I use the WP-DBManager plugin to keep my WordPress databases clean. I like things neat and tidy, so it annoys me when I see unnecessary tables in my WordPress databases. These are often left over from deleted plugins. Some plugins delete their data from the database, but many don’t, preserving your data in case you reinstall the plugin. Here’s how to drop unwanted tables with the WP-DBManager plugin.
Dropping tables. I blocked out my unique table prefix.
Note: before working on your database, always make a backup! You can do this with the WP-DBManager plugin, or use a backup plugin like my favorite, BackWPup.
- Install and activate the WP-DBManager plugin. You’ll have a new Database item in your admin menu.
- From the Database menu, select Empty/Drop Tables.
- Select the Drop radio button for any tables you wish to drop.
- Click the Empty/Drop button at the bottom.
At the bottom of the page is this note: “1. EMPTYING a table means all the rows in the table will be deleted. This action is not REVERSIBLE. 2. DROPPING a table means deleting the table. This action is not REVERSIBLE.”
The plugin does a lot more than drop tables. The description says, “Allows you to optimize database, repair database, backup database, restore database, delete backup database , drop/empty tables and run selected queries. Supports automatic scheduling of backing up, optimizing and repairing of database.”
How do you keep your WordPress databases clean?
I’ve been struggling to get my web speed above 69, so I’m going to try it. Did you take screen shots of the improvements?
P3 Plugin detector is great as well, it shows you the loading time of each plugin. Made me delete a bunch of plug ins pretty quick.
Thanks for the great article!
I haven’t measured the performance of the websites I’ve done this minor cleanup on, but I suspect the difference would be negligible. The sites are relatively small, and I don’t remove much. I use this method more to declutter than to improve performance. I’ve heard good things about the P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler) plugin, but haven’t tried it yet.
I just wrote a post about this plugin and really about cleaning up and speeding up WordPress in general. You can check it out here: http://itsjustjustin.com/keep-your-wordpress-blog-running-smoothly-and-reliably/7374
Thanks, Justin. Your post goes a lot further than mine, showing several methods for cleaning a WordPress database. Unfortunately, it looks like the Clean Options and WP-Cleanup plugins you mentioned haven’t been updated since 2010. While they may still work perfectly, I’m hesitant to use stale plugins because WordPress changes so quickly.