Advanced Database Cleaner – Optimize & Clean Database to Speed Up Site Performance vs The Off Switch (formerly WP Avoid Slow)

Advanced Database Cleaner is a complete WordPress optimization plugin that helps you clean up database clutter and optimize database performance by removing unused data such as old revisions, auto drafts, spam comments, expired transients, unused post meta, duplicated post meta, unused user meta, etc. It is designed to help you improve website speed by reducing database bloat and ensuring a lean, efficient WordPress installation. It also provides detailed previews, powerful filters, and automation tools to safely control what gets cleaned. With the ✨Premium version✨, you can unlock even more advanced features, such as detecting and cleaning orphaned options, orphaned tables, orphaned post meta, orphaned user meta, orphaned transients, and orphaned cron jobs. It also gives you clear insights into how your database evolves over time through built-in analytics, lets you monitor plugin and theme activity to better understand when new data is created or when leftovers appear, and much more. Why use Advanced Database Cleaner❓ 👉 Get a clear overview: see how many tables, options, transients, cron jobs, metadata… records you have, and identify which are unused or orphaned. 👉 Save time: configure what to clean, how far back to keep data, and how often to run automations. The plugin will then handle recurring cleanups for you. 👉 Save space and improve performance: removing unnecessary data reduces database size, makes backups faster, and can improve query performance, especially on busy or older sites. ✅ Main Features Delete old revisions of posts and pages Delete old auto-drafts Delete trashed posts Delete pending comments Delete spam comments Delete trashed comments Delete pingbacks Delete trackbacks Delete unused post meta Delete unused comment meta Delete unused user meta Delete unused term meta Delete unused relationships Delete expired transients Delete duplicated post meta Delete duplicated user meta Delete duplicated comment meta Delete duplicated term meta Delete oEmbed caches Display the database size that will be freed before cleaning for each item type, and the total size to be freed Display and preview items to clean before performing a database cleanup to ensure safety Sorting capability in cleanup preview tables (by name, date, size, site id, etc.) View options value content in original or formatted mode for serialized or JSON structures (and other items types as well). Keep last X days of data: clean only data older than the number of days you specify ✅ Automation Schedule database cleanup to run automatically Create scheduled cleanup tasks and specify which items each task should clean Schedule database optimization and/or repair to run automatically Execute scheduled tasks based on several frequencies: once, hourly, twice a day, daily, weekly, or monthly Specify the “keep last X days” rule for each item type in a scheduled task Pause/Resume scheduled tasks whenever needed Create as many scheduled cleanup tasks as needed and specify what each task should clean ✅ Tables Display the list of database tables with information such as number of rows, table size, engine, etc. Sort tables by any column such as table name or table size Display table contents along with their column structure, indexes, status, and more Detect and filter tables with invalid prefixes (tables that do not belong to the current WordPress installation), this can be enabled or disabled from the settings page Optimize database tables (the plugin notifies you when tables require optimization) Repair corrupted or damaged database tables (the plugin notifies you when tables are corrupted) Convert tables to InnoDB for better performance Empty rows of database tables Clean and delete database tables ✅ Options Display the options list with information such as option name, option value, option size, and autoload status Sort options by any column such as option name or option size View option value content in original or formatted mode for serialized or JSON structures. Notify you if autoloaded options are large and help reduce autoload size for better performance Detect large options that may slow down your website Set option autoload to yes/no Clean and delete options ✅ Cron Jobs Display the list of active cron jobs (scheduled tasks) with information such as arguments, action, next run, schedule, etc. Sort cron jobs by any column such as action name or next run time Detect cron jobs with no valid actions Clean and delete scheduled tasks ✅ Post Meta Display the post meta list with information such as meta key, value, size, associated post ID, etc. Sort post meta by any column such as meta key, meta size, or post ID View post meta value content in original or formatted mode for serialized or JSON structures. Detect unused post meta (meta not associated with any existing posts) Detect duplicated post meta (same meta key/value for the same post ID) Clean and delete post meta ✅ Post types Display post types with information such as name, post