.