Uninstalling plugins does not remove their database tables

  • Hi,

    I’ve been using WordPress for my site for 6 years. Over this time I’ve installed, used and uninstalled many plugins. I’ve noticed that not all plugins, if any, remove any tables they made in the WP database when they’re uninstalled. This has left me with a lot of orphaned tables, some of them large if for example they contain a site-wide scan for some purpose.

    I’ve used the WPDBSpringClean plugin to do a search of my database and report on what it thinks are unused tables, which I want to get rid of. But, trying to find what these tables relate to is difficult. Googling for a table name (and also minus the “wp_” prefix) sometimes yields 0 results.

    It would be helpful if there was a central list of database tables used by plugins, firstly so that people who are tidying up their database know exactly which plugin tables relate to which plugins, and secondly for developers as I suppose there’s an edge case where two plugins could use tables of the same name.

    If not a central list, then a tool that can help us find this info, similar to the hotexamples website where I can look up where how functions are used. If plugin source were available and indexed as standard in text form, for all free plugins on the WP repository, then we could do a simple search on this data.

    Thanks.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • hi,
    when you deactivate a plugin , the table will exist until you delete the plugin in right way (from wordpress admin panel). If you remove the plugin manually from ftp or other way tables will remain.
    I think you can remove unused tables with this plugin ,
    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/plugins-garbage-collector/
    good luck

    Thread Starter qaws

    (@qaws)

    Hi, thanks for the link. It’s not always the case that deleting the plugin will also remove the tables. I always delete them using the Plugins page in wp-admin, and sometimes the tables remain.

    Thanks.

    It’s up to the plugin whether or not to delete tables on uninstall. They can keep them, remove them, or add an option.

    If you have issues with specific plugins not removing its tables, you’ll need to take it up with its authors.

    It’s up to the plugin whether or not to delete tables on uninstall. They can keep them, remove them, or add an option.

    If you have issues with specific plugins not removing its tables, you’ll need to take it up with its authors.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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