count, visibility (public or non-public), etc. Sort post types by columns such as name, post count, visibility, etc. View posts corresponding to each post type, along with their details Detect unused or orphaned post types Clean orphaned post types ✅ User Meta Display the user meta list with information such as meta key, value, size, associated user ID, etc. Sort user meta by any column such as meta key, meta size, or user ID View user meta value content in original or formatted mode for serialized or JSON structures. Detect unused user meta (meta not associated with any existing users) Detect duplicated user meta (same meta key/value for the same user ID) Clean and delete user meta ✅ Transients Display the list of transients with information such as name, value, size, and expiration time Sort transients by any column such as transient name, size, or expiration time View transient value content in original or formatted mode for serialized or JSON structures. Clean expired transients Detect large transients that may slow down your website Clean and delete transients Set transient autoload to yes/no ✅ Other Tools Display current database size Logging system for easy troubleshooting Access the WordPress debug log directly from the plugin interface Multisite support (network-wide database cleanup and optimization from the main site) Modern, responsive interface powered by React for a smooth experience without page reloads Show/hide plugin tabs for better usability ⚡ Premium Features ⚡ Official website Unlock the full power of database cleanup and optimization with Advanced Database Cleaner Premium – packed with smart features that take accuracy, speed, and cleanup control to the next level. ✅ Remote SmartScan Local scan + Remote SmartScan technology to accurately detect the true owners of tables, options, post meta, user meta, transients, and cron jobs Cloud-enhanced ownership detection using a large and continuously improving remote database Improved accuracy for identifying orphaned items left by deleted plugins and themes Ability to edit ownership of any item and correct misidentified owners Ability to send ownership corrections to improve the global detection database Enhanced “Belongs to” ownership column everywhere using cloud data + local data Display multiple possible owners for each item when applicable Display owner status (active, inactive, not installed) to simplify cleanup decisions Check your remote scan credits to monitor usage ✅ Action Scheduler Cleanup Clean Action Scheduler Completed actions Clean Action Scheduler Failed actions Clean Action Scheduler Canceled actions Clean Action Scheduler Completed logs Clean Action Scheduler Failed logs Clean Action Scheduler Canceled logs Clean Action Scheduler Orphan logs ✅ General Cleanup Enhancements Keep last X items feature in General Cleanup Keep last X items per parent (e.g., per post) Keep last X items globally (e.g., keep the last 10 pingbacks) Combine Keep Last X Days with Keep Last X Items for advanced cleanup safety ✅ Advanced Filters Advanced filters in all modules (Tables, Options, Post Meta, User Meta, Transients, Cron Jobs) Filter by size, value content, autoload, expiration, metadata type, and more Filter by plugin owner, theme owner, WordPress core, orphan, or unknown Filter by multisite site ID with full per-site visibility Filter by action frequency and interval in cron jobs Filter by duplicated, unused, large, not-yet-scanned, or expired items ✅ Advanced Automation Unlimited automation tasks (Free version is limited to 5 tasks) Create any number of scheduled cleanup tasks with different configurations Create scheduled optimization and repair tasks Use Keep Last X Items and Keep Last X Days inside scheduled tasks Run automation tasks hourly, twice daily, daily, weekly, monthly, or at any supported frequency Pause/resume/delete automation tasks without losing settings Per-task automation event logging showing executed actions, number of items cleaned, execution timestamps, and detailed logs ✅ Database Analytics Daily tracking of total database size and number of tables Daily and monthly charts showing database growth trends Raw data tab with all recorded measurements Table-level analytics showing size growth, rows growth, and daily changes Ability to detect abnormal table growth caused by logs, caches, or runaway actions Multi-table selection and search for analyzing multiple tables at once ✅ Addons Activity Automatically track plugin activations, deactivations, and uninstalls Automatically track theme switches and uninstalls Display activity in a color-coded timeline for better readability All timestamps shown in your local timezone Multisite support (activity recorded on the main site) ✅ Full Multisite Support Clean any site or all sites Filter items by site ID in every module (Tables, Options, Post Meta, User Meta, Transients, Cron Jobs) Display which site each item belongs to Run automation tasks across the entire network

