The Problem

So, if you are like me, you are getting really annoyed with the media library update. You used to be able to scroll down in the WordPress Media Library UI to get to the photo you need to place fast. You probably like re-using the same photo in a few places. With the recent WordPress update, that feature was removed and now users must painstakinly click a “load more” button to get to the photo they need to see. It really eats up time.

In the below image, I have to click on the Load More button just to see my first screen of images, then again I have to click the Load more button again to get my first scroll down.

 

To make things worse, for some reason the entire media library seems to be unavailable at times, such as this image below where I wanted to change the featured image (below).

Solutions

You have two potential fixes to add infinite scrolling back into WordPress:

1. install a plug-in to work-around this and get the removed infinite scrolling back
2. Add a line of code to your functions.php file

1. Install a plug-in to work-around this and get the removed infinite scrolling back

The plug-in will probably be the easiest solution for people who do not want to touch any code. 

Here is the official WP link for the plug-in: https://wordpress.org/plugins/media-library-enable-infinite-scrolling/

2. Add a line of code to your functions.php file

For some people, they don’t want to install another work around plug-in. Their server may have memory limits and can’t take another plug-in. There may be some people who like the simplicity and security of editing the code instead of being at the mercy of a plug-in (which could in theory be bought out by another company and update to a version that completely changes the core functionality of the plug-in). In this case, here is what you need to put in your functions.php file:

// enable infinite scrolling to media library
add_filter( 'media_library_infinite_scrolling', '__return_true' );

 

I hope this helps.