How to undo bulk alt text changes in WordPress

Alt text is stored in one place, and a bulk tool that overwrites it leaves no history. Here is how to keep a way back.

Where alt text lives

WordPress stores alt text as post meta on each attachment, under the key _wp_attachment_image_alt. Saving a new value replaces the old one. Core WordPress does not keep revisions of attachment meta, so there is no built-in undo.

What you can do without a plugin

• Restore a full database backup taken before the change. This also reverts everything else that changed since.
• Export the old alt text before you start, for example with a query on the postmeta table, so you can write it back later.

What to look for in a bulk tool

• It stores the original value before it writes a new one.
• It has a per-image undo and a per-batch undo.
• It fills empty fields by default and makes overwriting a choice.
• It shows proposals before saving.

AltSweep works this way: the first save on an image stores the previous value in post meta, and the Recent changes list restores it. See the docs.