Remove WF from Database

I have the exact same issue….WordFence caused a mess on my blog within hours after installing so I immediately deleted the plugin, but there were about 15 tables left behind. I cannot figure out how to get rid of them.

I use the Garbage Plugin to collect leftovers from plugins that have been uninstalled, and it finds the WordFence tables but when hit delete, they do not get removed.

Please tell me how to delete everything having to do with WordFence. I am not a techie person so the simplest way possible please.

Hi, just enter your hosting control panel. In a decent hosting service, you should have phpmyadmin installed. Browse the tables in your database and delete the following:

wp_wfBadLeechers
wp_wfBlocks
wp_wfConfig
wp_wfCrawlers
wp_wfFileMods
wp_wfHits
wp_wfHoover
wp_wfIssues
wp_wfLeechers
wp_wfLockedOut
wp_wfLocs
wp_wfLogins
wp_wfNet404s
wp_wfReverseCache
wp_wfScanners
wp_wfStatus
wp_wfThrottleLog
wp_wfVulnScanners

Thanks but I figured it out to do just what you recommended back when I had the problem. When you delete a plugin, it should delete everything from the database. I won’t be using this plugin again.

I agree with mcgroup! The tables should be removed after I deactivated the plugin. Looks like back door… ??

What else should I remove?

Yep, it should. But since WordFence is a security firewall which is logging bad behaviour and suspicious activities, you may want to reinstall o reactivate it and reanalyze the logs. Also, they surely assume that in those scenarios, having the logs in place may ease scanning.

But wait, did you see the plugin options screen? Please notice that there is an option at the end:

Delete Wordfence tables and data on deactivation?

Did it work?

@marcelo Peda, I never saw the line:

Delete Wordfence tables and data on deactivation?

When I deactivated and wanted to delete it. I got rid of the plugin because it locked me out of my own website and I had to go in via FTP to remove the plugin.

Don’t use this plug in, it makes an overload in SQL tables and size…..

I recognize it’s a heavy load but the options to tune it are present. You only need to have patience and configure it. Hint: in shared hosting environments it may obviously overload your database because shared hostings are commonly oversold and crowded, so you are sharing memory and cpu with zillions of websites…

What version of the plugin were you using? @llp, you say it made a mess on your blog. What do you mean by that?

Even though I had de-activated WordFence a couple weeks ago, my shared hosting account got suspended because the wp_wfFileMods table had grown to over 2.2 GIGS! Deleting that table (and all other WF tables) fixed my issue (and satisfied my shared host), but what do you think caused such an over growth of that table while the plugin was de-activated? Is it likely the table growth took place before I de-activated it, and it just took 2 weeks for my shared hosting provider noticed?

Thanks,
Aaron

@aaronaprill The tables in database cannot grow if the plugin is deactivated. Are you sure that the size wasn’t overgrown before you deactivate the plugin?

@Marcelo- Yes, that is likely the case and I had updated my comment above to suggest that… Probably just took my host 2 weeks to notice it and shut me down.

So, to reword my original question, what would cause the wp_wfFileMods table to grow so large (2.2 GIG in my case)?

wp_wfFileMods contains the changelog of files in your server. The plugin check plugins and themes folders and compare those files with the originals in the wordpress official repositories. This is done by keeping a detailed track of all the files in your wordpress installation.

My tables for this aren’t so big, so I assume you probably have a huge WordPress installation, with plenty of plugins, themes and/or lots of images uploaded.

In the other hand, did you optimize the tables of your database sometimes? Because deleted data in the database generate gaps of garbage that can make grow a database and even make it underperform.

I have the same problem just as described in this thread. I tried several tools, but still no luck on deleting those leftovers. I haven’t tried using the phpMyadmin, though.

What worked for me was I had to reinstall Wordfence. Once Wordfence was installed, I went to Options and select;

Delete Wordfence tables and data on deactivation?

Just as Marcelo Pedra posted.

Once it the option was selected, I attempted to Deactivate the plugin and check the database with WP-Optimize, which is the one I’m using to optimize my database.

Guess what??? All those wp_wfxxxxx things are gone. Then, I go ahead and deleted Wordfence completely.

Checked the database once again with WP-Optimize…. all those unwanted entries are gone completely.

Hope this will help those who are in trouble getting rid of the Wordfence remnants. A good plugin, though it create plenty of problems in the long run and slows down the website like a turtle.

You can use https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/wp-dbmanager/ to delete unwanted tables