Changelog

Pro: rebuilding the search index now works on hosts that switch off WordPress's scheduled tasks.

Continue in this browser

A rebuild runs in the background on WordPress's scheduled tasks. On hosts where those never run, it could sit at "0 of 1,000 documents processed" for hours. The Search Index tab now notices when a rebuild has stopped moving and says so. Continue in this browser runs the rebuild from that page, with live progress, until it finishes. The button is there during any rebuild, so you can also use it to finish one sooner.

One unreadable file no longer stops a rebuild

If a single file is too large or too damaged to read before the server gives up, the rebuild used to stop on it and never get past it. It now indexes that document by its title and description, carries on, and lists the document on the Search Index tab so you can replace the file.

WP-CLI reindex

wp filedeck reindex now also ends any rebuild that was queued. Before, the Search Index tab could keep showing "0 of N documents processed" next to a complete index.

Your library's dates now show on sites whose theme or a plugin hides the dates on blog posts.

Dates in the library and on document pages

Some themes and plugins have a setting that hides post dates across the whole site. On those sites FileDeck's Date and Updated columns, the date filter and grouping by year, and the Published and Updated lines on a document's own page came out empty, even though every document had a date. They now show each document's own date, in your site's date format. A theme setting that changes how dates look, rather than hiding them, still applies.

In Pro, review reminders, retention and transmittals take the document's date on those sites too.

Pro now includes a client portal: your clients sign in on your site and see only their own documents. AI agents can also reach your library through WordPress, and BSK PDF Manager's shortcodes keep working after a switch.

A client portal for your clients

Add a client under Documents → Clients and FileDeck creates their account, a private area and your portal page, then emails them an invitation to choose their own password. Clients sign in on your site rather than the WordPress dashboard. They see only their own documents, with what is new since their last visit, and they can update their own details.

The Clients screen shows who has accepted their invitation and when each client last visited. From there you can resend an invitation, import clients from a spreadsheet, and preview the portal to see the documents a client sees. Add the portal to any page with the Client portal block or the [filedeck_client_portal] shortcode. The client portal guide covers setup. The client portal is part of Pro.

AI agents can reach your library

On WordPress 6.9 and later, FileDeck's search, document lookup and category list show up for AI agents through the MCP Adapter or WordPress's REST API. Before this release, agents could not see them. Agent searches leave out expired documents and, in Pro, superseded ones, and they follow the same access rules as your library. The AI agents guide shows how to connect one. This is part of the free plugin.

Fixes & improvements

• Switched from BSK PDF Manager? Its shortcodes already in your pages now show your FileDeck library, document link or viewer once the old plugin is deactivated, in the free plugin too.
• Documents with a file attached from another plugin's private folder (Memphis Documents' uploads/mdocs, for example) now download and preview. Before, the server refused them on most hosts.
• Pro: OneDrive and SharePoint connections accept the app's Directory (tenant) ID, so an app registered for one organization (Entra's default) can connect, and the SharePoint browser lists every site, not only the first 50.
• Pro: an existing [filedeck_my_documents] page shows signed-out visitors the portal's sign-in card, with password reset, instead of a link to the WordPress login. Emails about new documents link through your portal page once you have one, and clients can turn them off on their Account tab.
• Pro: Library Health's Attach them now works through large libraries without getting stuck. It takes only the documents it can attach and lists the rest apart, with what to do about them. Its scan also finds local links written with %20 for spaces.
• Columns that keep their width in the library table no longer break a word such as "Download" across two lines.
• Access-rule and reliability improvements in wp-admin and the media library.
• New on the site: cost guides put the published prices of six WordPress document plugins side by side at 1, 5 and 50 sites, show which renew at double, and include a savings calculator. Prices were checked on 13 October 2026.

A CSV import now recognises a Media Library file even when its name contains spaces, and attaches it instead of keeping a link.

Files with spaces in their names

When a row named a file such as Agenda Full Council Meeting.pdf, the import didn't recognise it as a file already in your Media Library and kept its address as a link, so the document showed no size or type. Those rows are now attached to the file you already have, with its size and type.

