Visitor’s log too big.

Hi Digbymaass,

The execution of the routine to clean up files is controlled by WordPress through cron jobs. Our free plugin, WPTools, can show you if there’s any issue with your cron jobs.

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/wptools/

Please check and let me know if you find any problems related to our plugins.

Regards,

Bill

The only cron job I can find for SBB is stopbadbots_cron_hook, with no action, set to run once per hour. Is there another one I should be looking for?
Also, there are no cron errors reported.

I will run tests and let you know tomorrow.

I ran tests on my sites, and it’s working. Pay attention to these points:

1. Check if your site has enough WP memory (WP Memory Limit).
2. Check the error log for any MySQL or database query errors.
   Our troubleshooting page:
   https://siterightaway.net/troubleshooting/

Please, let me know.

Percentage of used memory: 6%
Free memory: 240MB
Memory Usage: 16MB
PHP Memory Limit: 256MB
WordPress Memory Limit: 256MB

No php errors related to MySQL or SBB

Up to 17,720 entries again after I cleared the table 2 days ago. Which cron job is supposed to clear it? If I run stopbadbots_cron_hook it isn’t cleared.

Could you possibly provide an option to turn off the visitors log? Even 1 day (if it were working for me) results in thousands of lines that I really don’t need to consult.

Our plugin includes an option on the settings page that allows you to choose how long visit logs are retained, ranging from one day to one year.

To view the retained logs, simply navigate to the Visits Log section. By clicking on the Time header, you can change the sorting order to see both the earliest and the latest records.

If the system is clearing the table and it reaches 13,000 records in one day, it’s likely that you received visitors who loaded 13,000 pages, which, by the way, is something that your server’s MySQL should have no problem handling. It is not big deal. You can examine these visits in our Visits Log report.

The plugin features a dedicated cron management system (we do not utilize WordPress’s standard cron system), which has been functioning well across many of our more than 20 plugins, including Anti Hacker and WP Tools, with thousands of users. One of its functions is stopbadbots_check_cron_request.

The function responsible for clearing the logs is stopbadbots_cron_function_clear. It daily cleans several tables, and you are likely referring to sbb_visitorslog.

Yesterday, we conducted tests on our server, where we host nearly 50 sites, mostly WordPress, and everything is functioning as expected.

Therefore, we suggested yesterday that you check for any issues on your server. As explained on our troubleshooting page, there are many reasons a plugin might not function properly, including low memory, errors, conflicts with other plugins and themes, server failures, and more. There are numerous factors, including malware, outdated server software, and other issues. Many users also install multiple plugins that serve the same purpose, which is not advisable.

At this point, I recommend if necessary, that you manually clear the mentioned table using phpMyAdmin, which you can likely find in your hosting panel.

If you encounter any information in the future that might help us understand why the clean table function of the plugin isn’t working on your server, if that is the issue, please let us know, and we will specifically investigate that information.

I hope this clarifies the matter. Please let us know if you need anything else.

“Our plugin includes an option on the settings page that allows you to choose how long visit logs are retained, ranging from one day to one year.”
I know! It used to have an option to turn it off. Could you not put this back?
And it is a big deal – the table becomes megabytes in size, which is a database overhead we don’t need.

And WP Tools doesn’t show this cron job stopbadbots_cron_function_clear

To function properly, we need to keep at least one day, for example, to count how many visits occur per minute and per hour, and block access if they exceed the limits, among other tasks.

I just want the bots blocked. The limits settings are for pro only. Quite happy to turn off the visitors log.
I will find a way in phpmyadmin to truncate it every hour or so.

Generally, on my own sites, the total size of the databases exceeds 1 GB. So, 5 MB represents only 0,5%. It seems reasonable considering the benefit it brings me.
For example, improving bot blocking based on behavior and the statistics of real visits and blocked attacks that it provides.

In the end, everyone has their own opinion.