[GUIDE] Finding WPBakery Mega Addon usage for removal purposes

Like many, I need to find where this abandoned plugin is used so I can remove it.

These addons appear as shortcodes in the wp_posts database table (and potentially other tables). All the shortcode names are available by looking in the plugin’s render directory. Line 6 of each file looks something like this: class WPBakeryShortCode_mvc_flip_box extends WPBakeryShortCode {.

The part after WPBakeryShortCode_ is a shortcode, in this case mvc_flip_box.

In the non-pro version, this is a list of all the shortcodes:

mvc_flip_box|mvc_countdown|mvc_photobook|accordion_father|vc_headings|mvc_timeline_father|mvc_timeline_son|mvc_team_profile|modal_popup_box|mvc_advanced_button|google_trends|mvc_counter|interective_banner|vc_creativelink|filter_gallery_son|mvc_button|social_vc_son|info_banners_vc|mvc_ihe|mvc_price_listing|vc_woo_grid|info_banner_vc|filter_gallery_wrap|tm_carousel_son|image_swap|mvc_timeline_son|text_type_vc|accordion_son|tooltip_icons|info_list_son|vc_testimonial|tm_carousel_father|info_list_father|highlight_box|mvc_advance_listing|vc_info_circle|mvc_infobox|social_vc_father

With these, I used mysqldump --extended_insert=FALSE to dump my database to a text file with each post on its own line. Then I was able to search for the strings above and received back lines that started with INSERT INTO wp_posts VALUES (123, blah blah).

The number after VALUES ( (in the example above, 123) is a post that contains a WPBakery shortcode.

I did some more search/replace on my results until I got a neat list of post IDs and the shortcodes in use, but this gives an overview of the general technique.