WordPress prioritises backwards compatibility. That’s a feature. It also means every install ships with things you didn’t ask for. An emoji CDN script. An oEmbed script. A Windows Live Writer manifest (discontinued 2017). Dashicons loaded for logged-out visitors. Heartbeat polling every 15 seconds. A version tag that tells the world exactly which WordPress you’re running. None of these are bugs. They’re just not needed on most sites. Disable what you don’t need. Keep what you do. The Off Switch lets you disable each one, individually. One screen, every switch A live counter shows how many switches are on. A sticky bar keeps Save, the filter, and state chips (All / On / Off / Changed / New) in reach while you scroll. Changed switches are highlighted until you save, and an “unsaved changes” pill shows exactly what you’ve flipped before you commit. Jump between sections with live per-section counts, or copy a WP-CLI command that replicates your whole configuration on another site. Every switch card states what it removes, what it saves, and what to watch out for. All 104 switches were functionally verified against a live WordPress 7.0 install for this release. Bloat Remover Emoji script – ~15 KB + 1 HTTP request. Browsers handle emoji natively. Embed script – ~4 KB + oEmbed discovery links in . RSD link – Really Simple Discovery. Only needed for legacy XML-RPC clients. WLW manifest – Windows Live Writer has been discontinued since 2017. WordPress 6.3 removed this link from core — the switch matters on WordPress 6.2 and older. WP version tag – Stops advertising your WordPress version to the world. Shortlink – Removes from and HTTP headers. Search engines ignore it. Asset query strings – Strips ?ver= from scripts, styles, and WP 6.5+ Script Modules so CDNs and proxies cache correctly. XML-RPC – Closes a common brute-force attack vector. XML-RPC Kill Requests – Goes further than disabling: hard-kills any incoming xmlrpc.php request with a 403 before WordPress loads at all. Heartbeat API – Reduces admin polling from every 15 s to every 60 s. Dashicons (frontend) – ~35 KB (CSS + font) saved for every logged-out visitor. REST API Discovery Link – Removes from . Safe to remove on standard sites. RSS Feed Links – Removes feed autodiscovery tags from . Modern browsers no longer act on them. Leave enabled if you publish an RSS feed. Speculation Rules (WP 6.8+) – Disables the WP 6.8+ Speculation Rules API that prefetches links before users click. Can inflate analytics, increase server bandwidth, and trigger consent flows on unfetched pages. Disable All Feeds – Redirects all RSS and Atom feed URLs to the homepage. For sites with no RSS subscribers. Comment Auto-Links – Stops WordPress from converting plain-text URLs in comments into clickable links. Editor Autosave – Deregisters the autosave script that POSTs editor content to the server every 60 seconds. For teams that prefer explicit saves. DNS Prefetch – Removes all hints from . Redundant when Emojis and Embeds are already disabled. Recent Comments Inline CSS – WordPress outputs a small inline block in whenever the Recent Comments widget is active. Remove it if your theme already styles the widget. Script & Style Control jQuery Migrate – ~30 KB. Modern themes don’t need it. Block Library CSS – ~7 KB loaded on every page, even with no Gutenberg blocks. Global Styles (theme.json CSS) – 10-50 KB inline CSS from block themes. SVG Duotone Filters – Hidden SVG blob injected on every page, even with no duotone images. WordPress 6.3 made duotone output on-demand — the switch matters on WordPress 6.2 and older. Script/Style type attributes – type="text/javascript" and type="text/css" are redundant in HTML5. Defer non-critical JavaScript – Adds defer so scripts don’t block HTML parsing. jQuery is never deferred. Move scripts to footer – Relocates enqueued scripts from to just before . jQuery is never moved. Template Output Buffering (WP 7.0) – Since WordPress 7.0, classic themes get every frontend page buffered in memory in full and re-parsed before a single byte reaches the visitor, so late-printed block styles can be hoisted into . Turning the buffer off restores streamed output for faster TTFB and lower peak memory. Block themes are unaffected. WordPress Behaviour Tweaks Self-pingbacks – WordPress pings your own posts when you link between them – a wasted HTTP request that creates an unwanted comment on the target post. Capital P filter – WordPress corrects “WordPress” to “WordPress” on every rendered string. Remove if you don’t need the autocorrect. Limit post revisions – WordPress stores unlimited revisions per post. Caps revisions at 3 to prevent silent database growth on active editorial sites. Attachment pages – WordPress creates a full template page for every uploaded file. These waste crawl budget on most sites. Sends a 301 redirect to the parent post instead. Comments – Closes all comments and pingbacks site-wide, hides existing comments on the frontend, and removes comment-related UI from wp-admin (Comments menu, admin bar node, dashboard widget). Enable only if your site does not use comments. Search – Redirects all WordPress search queries (/?s=) to the homepage with a 301, preventing bots from triggering repeated database queries. Also