File count changes transfer strategy
rsync, archive creation, SFTP and control-panel tools behave differently when the site contains hundreds of thousands of files.
Estimate transfer complexity for large WordPress media libraries using storage size, file count and thumbnail multiplication.
Adjust the inputs to generate a planning recommendation.
Large WordPress media libraries create two different migration problems: bytes to transfer and files to enumerate. Thousands of original images can become many more thumbnail files, and small-file overhead can make transfer behavior very different from a single archive of the same total size.
rsync, archive creation, SFTP and control-panel tools behave differently when the site contains hundreds of thousands of files.
S3-compatible object storage or CDN offload may mean the uploads directory is not fully local. Confirm what actually needs to move.
Regenerating thumbnails after launch can consume CPU, I/O and time. Decide whether to migrate existing derivatives or recreate them deliberately.
Often an archive is faster for many small files, but source disk space and extraction capacity must be available.
Sometimes, but custom sizes, old theme sizes and very large libraries can make regeneration expensive.
Media URLs, permissions, attachment pages, image sizes, CDN/offload configuration and a sample of old and recent uploads.