Are you facing a slow WordPress website issue? The most common reason for slow WordPress websites, mostly with initial loading times, is a large Autoloaded option size. Sometimes users face the wp_options table is too large in database issue with Gb size flies. In this article, you’ll learn how to Reduce the Autoload wp_options table.

What is autoload in WordPress wp options?

Autoload is loaded with every page of WordPress automatically. Plugins, themes and WordPress core files set the autoloaded options.

They include the options such as default URL, what theme is used, admin use and many more that also define how the WordPress websites are supposed to function. Autoload options are good, but some plugins can misuse these options.

Why does Autoload wp options size gets increased?

Some plugins don’t need all their options to be autoloaded, and some don’t clean up their autoloaded options when they’re deactivated or deleted from WordPress.

If you have an older version of a WordPress website, there is a high chance of autoloaded options becoming much bigger than they need to be. This issue is common with the website, where many different plugins and themes have been used or tested in the past.

The size of Autoload wp_options for a WordPress website should not be more than 900 kb (less than 1 MB).

How to Reduce the Autoload wp_options Table Size:

1) Create a backup of the database:

If you want to work in the database files, first, you need to create a backup of the WordPress site. There are many plugins to make a backup, such as updraftplus, duplicator pro etc. With the help of these plugins, you can easily create a backup of your site.

2) Update/Remove plugins:

If you are using the old version of WordPress and plugins, then you need to update to the latest version. And remove all unused plugins from your WordPress site.

3) Optimize the table:

Sometimes the table is full of expired and unremoved transients. To remove the transients, you need to Install the “wp optimize” plugin, then optimize the table. Simply deleting rows will not reduce the table size but will only reduce the number of rows.

MySQL marks deleted rows as deleted and don’t physically remove them. To remove them properly, you need to optimize the table.

Select ‘remove expired transient options’ and click on run optimization, it cleans your expired and unused database table. Your wp_options table size issue will get resolved.

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