If you deactivate or delete the Infinite Uploads plugin without disconnecting first, your site will lose access to those files. Every image, video, PDF, and other media file served from the cloud will return a 404 error. Your pages, posts, and any content referencing those files will show broken images and missing downloads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After canceling your plan, your cloud files are eventually scheduled for deletion. If you haven’t downloaded them back to your site by then, that data is gone permanently. We send multiple email reminders with instructions before any data is deleted, but the safest path is to disconnect properly before doing anything else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Built-in Safety Checks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The plugin has built-in protection to prevent accidental data loss. If you try to deactivate or delete the plugin from the WordPress Plugins screen while your site is still connected, the plugin will block the action and redirect you to the Infinite Uploads settings page with a warning. The warning will prompt you to use the “Download & Disconnect” button before proceeding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This also applies to bulk deactivation. If you select multiple plugins and choose “Deactivate” from the bulk actions dropdown, and Infinite Uploads is in that selection, the plugin will intercept the request and redirect you to the settings page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow these steps on each site connected to Infinite Uploads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When you click “Disconnect,” the plugin does several things automatically. It downloads any cloud-only files back to your local uploads directory. Then it runs a search and replace directly on the If you have WP-CLI access on your hosting environment, you can also download your files from the command line. This is especially useful for sites with large media libraries where a browser-based download might time out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On a WordPress multisite network, the Infinite Uploads settings page is located in the Network Admin area. The disconnect process works the same way, but applies network-wide. All subsites that were using Infinite Uploads cloud storage will have their files downloaded and URLs updated when you disconnect from the Network Admin settings page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After disconnecting, all your media files will be stored locally on your web server again. WordPress will serve them from your original uploads directory, and there’s no dependency on Infinite Uploads anymore. Your cloud storage data still exists on our servers until your plan is fully canceled and the retention period ends. If you change your mind and want to reconnect, you can reinstall the plugin and connect again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Disconnecting a site and canceling your account are two separate actions. Disconnecting removes the link between a specific WordPress site and the Infinite Uploads cloud. Canceling your account stops your subscription billing and eventually removes your cloud data. If you have multiple sites connected, you can disconnect individual sites without canceling your entire account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To cancel your subscription, visit your account billing page at infiniteuploads.com\/account\/billing\/. For more details on the cancellation process, see the “Cancelling Your Account” support doc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the disconnect process fails partway through, don’t panic. Your files in the cloud are still safe, and the plugin hasn’t fully disconnected yet. You can try running the disconnect again from the settings page. If you’re getting errors or the download keeps stalling, try using WP-CLI instead, as it handles large downloads more reliably than the browser-based process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If your site is already showing broken images because the plugin was deactivated without disconnecting first, reactivate the plugin. This will restore the cloud connection and your images should start loading again. Then follow the proper disconnect steps outlined above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you’ve already deleted the plugin entirely and your images are broken, contact our support team by creating a support ticket at infiniteuploads.com\/support\/. As long as your plan is still active or within the data retention period, we can help you get your files back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the Infinite Uploads plugin is deleted from WordPress (not just deactivated, but fully deleted), it cleans up after itself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The site ID is intentionally preserved in the database so that if you reconnect later, the system can identify your site. No media files are touched during the uninstall process. Only plugin data is removed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you run into any issues during the disconnect process, reach out to our support team at infiniteuploads.com\/support\/ and we’ll help you through it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why You Need to Disconnect Before Deactivating Infinite Uploads offloads your media to our cloud storage. That means new uploads only exist in the cloud, not on your web host. If you’ve used the “Free Up Local Storage” feature to delete local copies of previously synced files, those files only exist in the cloud too. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3787,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wds_primary_doc_category":0,"wds_primary_doc_tag":0,"footnotes":""},"doc_category":[130],"doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-8352","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry","doc_category-billing"],"acf":[],"year_month":"2026-04","word_count":1187,"total_views":"904","reactions":{"happy":"0","normal":"0","sad":"0"},"author_info":{"name":"Blake Whittle","author_nicename":"blakew","author_url":"https:\/\/infiniteuploads.com\/blog\/author\/blakew\/"},"doc_category_info":[{"term_name":"Billing","term_url":"https:\/\/infiniteuploads.com\/docs-category\/billing\/"}],"doc_tag_info":[],"knowledge_base_info":[],"knowledge_base_slug":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infiniteuploads.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/docs\/8352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infiniteuploads.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/docs"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infiniteuploads.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/docs"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infiniteuploads.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/3787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/infiniteuploads.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/docs\/8352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infiniteuploads.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"doc_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infiniteuploads.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/doc_category?post=8352"},{"taxonomy":"doc_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infiniteuploads.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/doc_tag?post=8352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/infiniteuploads.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/CleanShot-2025-01-27-at-22.43.47@2x-1024x245.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHow to Properly Disconnect<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
What the Disconnect Process Does Behind the Scenes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
wp_posts<\/code> table in your database, swapping all Infinite Uploads CDN URLs in your post_content<\/code> with your original local upload URLs. If your site’s CDN URL differs from the default CNAME (for example, if you set up a custom CDN domain), both URLs get replaced. This is important because while the plugin is active, it rewrites URLs on the fly through filters as your pages load. Once the plugin is deactivated, those filters stop running. The database replacement makes sure the correct local URLs are already stored in your content before that happens. After the URL replacement finishes, the plugin removes its API token, disables cloud storage mode, and attempts to flush the WordPress object cache. At that point, WordPress goes back to serving media directly from your server.<\/p>\n\n\n\nUsing WP-CLI to Disconnect<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n
Disconnecting on WordPress Multisite<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What Happens After Disconnecting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Disconnecting vs. Canceling Your Account<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If Something Goes Wrong<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What Gets Removed When the Plugin Is Deleted<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n