wp options table transient row continuous and bulk writing in WooCommerce

  • Resolved T0M75

    (@t0m75)


    3 weeks, 1 day ago

    I manage a WooCommerce store. The Hosting service provider reports that it has noticed excessively intensive disk usage on the website, which results from continuous and large-scale database writing, which loads the server disks. The problem seems to be in the options table, where a large number of “transient” entries are added. Looking at the options database table myself, I only notice data records for wooCommerce. The database size is 0.05 GB and the “overhead” is 11.16 GB. I find this strange, as the normal operation of wooCommerce should not interfere with the hosting provider. The website has about 800 products and 5 default attribute filters with about 20-30 choices each to improve the user experience..

    I see no way that any other plugin on this website could be causing this behavior. I have removed all plugins that may be related to the problem and the few that remain cannot be turned off on a live website. Options table id has increased from 470418 to 471681 in 12 hours – should this be normal? WooCommerce has been working on the package provided by the service provider for about 10 years without any problems. The WooCommerce version is of course the most recent. Unfortunately, I can’t point out a specific Woocommerce version. Is there any additional information I should ask the website hosting provider about the server or the events mentioned?

    Is this topic still being worked on as it seems quite similar? Have there been any solutions since then? I have istalled ?Transient Cleaner, but don’t understand how this would help reduce the number of writes to the database? I also read on Slack that woo has a WooCommerce > Status > Tools >Transient cleaner, how are they different?

    I’m familiar with docker, but have mainly used it to resolve errors that I can log. Also I have the ability to read a little code, but I don’t know if it would be a solution (the mentioned topic says not to turn off the transient). So where to start.

    Why doesn’t WooCommerce create a separate db table for its temporary data since there is so much? This would make it much easier to detect such problems. Is it necessary to write this information constantly, the need for _transient_wc_related seems especially suspicious, this should only happen if the admin has changed something on the product page and then the data should be updated, not created.

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  • Plugin Support Reynier C. (woo-hc)

    (@reynierc)

    Hi @t0m75 ,

    Thanks for reaching out and taking the time to clearly explain what you’re experiencing.

    I can understand how unexpected disk usage can be concerning. Transients in WooCommerce are used for storing temporary data to speed up your site but shouldn’t be causing such high overhead. The increase in the options table IDs suggests that transients aren’t being cleared as they should.

    The Transient Cleaner plugin and the WooCommerce > Status > Tools > Clear transients option from the default system tools both aim to help with this by cleaning up expired transients from your database. The difference is that WooCommerce’s built-in tool is specifically for its transients, while the plugin can handle all transients on your site. You can read more about the WooCommerce System Tools here.

    WooCommerce uses the options table to ensure compatibility across different WordPress setups. Creating a separate table could help, but the system is designed to work within the WordPress framework. It’s unusual that _transient_wc_related entries are being written so frequently. This behavior typically occurs when product information is updated, not continuously.

    To investigate further, check if any recent changes have been made on your site that might affect transients. Also, ask your hosting provider for logs that might indicate what’s triggering these writes. This information could be crucial in identifying the cause.

    Regarding the constant writing of _transient_wc_related data, this shouldn’t be happening unless there are regular updates to product data. It might be worthwhile reviewing if any background processes or cron jobs could be triggering this activity.

    For now, regularly clearing transients and monitoring the options table growth should help manage the situation. Keep an eye on the options table after clearing transients to see if the growth rate decreases, which would confirm that transients are the root cause.

    Let me know how this goes and if you need further assistance.

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