How to get a WordPress Media (attachment) ID

There are several ways to go about getting the attachment ID (of the ‘attachment’ WordPress post type, stored in the wp_posts WPDB [Wordpress DataBase] table. Here are some of them:

From the Media Library:

Navigate to Dashboard -> Media. Here you will see your WordPress uploads (Media), either in grid view or list view. They’re both fine, it’s just a preference thing. Instructions for both are below.

You can click the small icons to change the Media view from list to grid or vice versa.

List View

If in List view, navigate to the item by scrolling or using the search bar at the top right. Then hover over the title of that file, like so:

Use your mouse to hover over the chosen media and watch for the post ID in the lower left hand corner of your browser. In this case, the id is 9479.

Grid View

In grid view, it’s a little bit different. You’ve got to click on the media file. A popup window will open up. Take a look in your browser URL bar and you will see the attachment ID there, after where it says “?item=” Like this:

In this case, the attachment ID is 9491