Broken Media refers to media resources used on your website that fail to load when a visitor requests a page. These are not links to other pages. These are assets your site depends on to render, function, or display content correctly.
A media item is considered broken when it returns a non-success HTTP response. Common examples include 404 Not Found, 403 Forbidden, and server errors. Scanfully reports what a browser would experience, not what WordPress intends.
Broken Media often affects more than visuals. Missing scripts can break functionality. Missing stylesheets can block rendering. Missing embeds can slow pages down while browsers wait for responses.
What Scanfully Scans for Broken Media
Scanfully scans your site from the outside, just like a real visitor. During a scan, we load pages and extract media references from the rendered HTML.
We detect media used in common HTML elements, including images, scripts, stylesheets, audio, video, embeds, iframes, and object-based resources. We scan both internally hosted assets and third-party resources.
Scanfully does not rely on WordPress internals or database access. If a browser can request it, Scanfully can check it.
Media Types You Will See in the Report
Each Broken Media entry includes a media type. This type reflects how the resource is used on the page, not just the file extension.
You may see images, scripts, stylesheets, audio sources, video sources, embeds, iframes, or object-based media. This helps you understand the impact of the issue and prioritize fixes.
Internal vs External Broken Media
Scanfully separates broken media into internal and external resources.
Internal media is hosted on the same domain as your site. External media is hosted on third-party domains, such as CDNs, embed providers, or external asset servers.
Both matter. Internal issues are usually easy to fix. External issues often explain sudden breakage caused by providers you do not control.
Filtering and Searching Broken Media
The Broken Media table includes filters to help you focus.
You can filter by internal or external media, by media type, and by HTTP status code. You can also search by the page where the media was found or by the resource URL itself.
Filters work on the latest scan data. They do not trigger new scans.