To fix documents an earlier import left as links, start with any whose file sits in another plugin's private folder: Health leaves those as links, so move those documents to the Trash and import just those rows again (a file in your Media Library is then attached). Then go to Documents → Settings → Health and press Attach them now, or on a large library Attach the next 100, until the count stops going down. Each document is attached to the file already on your site, so nothing is uploaded again; a restricted document gets its own protected copy. Importing a row again without removing its document first gives you two copies of it. CSV import is part of Pro.

When you switch from another plugin, FileDeck now names the items it couldn't bring across and says what to do about each one. The "Added in the last…" filter also works on large libraries now, and the Elementor widget can show your own columns.

Every item an import missed, with the reason

If a one-click import can't bring an item across, the Migrate screen now names it under the import summary and says why: its file is missing, it's in the old plugin's trash, it's a file type the import leaves in your Media Library, and so on. Where the old plugin has an edit screen, each name links to it. Put the cause right, then press Import again. Everything already imported is skipped, so only the missing items come across.

Documents → Settings → Health shows the same list until you start another import. Stopping an import part-way now keeps what it had done, so you see how far it got and anything it couldn't bring across. Importing from other plugins is part of Pro.

Filters and columns that work everywhere

The Added in the last… filter now narrows results on large libraries too. Before, it only worked on libraries small enough to load in one go. The Elementor Library widget's Columns picker now offers your site's custom-field and taxonomy columns alongside the standard ones, as the column setting in Documents → Settings already did.

Fixes & improvements

• Pro: share buttons switch off with the rest of Pro when a licence lapses.
• Pro: duplicating an imported document no longer carries over its link to the old plugin's item.
• The opt-in usage ping, sent only if you opted in, now includes the day the plugin was installed, the days your first document was uploaded and published, whether last week's import had failures, a bucketed count of documents whose text recognition stopped on an error, and a random identifier for the site. The External services entry in the readme's FAQ lists every field.
• Updated Freemius SDK to the latest version.
• The opt-in and pricing screens show the FileDeck icon.
• Access-rule and reliability improvements in wp-admin.

The new Library builder sets up a document library by clicking rather than by typing shortcode options, and shows you the result on your own site as you go. Old download links also keep working after you switch from another plugin, and document pages now list each document's details.

The Library builder

Open Documents → Library builder. The controls on the left cover the layout, columns, which categories and tags to show, sorting, filters, paging, download buttons, colours and the messages the library shows when it is empty. The preview on the right is your own site's front end, in your theme's fonts and colours. Switch it between a desktop and a phone width, and between A visitor (someone who is not logged in) and Me.

When it looks right, Create the page makes a draft page holding the library and opens it in the editor. You can also copy the [filedeck] shortcode into any page, widget area or page builder. To change a library you already have, paste its shortcode under Change an existing library. If a setting can't come across, for example a category this site doesn't have, the builder lists it.

The Document Library block opens the same builder from its settings, so every option is available in the block editor too. The block's preview in the editor now uses FileDeck's styles. The Library builder is part of the free plugin.

Old links keep working after a switch

After a one-click import from Download Monitor, WordPress Download Manager, Simple Download Monitor, Shared Files or Simple File List, the old plugin's download links, item pages and shortcodes (where it had them) keep working once you switch it off. They lead to the same documents in FileDeck. This is in the free plugin, so it doesn't depend on a Pro licence.

Document pages list their details

A document's own page now shows its reference, published and updated dates, categories and tags above the Download button. Choose which under Documents → Settings → Display → Document pages, including an optional download count.

Fixes & improvements

• Pro: importing from Download Monitor brings each download's older versions into its version history, with their dates and version numbers. Already imported? Run the import again to fill in the history.
• Pro: importing from WordPress Download Manager brings across every file in a multi-file package, each as its own document named after the package. Run the import again to add any files it left out.
• Pro: client-area emails reach the people who can open a new document, up to 200 per document — named people, group members and people matched by email domain. That includes batch uploads, documents published from the block editor, scheduled documents and sub-folders of a client area. Imports from other plugins stay quiet.
• The default-columns setting keeps the Reference and Views columns when you save.
• Security and reliability improvements.
• The setup wizard's last step offers to design your library page in the Library builder.

If you run your own OCR service, or were sent a site key, the Scanned OCR settings now tell you whether the Service URL actually reaches it.

Test connection

Documents → Settings → Scanned OCR has a Test connection button once OCR is on. It checks the saved Service URL and says either that the OCR service is answering, or why it couldn't connect: the address couldn't be reached, or it answered but isn't an OCR service.

