Clean Wordpress Database
Have you noticed that every time you install a plugin or use one of those super complex Wordpress themes that a lot of tables are being added to your WP database?
This is normally fine since you need these extra database tables to use the plugin or theme. The problem is sometimes even after you “uninstall” the plugin or deactivate theme, these extra db tables are still there. What? I thought I deleted it?
In an effort to speed up my site and make it more SEO friendly I decided to remove all “pointless” plugins and to create my own very simple Wordpress theme. As a part of “cleaning out” my website I decided to go through my database and remove all the crap that was left behind.
Getting to my database I noticed that there was like 200 tables of random database junk I had collected over the years. To keep this post short, I will provide you below with the steps on how to clean up your Database and keep only the db tables that are required for your Wordpress site to work.
Note: None of your posts, comments, pages, categories…will be deleted. All we will be deleting are table entries that were inserted by plugins or themes.s
Steps For A Clean Wordpress Database(using PHP MyAdmin)
1. Open PHP MyAdmin from your host control panel
2.Select your database (What is My Wordpress Database Name?)
3. Use the giant red X to drop unnecessary tables
Tables to keep:
- wp_commentmeta
- wp_comments
- wp_links
- wp_options
- wp_postmeta
- wp_posts
- wp_terms
- wp_term_relationships
- wp_term_taxonomy
- wp_usermeta
- wp_users
4. After dropping tables your database should look like this
