Perplexing Steps to Removing Unwanted Files in WordPress

WordPress, touted as a highly popular and widely used content management system (CMS) for creating websites, offers limitless possibilities to customize and manage websites according to user needs. However, over time, as websites grow and evolve, they tend to accumulate a lot of unwanted files – stuff like old images, plugins, themes, revisions, and other irrelevant data.

This raises a serious concern; unwanted files don’t just eat into your valuable disk space but can also have a significant impact on the website’s performance, and create security vulnerabilities. This means that cleaning up and removing these files can help improve website speed, performance, and overall security.

Step by Step to Remove Unwanted Files in WordPress

1. Identify the unnecessary files

Before removing any files, it is crucial to identify which files can be safely removed from the website. Here are some of the types of files that can be eliminated:

• Old revisions
• Spam and trashed comments
• Unused plugins and themes
• Media files that are no longer required

2. Backup your website

Before making any significant changes to your website, such as the removal of unwanted files, it is paramount to back up your website. This ensures that in case anything goes wrong during the process, you can restore your website’s previous version without experiencing any data loss.

3. Use WordPress’ built-in feature to remove unwanted files

WordPress has a built-in feature that helps users to remove unwanted files like old revisions, spam comments, and trashed comments. Here’s how:

1. Go to your WordPress dashboard and click on “Settings”.
2. Click on “Writing”.
3. Scroll down to “Scheduling and Management of Posts”.
4. Set the value for “Automatically Delete Unused Items” to the desired number of days.

This feature automatically deletes spam comments, trashed comments, and old revisions older than the specified number of days.

4. Use a plugin to clean up your website

Several WordPress plugins are available to help clean up your website by removing unwanted files such as unused plugins, themes, media files, and other irrelevant data. Some of the best plugins that you can use are:

• WP Cleaner Pro
• WP-Optimize
• Media Cleaner

5. Remove unused plugins and themes

Unused plugins and themes can take up valuable disk space and create security vulnerabilities. Therefore, it is best to remove the ones that are no longer in use. Here’s how:

1. Go to your WordPress dashboard and click on “Plugins” or “Appearance” for themes.
2. Deactivate the plugin or theme that you wish to remove.
3. Once deactivated, click on “Delete” to remove the plugin or theme permanently.

6. Remove old revisions

Old revisions take up valuable disk space; removing them can free up a substantial amount of space. Here’s how:

1. Go to your WordPress dashboard and click on “Posts” or “Pages”.
2. Click on the post or page that you wish to remove revisions from.
3. Click on “Revisions” to view all revisions made to the post or page.
4. Select the revisions that you wish to remove and click on “Delete”.

This process can be time-consuming, especially if you have a large number of posts and pages. Hence, using a plugin like WP-Optimize to optimize your database and remove old revisions automatically can save you loads of time.

7. Optimize images

Images take up ample space on a website. Therefore, it is crucial to optimize your images to reduce the overall size of your website. You can use plugins like Smush or ShortPixel that will help automatically optimize your images and reduce their sizes.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the removal of unwanted files in WordPress is crucial to improve performance, speed and enhance overall security. By following the steps mentioned above, you can quickly clean up your website and remove unnecessary files. Do remember to always back up your website before making any significant changes.