Links pasted from an email

Email clients often turn a link into a long redirect link, such as one starting with www.google.com/url?q=. Pasted into the Service URL, that used to send your scans to the wrong address. FileDeck now saves the address inside the redirect link and tells you it did. A Service URL it can't use (one with a query string, one that isn't https, or one on a private network) is refused with a message explaining why, instead of the change quietly not being saved.

A fix for libraries whose document titles use letters beyond plain English, from Danish and German to Russian, Greek, Korean and Japanese.

Fixes & improvements

• Instant search finds titles written in your site's language. On a Danish site, "møde", "bestyrelsesmøde" and "ø" now find "Bestyrelsesmøde"; on a German site, "prüfung" and "pruefung" both find "Prüfungsordnung", and "strasse" finds "Straße". Letters such as ø, æ, å, ß and umlauts could make a search miss, because the library and the search box spelled them differently.
• Instant search finds titles in Cyrillic, Greek, Korean and Japanese as you type them. Letters such as й and ё, accented Greek vowels, Korean syllables, Japanese kana with voicing marks, and capital Cyrillic and Greek letters could make a search miss.

One-click imports now bring a password-protected item's password with them, and Library Health points out documents that use the same file as a restricted one.

Imports keep WordPress passwords

When an item in the plugin you're moving from is locked with WordPress's own Password protected visibility, the imported document asks for the same password before its file can be downloaded, and FileDeck protects its own copy of the file. Visitors who already have the password keep using it. To change or remove it later, edit the document and use its Visibility setting.

Imported before this release? Importing again leaves documents already in your library as they are, so the Migrate screen lists any imported document that doesn't yet ask for its item's password. One button adds the same passwords; another leaves the documents as they are, if you opened them on purpose.

Documents that share a restricted document's file

Two documents can use the very same file: a duplicate keeps the original's file, and a file picked from the Media Library may already belong to another document. Settings → Health now lists documents that use the same file as a restricted document without the same restrictions. Each row names both documents, with a link to edit each, so you can decide whether the file should stay private. Nothing changes until you do.

Fixes & improvements

• Security and reliability improvements across the library, document pages, imports, exports and embeds, in the free plugin and Pro. If your site uses a page cache, clear it once after updating.

A set of fixes for search inside documents and for scanned-PDF OCR, mostly for sites on less common setups.

Fixes & improvements

• On sites that run WordPress on SQLite (for example WordPress Playground, Studio by WordPress.com, or the SQLite Database Integration plugin), search could match words a document no longer contains. Updating fixes this, re-indexing in the background where needed.
• On a server missing a PHP extension FileDeck needs to read PDFs (zlib, iconv or mbstring), PDFs are no longer counted as scans or sent for OCR, including ones an earlier version had already counted, because there a PDF with a text layer can't be told apart from a scan. The Search Index tab names the missing extensions.
• Each PDF is now checked again just before it is sent for OCR, and one that turns out to have a text layer stays on your site.
• A document moved to a byte-identical copy of its file keeps its OCR text instead of dropping it.
• Switching scanned-PDF OCR back on no longer sends scans that were still waiting for room in the queue when it was switched off.

Library Health now shows what a one-click import left for you to finish, and lets you settle each item from the same screen.

Originals still public after an import

When an import brings in a restricted document, FileDeck protects its own copy of the file and leaves the original where your old plugin keeps it, so the old plugin keeps working while you switch. Anyone with a direct link to that original can still open it. Settings → Health now lists these documents, names each original file, and offers to delete it, or to move it into protected storage if you'd rather keep it. Deleting is offered only when the file isn't used by another document and isn't linked from a post, page or menu (in its content, a custom menu link, Elementor's page data or as its featured image), and isn't your site icon or logo; links kept anywhere else aren't checked, so look before you delete. Nothing changes until you click. Either way, the old plugin's link to that file stops working.

Two more checks, drafts included

Library Health also lists restricted documents whose file couldn't be moved into protected storage, and imported documents that arrived without their file. Both checks include drafts, since imports often arrive as drafts, and the weekly Health email reports them. If an import leaves a restricted file unprotected, its summary says so and links to Health.

