Background

WordPress creates a new attachment each time we upload a file to the Media Library. The attachment contains metadata about the file, such as title, file name, file size, etc. Attachments are instances of the 'attachment' built-in post type.

Steps

Follow these steps to upload a file to the Media Library in WordPress.

Step 1: Navigate to Media > Add New.

Step 2: Drop files into the upload zone, or click the Select Files button to choose files from your device.

Step 3: Wait until each upload operation completes.

Storage

WordPress stores media files in the wp-content/uploads folder by default. Metadata about each file is stored in the tables wp_posts and wp_postmeta.

To organize the uploads folder into year and month subfolders, navigate to Settings > Media, enable the checkbox highlighted in the image below, and click Save Changes.