Delete Unused Options Data

  • I needed to manually fix a corrupted WordPress database last week. Some of the fixes required,

    1) deletion of unused data rows in the wp_options table, and
    2) conversion of tables to InnoDB.

    While deleting rows from the wp_options table I came upon a row of data for Jetpack that had been made redundant a year or two ago after Jetpack migrated the data to another table. This made me wonder how many other data in wp_options can be deleted even though the plugin that added the table is still active in a site.

    That wonder in mind,

    a) could WP Optimize suggest wp_options table edits for popular plugins that have migrated data from the wp_options table to elsewhere in the database;
    b) further, could WP Optimize list all plugin and theme data in wp_options so that (super) admins might delete them; and
    c) could WP Optimize move those wp_options data to a backup table in the database in case an admin wishes to restore the data to wp_options?

    I imagine this would work similar to the existent table deletion feature found under WP Optimize > Database but with a data row restore option added.

    Is this likely to be added to WP Optimize?

    Done well, WP Optimize could become a repository resource for plugin and theme developers to log/report data storage changes; and site admins and developers could report observations to WP Optimize too.

    As additional suggestions/questions,

    1) Will WP Optimize ever include a feature to convert MyISAM tables to InnoDB?
    2) Will WP Optimize ever include an option to add table indexes for tables that lack them?
    3) Will an individual table backup/restore option be added to Table Deletion?

    Lee

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

  • Hi Lee,

    Thank you for your suggestions.

    To answer your questions:

    a) could WP Optimize suggest wp_options table edits for popular plugins that have migrated data from the wp_options table to elsewhere in the database;

    This is quite unlikely, as that would require keeping track of changes in plugin versions, and would require data that’s not available at the moment.

    b) further, could WP Optimize list all plugin and theme data in wp_options so that (super) admins might delete them; and
    c) could WP Optimize move those wp_options data to a backup table in the database in case an admin wishes to restore the data to wp_options?

    I imagine this would work similar to the existent table deletion feature found under WP Optimize > Database but with a data row restore option added.

    This might be possible, specially for the plugins. We’ll look into the possibilities for that.

    1) Will WP Optimize ever include a feature to convert MyISAM tables to InnoDB?

    This is an interesting suggestion. We would have to weigh the possible benefits.

    2) Will WP Optimize ever include an option to add table indexes for tables that lack them?

    Possibly in places where it’s known to be an improvement (such as postmeta->meta_key).

    3) Will an individual table backup/restore option be added to Table Deletion?

    For now we’re leaving the backup/restore option to UpdraftPlus. Most websites’ databases are quite fast to backup/restore. I’ll look at the possibilities to backup only the relevant tables, as it would make sense specially on bigger sites. Though this would only be supported by UpdraftPlus Premium.

    Marc.

    Thread Starter Lee Hodson (VR51)

    (@leehodson)

    Marc, thank you very much for looking into my suggestions.

    I look forward to seeing the future of WP Optimize.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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