Hi @newcastlecreativeco,
Thank you for contacting me.
I have ‘Optimized’ a number of the tables, weirdly one of them got larger?
This may happen in some cases and it is most likely related to indexes.
Should I run the Empty Rows and the Repair options too?
Please do not use the “empty” button, this will delete all your table content and you will lose all data in it! Use this option only when you need to empty a table from its content.
Concerning the “repair” button, this will not have any effect unless your tables are really damaged and need to be repaired. This plugin alerts you in case you need to repair one of your tables.
That is to say, neither “empty” nor “repair” will help you reduce your database size. What I suggest instead is to have a look at the “General cleanup” tab and see what you can delete from there. For example, if you have a big number of “orphaned post meta”, cleaning them up will help to reduce your DB size. Have a look also at the “options” tab and see if you got a lot of options, maybe be some of them should be cleaned.
In general, a database with 500mb should not crash your website! Maybe you should upgrade your hosting plan as well.
