See also: Commons:File redirects. 
![[1]](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:File_redirect_example.jpg&redirect=no){kind=link}
Most commonly file redirects are created when a file is renamed or exact duplicates are merged. These redirect pages normally contain no other meta-data about the file such as categories, description or templates.
See also: Commons:File redirects. Most commonly file redirects are created when a file is renamed or exact duplicates are merged. These redirect pages normally contain no other meta-data about the file such as categories, description or templates.
Redirects allow an individual file to be referred to by two (or more) distinct names. There are a number of instances where this is useful:
The objective of Commons is to make material freely available, file redirects attempt to maintain internal and external references to that content despite our internal housekeeping that might otherwise break existing access paths.
After renaming files or merging duplicates we attempt to replace all usage on the Wikimedia projects with the new or remaining filename, using CommonsDelinker. But there may be many residual uses of, or references to, the old filename. Some of these uses we may be aware of, and others we have no technical way of finding nor correcting.
For Wikimedia projects the redirect facilitates finding the file by using the old/redundant name in cases that CommonsDelinker could not handle, for example:
We have no way of knowing about all external uses (e.g. references on the rest of the internet and printed publications). File redirection is only partially successful in maintaining access for content that we have moved or merged. It is successful in maintaining attribution paths that are required by many of our licenses, but does not repair 'hotlinks' from external sites that link directly to the original media file. Links to thumbnailed versions of files do get redirected.
For example we occasionally have a set of files whose names have been "harmonised" to a regular naming pattern so that they can easily be used as icons in templates or some other context requiring automatic selection of the appropriate image. e.g. of the form File:Basename - en.JPG, File:Basename - de.JPG. There may be occasions where an image is used by two different naming schemes in two completely separate contexts - rather than duplicating the image by a different name, we can simply create a file redirect to the image. This is liable to be an infrequent requirement and the utility of this needs to be assessed on a case by case basis. In this context the redirect would most likely have categories added, possibly different ones from the destination file.
Creation of redirects in alternative languages is not wanted. Multi-lingual translations on the file's description page are used instead.
A file redirect from Commons File A to Commons File B will be listed at Special:WhatLinksHere for File B (local uses of the file, on Commons). However, any uses of File A outside Commons are not visible at Special:GlobalUsage for File B (global uses of the file, i.e. on other Wikimedia projects). See phab:T20017. In addition, Special:WhatLinksHere for File B on a local project will not show File A or its local uses (phab:T24471). Note: all uses of File A can be replaced globally using CommonsDelinker.
Technically, file redirects are ordinary redirectsonFile: pages, and they can be created manually. However, this only works where there is no file of that name (if there is a file, any uses of the redirect show the redirect's file, and not the target file - phab:T16928).
[[Category:..]] (and do show up in categories) - but the categories are not listed on the file redirect page (phab:T29857)upload.wikimedia.org, per COM:REUSE#Hotlinking). Hotlinking to the thumbnail version is not broken - phab:T37721.
