Clean Up a WordPress Database with WP-DBManager Plugin

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.

WP-DBManager plugin drop tables WordPress

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.

  1. Install and activate the WP-DBManager plugin. You'll have a new Database item in your admin menu.
  2. From the Database menu, select Empty/Drop Tables.
  3. Select the Drop radio button for any tables you wish to drop.
  4. 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."

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25 comments on “Clean Up a WordPress Database with WP-DBManager Plugin”

  1. 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!

    1. 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.

      1. Hello, Chad, if you look at the P3 plug-in site and read the reviews there I'm not so sure you want to recommend it any longer… hasn't been updated in eons.

        1. Thanks for commenting, Hans. The P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler) plugin was mentioned in comments from 2013, but you're right that as of today, it hasn't been updated in over 2 years.

    1. 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.

  2. Thanks for the tip.

    An Amazing plugin that helped me to delete the Wazzup tables and reduced LOTS and LOTS of space. Yes finally....... 🙂

  3. I have some Unused rows in my database tables on one of my site.. like Comment,the Comment section is disabled on that site.
    Should i delete the row?

    1. Janmejai, make a backup before doing anything, just in case. Since comments can be deleted through the WordPress admin, it would be safer to delete them there than directly in the database. If you don't want the comments, and never will in the future, you should be OK to delete them however you'd like.

  4. i also use this plugin for my sites. Before the installation of wp-db manager the page load time is 3.4 and after installation this plugin my site load 0.8. it is very useful for wordpress site...

  5. From day one of my blog I’ve been using the WP DB-Manager, to auto backup my database. I’ve always used that one because its east to use and gets the job done with no problems.
    On the off chance one day I get a database crash, I’ll be covered. I also weekly take a manual backup of my files. Goof plugins you’ve listed.

  6. This plugin you are writing about is completely useless for the purpose of deleting plugins leftovers. Useless as well as the other 2-3 available out there. Why? Because none of these plugin actually tells you from which plugin the tables come from. What's the use of this plugin if anyone can do the same blind operation (optimize, repair, drop, empty, etc.) just by logging into their cPanel?
    The plugin that tells you exactly where the tabes come from has not born yet.

    1. Criss, you're right that this plugin won't tell you where the tables came from. Sometimes you can google the table names to find out which plugin they're associated with, but that's not as easy as if a plugin just told you. 🙂 Yes, you can manage a database using phpMyAdmin or other tools within a host's control panel, but not all WordPress site managers know how to do that. This plugin is a more user-friendly method for those tech-savvy enough to use it, but not tech-savvy enough to use something like phpMyAdmin.

  7. Thank you for this great post and amazing tips! It’s been very useful for us before we started, especially since there are no useful guides for starters like this in Turkish. 🙂 We are also travel bloggers from Turkey and wanted to say thank you.

  8. I've been struggling to get my website speed above 70, so I'm going to try it now. Did you take screenshots of the improvements?

    Thanks for the great article!

  9. I’ve noticed that one of my sites has been suffering from being hacked – I think. All they do (or have done so far) is to insert a new user admin (I’ve been using other names for ‘admin’ for a long time now) and then 4 or 5 posts appear (as drafts only) advertising seemingly innocent sites promoting things such as golf, or scotland or fly-fishing (might be a Scottish hacker!). I have now changed all of the wp_ suffixes in my dbase tables using instructions from the tdot-blog. Let’s see what happens next…

  10. By far, the MOST HELPFUL plugin for me has been MailMunch. It has helped me increase my newsletter subscribers by leaps and bounds (using some of Jeni’s techniques has certainly helped too (wink)). Then there’s Jetpack. Streamlines and makes the site run faster. Provides all kinds of services within the blog, including related posts, marketing and sharing. Also gives you analytics.

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