removes search forms rendered via get_search_form(). Hardcoded forms in theme templates are not affected. oEmbed Provider – WordPress registers a REST endpoint at /wp-json/oembed/1.0/embed so other sites can embed your content via the oEmbed protocol. Remove it if you don’t want your content embeddable externally. Does not affect your ability to embed others’ content. Post via Email – Removes the Post via Email configuration from Writing Settings and disables the feature. Almost no modern site uses email-to-post. Update Services (Ping-o-Matic) – Removes Update Services from Writing Settings and stops outbound pings to weblog ping services on every published post. Native XML Sitemap (WP 5.5+) – Disables WordPress’s built-in XML sitemap generator. Most sites use external SEO plugins (Yoast, Rank Math) for sitemaps instead. Removes unnecessary redirects and reduces crawl overhead (default OFF). oEmbed Auto-Embed – Disables WordPress from regex-scanning post content for [embed] shortcodes and oEmbed patterns on every frontend page load. For sites that do not embed external content, removing this filter saves processing overhead (default OFF). Database & Query Expired Transients – Schedules a daily cleanup of expired transient rows in wp_options. Useful on low-traffic sites where WP-Cron can go days without firing. Abandoned Auto-Drafts – WordPress creates an auto-draft every time the post editor opens. Abandoned sessions leave these rows permanently. Runs a daily sweep to delete auto-drafts older than 30 days. Skip Row Count on Singles – On every single post or page, MySQL runs SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS to count total matching rows – a full index scan only needed for paginated archives. Removes that sub-query on all singular views. Adjacent Post Links – Older WordPress queries the previous and next post on every single post page to output in — two extra DB queries per page load. Google dropped support for these hints in 2019, and modern WordPress no longer outputs them; the switch matters on older installs. Reduce Trash Retention – WordPress keeps trashed items for 30 days before permanent deletion. A daily sweep permanently deletes posts and comments trashed more than 7 days ago, keeping wp_posts leaner on active editorial sites without affecting normal recovery workflows. Image Performance Google Fonts display:swap – Without font-display:swap, the browser hides text while your Google Font downloads (FOIT). Adds display=swap to every Google Fonts URL so visitors see text immediately. Add missing image dimensions – Images without width and height attributes cause layout shifts (CLS). Reads dimensions from attachment metadata and injects them automatically. LCP image priority – Adds fetchpriority="high" to the first content image so the browser loads it before lower-priority resources. Adds fetchpriority="low" and decoding="async" to all others. Lazy load images – Adds loading="lazy" to images below the fold. The first image is never lazy-loaded – it is the LCP candidate and must load immediately. Disable PDF thumbnails – WordPress generates thumbnail previews for every uploaded PDF when ImageMagick is available. Rarely used on the frontend; adds significant upload processing time. Disable scaled images – WordPress 5.3+ creates a downsized -scaled copy of any image whose longest side exceeds 2560 px on upload. On most sites this extra file is never served. Disabling it stores the original as-uploaded. Applies to new uploads only. Disable extra image sizes – WordPress 5.3 added 1536×1536 and 2048×2048 intermediate sizes to every image upload. These oversized copies are rarely requested and waste disk space. Theme and plugin image sizes are not affected. Applies to new uploads only. Security & Admin Hardening Block User Enumeration – WordPress redirects ?author=1 to /author/username/, exposing registered usernames. Intercepts those requests and redirects to the homepage before the username is revealed. Disable Author Archives – Redirects all /author/username/ pages to the homepage. For sites with no author profile pages. Disable File Editor – Defines DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT to remove the plugin and theme code editor from wp-admin. Eliminates a code-injection surface a compromised admin account could exploit. Disable Application Passwords – Removes the Application Passwords UI and stops all tokens from being accepted. For sites that don’t use REST API or XML-RPC integrations. Suppress Admin Email Check – Disables the periodic full-screen prompt asking admins to confirm their email address. One less interruption, no functional change. Remove X-Pingback Header – Strips X-Pingback: from every HTTP response, stopping the site from advertising its XML-RPC endpoint URL to scanners. Clean Admin Bar – Removes the WordPress logo dropdown, the duplicate “Visit Site” link, and the admin bar search for a less cluttered editing environment. Hide Update Nag for Non-Admins – Hides the core update notice from editors and contributors who cannot action it. Administrators still see it normally. Restrict