Database Cleaner Plugin That Removes Expired Transients | WP Learning Lab

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Database Cleaner Plugin That Removes Expired Transients | WP Learning Lab

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An easy database cleaner process is to remove expired and non-expired transients from your WordPress database. This database cleanup process involves a plugin that deletes bits of information that are temporarily stored in your database.

Sometimes, a plugin developer will code the expiration incorrectly and the transients never expire. This can lead to a bloated and slow database.

The transients accumulate in the wp_options table. The view the size of the table you have to access your phpMyAdmin through your hosting account cPanel.

Then you open the database for your site and you will see a high level table called wp_options. To the far right it shows the size of the table.

Make note of the size and compare it to the size of the table after you clear any expired transients the plugin finds.

Next, let's install the plugin.

To install this plugin please log into your WordPress dashboard, hover over Plugins and then click on Add New.

On the next page type "delete expired transients" into the search bar. The plugin we want should be the first one in the top left.

Click on the Install Now button and then click Activate after it's installed.

Once activated, a new menu item is added under the Tools menu called Delete Transients. Click on that menu item.

Now you'll see the simple, single page of the plugin.

This page shows how many expired transients there are on your site and how many transients in total.

Transients that aren't expired are generally needed by one of your plugins to work properly. After a certain amount of time those transients expire and can be deleted.

Improperly coded plugins don't have that expiration associated with the transients, so the transients never expire and just pile up in your database.

Below the numbers of transients, you can choose what to delete.

The safest is to delete expired transients, if there are any. Since they're expired they're no longer in use.

You also have the option of deleting all transients, which you should do with caution. There is a chance it will affect your site's functionality until the plugin needing those transients creates them again.

However, on one of my sites, I have a plugin, I don't know which one yet, that keeps creating transients without expiring them. So my database keeps growing in size. So, in my case I'm comfortable deleting all the transients because that improves my site's function.

After you've chosen the right option for you click on the Delete button.

Now you can go back to your phpMyAdmin and refresh the page to see if there is a change in the size of the wp_options table. For me, the change in size is always substantial.

I hope this information helps you! If you have any questions leave a comment below or ping me @WPLearningLab on Twitter.

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