Fixes & improvements

• WP Customer Area: running the import again finishes a document an interrupted run left without its file. It stays a draft for you to publish.
• WP Customer Area: re-running the import leaves the client areas it made earlier, and the people you've added to them, as they are.
• Download Monitor: a download whose file is in Download Monitor's protected folder gets its own copy in FileDeck, so its Download button works.
• Security and reliability improvements to the one-click importers.

Lead capture, terms acceptance, zips and search now recognise a signed-in member, so the restricted documents you share with people reach them however your library is set up.

Lead capture and terms work for members

With lead capture or terms acceptance switched on, a member who left their details or accepted the terms for a restricted document got an error instead of the file. They now get it, whether the file is stored on your site or linked from another one.

Zips and search include what members may have

A member who selected restricted documents for a zip got an archive without them, and searching inside documents skipped restricted ones they were allowed to read. Both now include every document the member has access to.

Fixes & improvements

• Daily download limits, terms acceptance, lead capture and the form and bot checks apply to restricted documents' Download buttons the same way they apply to every other document. Share links you create yourself (single-use links and transmittals) still skip them. If you set daily download limits, downloads of restricted documents now count towards them, whether by members or by visitors who unlocked a password-protected category.
• The [filedeck_download] button and an embedded document's download link show the lead form, terms or check when one is switched on, instead of an error.
• AI plan: a view-only restricted document opens for the people it's shared with, from the library and from its own page. That page also shows the lead form, terms or check when one is switched on.
• AI plan: with lead capture on, a view-only document opens after the form is filled in, instead of showing an error.
• Security and reliability improvements.

With scanned-PDF OCR switched on, every scan you publish is now sent for OCR automatically, so its contents turn up in search without anyone going back to the settings.

Scans you publish are sent automatically

Before, a scanned PDF added after OCR was switched on waited until someone pressed Send scanned PDF(s) for OCR on the Search Index tab again. Now each scan is sent in the background when you publish it, one at a time, within the same 100-a-day fair-use limit as before.

Scans that were already in your library when you switched OCR on still wait for you to press Send, and so do scans added on the Import & Export screen: bulk add (including files you drop there), CSV import and migrations. Turning OCR on, or importing a library, never sends an existing collection by itself. OCR stays off until you enable it under Documents → Settings → Scanned OCR. See make scanned PDFs searchable with OCR.

Fixes & improvements

• Replacing a scanned document's file with a new scan now makes the new file searchable. Before, the old scan's text stayed in search for the new file, and the new scan was never sent.
• A scanned PDF that you unpublish or move to the trash before its turn in the OCR queue is no longer sent.

The one-click importers now leave your old plugin working, restricted files included, so you can check the new library before you switch over.

Restricted files stay where the old plugin keeps them

When an imported document is restricted to logged-in users and its file is on your site, FileDeck protects its own copy of the file. The file your old plugin uses stays where it was, so its download links keep working, whether you publish the import or bring it in as drafts. Once you've switched, delete the originals that no page or other document still uses: until you do, they're only as private as the old plugin kept them.

Access you add in FileDeck after the import works as before: it moves that document's file into protected storage, so the old plugin's link to that file stops working from then on.

The import summary tells you how many documents got their own copy. If a copy can't be made, the original is protected instead, and the summary says how many files that affected.

Fixes & improvements

• WP Customer Area: a file FileDeck can't match to an owner, including one with no owner at all, arrives as a draft for logged-in users only, ready for you to assign to a client area. Files that were private or unpublished in WP Customer Area arrive as drafts too.
• Download Attachments: a file that wasn't listed on any published post arrives as a draft.
• Security and reliability improvements to the one-click importers and to attaching files from the Library Health screen.
• Documents imported before this release keep the status they arrived with.

A restricted document can point at a file hosted somewhere else, such as a link to cloud storage or another website. The people you shared it with could see it in your library, but its Download button gave them an error instead of the file.

Fixes & improvements

• Signed-in visitors who are allowed to see a restricted document now get its file when the file is a link to another site. This covers documents restricted to logged-in users, named people, groups or membership plans, and documents in restricted categories and client areas. Visitors without access still get no download link.
• The same fix covers the occasional restricted uploaded file whose Download button showed that error to the people it was shared with.
• On the AI plan, a view-only document whose file is a link to another site no longer shows a Download button, so it stays view-only.
• No setting needs changing: the fix takes effect the next time the page loads.