Although MySQL is a very robust database management system, you should clean it often because the more useless records a DB table has, the more storage space the WordPress website DB can take. If the DBMS caches the records in the system memory, the junk entries may consume the system memory. Which modules of WordPress create junk entries in the DB?
Plugins: A plugin may create a new table in the WordPress DB to store data immediately after you activate it. It may also insert records in the existing WordPress tables, such as wp_options, etc. When you uninstall the extension, it may not delete the table or the records it has stored in the DB.
Comments: Anti-spam extension Akismet and Akismet alternatives may move unwanted and junk comments to the spam folder. A few comments will take up a few bytes of storage memory, and thousands of comments may consume a few megabytes of memory. The forms of a WordPress site may attract trackbacks.
Themes: WordPress themes store the theme settings/options in the DB table in JSON format. One of their requirements may be a page builder. Page builders are complex plugins, and they may store a lot of data in the WP database.
How to get rid of junk from the DB? Finding and cleaning junk entries manually with MySQL plugins or IDEs is not easy. The WordPress DB cleaning extensions we’ve shared below will do this job for you with a click of a button:
Advanced Database Cleaner
Advanced Database Cleaner is the best WP extension to manage junk in the WP DB. It schedules DB cleaning tasks automatically after you activate it. It shows a table containing a list of elements the plugin can clean and the number of entries of the element in the DB table. For example, if ten records in the wp posts table have the status “draft”, it will display 10 in the row “drafts”. Another excellent feature of this extension is that it enables you to manage WordPress cron entries and can bulk optimize/repair DB tables from the WordPress dashboard. What can ADC clean? This extension can remove five types of orphan WP entries, trackbacks, pingbacks, etc. How popular is this plugin? ADC is active on 90000 websites, and its rating is 4.9 out of 5.
Database Cleaner and Optimizer
Database Cleaner and Optimizer is more advanced than similar plugins, according to its developer. It identifies the table a WP extension or theme uses and makes you aware of the same. It also displays the total size of the DB so that you can know how much storage space the plugin has freed after cleaning and removing the junk table entries. DCO removes the following entries from the DB table:
- Revisions, auto drafts, deleted posts.
- Orphaned/duplicate user meta, post meta, term meta.
- Orphaned term relationships, oeEmbed caches, unused items.
- Duplicated term meta, post meta.
- Unapproved, spammed.
DCO also identifies expired transients and lets you remove them.
Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions
With this plugin, you can remove the post revisions for the following post types:
- Post, page, user_request, wp_block, wp_template.
- wp_template part, wp_global_styles, wp_navigation, etc.
You can configure ODD to find and remove revisions older than X number of days. ODD also lets users set the maximum number of revisions it should store for a post in the WordPress database table. It can remove orphan settings and other entries from the tables. It can also delete transient options. You can configure it to run the optimization hourly, twice a day, daily, weekly, and monthly. ODD lets users see the DB entries it will delete before optimizing the DB tables.
WPS Cleaner
WPSC is a great alternative to the WP extensions we’ve covered above. It lets you clean individual junk entries instead of clearing all useless records in the table in one go. WPSC settings page boasts many maroon-colored buttons. Each button has a number enclosed in round brackets. The number denotes the junk entries. If you think that a particular entry shouldn’t exist in the DB table, you can click the button. In addition to removing unwanted table entries, WPS Cleaner can show the list of pictures not used on any page or post. It can also remove all unused themes and plugins on your website with one click.
Easy WP Cleaner
EWC is the simplest plugin on our list. It has just one settings page, and the settings aren’t grouped in tabs. On its settings page, you’ll find a list of items that the extension considers junk and a button to delete them. Below the items, you’ll find the list of tables in your WordPress website’s DB, the size of the tables, and the overall size of the DB. Below the list of tables, there’s a button “optimize”. EWC will optimize all the tables at a time. You cannot select individual tables.
Closing words: As time passes by, the WordPress website’s database might become bloated. Use one of the WordPress plugins we’ve shared above to delete useless records from the DB tables and optimize them.
