[WordPress] Add file to media library programmatically

gistfile1.php

<?php
$file = '/path/to/file.png';
$filename = basename($file);

$upload_file = wp_upload_bits($filename, null, file_get_contents($file));
if (!$upload_file['error']) {
	$wp_filetype = wp_check_filetype($filename, null );
	$attachment = array(
		'post_mime_type' => $wp_filetype['type'],
		'post_parent' => $parent_post_id,
		'post_title' => preg_replace('/\.[^.]+$/', '', $filename),
		'post_content' => '',
		'post_status' => 'inherit'
	);
	$attachment_id = wp_insert_attachment( $attachment, $upload_file['file'], $parent_post_id );
	if (!is_wp_error($attachment_id)) {
		require_once(ABSPATH . "wp-admin" . '/includes/image.php');
		$attachment_data = wp_generate_attachment_metadata( $attachment_id, $upload_file['file'] );
		wp_update_attachment_metadata( $attachment_id,  $attachment_data );
	}
}

@srjwebster
I am in the same situation. No solution for multiple uploads.

@fabriziofeitosa I found that by removing some unused media sizes, and by turning off image optimisation plugin wp smush I could run this n a much shorter timeframe. A few seconds compared to several minutes. Definitely not a solution, something asynchronous seems necessary to do this on a frequent basis.

Script is very good and its worked.

Thanks!!

Life Saver

Thanks a lot, your code is very good.

It's worked on WP 5.6!

Not working.

Fatal error: Call to undefined function wp_get_current_user() in /home/username/public_html/wp/wp-includes/capabilities.php on line 424

Run your code on init hook

If you receive the file via method POST like:
$file = (binary)
instead of absolute path like this:
$file = '/path/to/file.png';

You have to use $file['tmp_name'] when calling wp_upload_bits
wp_upload_bits($filename, null, file_get_contents($file['tmp_name']))

The rest of above code works great!
Thanks again.

wp_insert_attachment has the option to return a WP Error instance on failure set to false by default, it will return a zero instead.

So the check for is_wp_error will always return false unless you supply true as a 4th argument.

wp_insert_attachment( $attachment, $upload_file['file'], $parent_post_id, true )