REST API to Logged-In Users – The REST API is publicly accessible by default, allowing unauthenticated enumeration of posts, users, and other data. Restricting access to authenticated users reduces the attack surface. Will break public REST consumers such as headless frontends. Redirect Unauthenticated Admin Access – By default, visiting /wp-admin/ without being logged in redirects to the login page, confirming a WordPress admin area exists. This redirects unauthenticated requests to the homepage instead, reducing information disclosure to scanners. AJAX, Cron, WP-CLI, and admin-post.php requests are never affected. Hide Author Sitemap – WordPress 5.5 added a built-in XML sitemap that includes a users file listing the author archive URL for every user with published posts — up to 2,000 usernames, publicly accessible. Removes the users entry from the sitemap index entirely (WP 5.5+, default ON). Remove X-Redirect-By Header – WordPress 5.1+ adds an X-Redirect-By: WordPress header on every redirect, openly advertising that the site runs WordPress. Removes it from all redirects (default ON). Hide PHP Version Header – PHP sends an X-Powered-By: PHP/x.x.x header on every response, exposing your exact PHP version to every visitor and scanner. Removes it from all responses (default ON). Generic PHP Error Messages – WordPress fatal error messages can include internal file paths and line numbers. Replaces them with a generic response that reveals nothing about server structure (default ON). Hide Admin Bar on Frontend – Removes the WordPress admin toolbar from the public-facing site for all logged-in users. Reduces frontend CSS/JS overhead for logged-in sessions (default OFF). Remove Dashboard Welcome Panel – Removes the “Welcome to WordPress” panel from the dashboard home screen for all users (default OFF). Remove Default Dashboard Widgets – Removes four default dashboard widgets including WordPress Events and News, which makes an outbound HTTP request to api.wordpress.org on every dashboard load (default OFF). Remove Admin Footer Text – Removes the “Thank you for creating with WordPress” text and WordPress version number from the wp-admin footer (default OFF). Disable REST Users Endpoint – WordPress’s REST API exposes /wp-json/wp/v2/users publicly, returning usernames and slugs for all users with published posts. Removes this endpoint for unauthenticated requests only — Gutenberg and plugins that need it while logged in are unaffected (default ON). Disable Email Change Notifications – WordPress sends emails to users when their email address or password changes. On agency-managed sites these are noise. Suppresses both notification types (default OFF). Disable Auto-Update Emails – WordPress emails after every automatic core, plugin (WP 5.5+), and theme (WP 5.5+) update. On sites where auto-updates are routine these arrive constantly (default OFF). Auto-Update Emails: Errors Only – A middle ground: suppresses core auto-update success emails only. Failure emails still arrive so you know when action is needed (default OFF). Skip Bundled Themes on Upgrade – Defines CORE_UPGRADE_SKIP_NEW_BUNDLED to stop WordPress installing a new default theme on every core upgrade. Existing themes are not affected (default OFF). Disable Site Health – Disables WordPress Site Health checks entirely. Site Health runs a 12-hour background cron job and makes REST API calls on every admin page load, fetching a list of ~20 WordPress.org API endpoints. On managed hosting with automated updates, these checks are redundant and add unnecessary server load (default OFF). WordPress 7.0 Off switches for the new subsystems WordPress 7.0 turns on by default. AI Support – WordPress 7.0 ships a built-in AI client framework that initialises on every request. Filters wp_supports_ai to false so the AI subsystem never bootstraps — no providers, no AI REST surface, no AI options on the Connectors page. Connectors Registry – WordPress 7.0 initialises a connector registry on every request, frontend included, registering the bundled Akismet connector and any AI providers. Skips registry initialisation entirely on sites that use no connectors. Core AI Abilities – Stops WordPress from registering its built-in AI abilities (site info, user info, and more) when the Abilities API registry is first used. Completes the AI off switch. Abilities REST API – Removes the wp-abilities/v1 REST namespace (list, categories, and run endpoints) that exposes server-side abilities to REST clients. Icons REST Endpoint – Removes the /wp/v2/icons endpoints that serve SVG icon data to the block editor icon picker. AI Connectors Page – Removes the Connectors submenu from Settings, hiding the AI provider configuration page. Admin View Transitions – Removes the CSS View Transitions stylesheet WordPress 7.0 enqueues on every wp-admin screen, restoring instant admin navigation. Command Palette – Removes the ⌘K / Ctrl+K command palette: the admin bar trigger button and the JS bundle enqueued on every wp-admin page. Block Editor Remote Block Patterns – WordPress fetches patterns from api.wordpress.org on every editor load. …