Remove WordPress Plugin From Database

Remove WordPress plugin from database which is/are previously used but no longer required might not be as simple as going to Plugins page and deleting it. Yes, this is the standard way to remove WordPress Plugin. Most of us do in this way. Some remove WordPress Plugin by going to FTP and deleting the files and folders manually. But, none of the method actually removes some data from the MySQL database forever – that is why it can evoke odd response with certain plugin’s activation. In this guide, we will show you the way to remove WordPress Plugin from Database forever.

I Have No Issue, Why I Will Remove WordPress Plugin from Database ?

Legit question. Take that you have removed one plugin which you will never use, so what will be your interest to remove WordPress Plugin from database, right ? The basic problem, apart from same plugin re-installation issues take place is – it significantly increases database overhead. The size of database get increased and these orphan MySQL database actually remains as vulnerable points to get hacked – they are not updated as the plugin is absent.

How much overhead can be added – it can be in triple digit on MB for 100 plugins – recall the old trick of reducing WP_commentmeta Table Database Size in WordPress. That is a good point to understand the basics of PHPMyAdmin and MySQL part.

Remove WordPress Plugin From Database : Field Work !

We are taking that, you have decided to completely wash and clean your WordPress. The only way is to clean the database in the way we thoroughly described before. Actually any new MySQL database will also work – that way is valid for any kind of server on LAMP setup. Now if your after everything goes fine, you will actually understand, we sometimes need to transfer the wp-options table too. Possibly the problems are mostly in this table but can be inside other tables – you can not exclude wp-postmeta, that can have a SEO plugins things which we do not need. Now head to this master page, this is somewhat less known, can be hacked from outside by remote execution and never disclose the screenshot without masking the values you know to be safe. The location is /wp-admin/options.php, if your WordPress is installed on thecustomizewindows.com, you should go to :

Depending on the size of overhead, it can your browser ! So be careful to open in another browser than, for example you are reading this guide. What you can see below :

…are some abnormal names – these are short names of the tables or value created by the Plugins – both active and deleted. aiosp means All in One SEO Plugin. I do not use AIOSP. May be installed 3 years ago ! So, we need to go to PHPMyAdmin, select the values and delete them in the way we did in reducing WP_commentmeta Table Database Size. The thing is same except we will run MySQL query on the whole database.

Other way is to use Plugins – like WPDBSpringClean. The basic thing is the same, but Plugins can hang if PHP memory is limited or the amount of garbage is huge. Complicated way is to use Command Line, which is pathetically difficult but easy for the advanced users. However, take a backup of Database in any situation before you do the steps to remove WordPress Plugin from database.