WordPress auto draft not deleting fix

Understanding WordPress Auto Drafts

WordPress automatically saves your drafts every 60 seconds as you type to protect your content against losses due to browser crashes or accidental closures. This function creates multiple auto-drafts which can clutter your WordPress database over time. If these drafts are not managed properly, they can slow down your site’s loading speed and make database management cumbersome.

Why Don’t Auto Drafts Always Delete Automatically?

Ideally, WordPress cleans up old auto-drafts after they have been in the database for seven days. However, due to conflicts with themes, plugins, or server settings, auto drafts may not delete as scheduled. Another complication arises if an error occurs in the cron jobs—scheduled tasks in WordPress—that handle these deletions.

Identifying the Issue

Before resolving the issue with auto drafts not deleting, diagnose the problem by looking into a few potential areas:

1. Plugins and Themes: Some themes and plugins interfere with WordPress cron tasks. To check if this is the issue, try deactivating plugins one by one and switch to a default WordPress theme, then see if the problem persists.

2. Corrupted Cron Jobs: The WordPress cron job responsible for deleting auto drafts may be corrupted or not executing as expected.

3. Database Overhead: Check if your WordPress database is heavily loaded or has overhead, which often manifests as a slowdown in routine tasks including the deletion of auto drafts.

Fixing Auto Drafts Not Deleting

To effectively manage and fix issues with auto drafts in WordPress, follow these detailed steps:

Step 1: Plugin and Theme Conflict Check

Deactivate all your plugins and switch to a default theme like Twenty Twenty-One. If auto-drafts start deleting normally, reactivate each plugin and theme one at a time until you identify the culprit.

Step 2: Repairing WordPress Cron Jobs

If plugin or theme conflicts are not the issue, reset and repair WordPress cron jobs. Use a plugin like WP Crontrol to view and manage cron jobs. Check for wp_scheduled_delete and ensure it’s set to run once daily. If you don’t see this cron job, you might need to manually add it:

if ( ! wp_next_scheduled( 'wp_scheduled_delete' ) ) {
    wp_schedule_event( time(), 'daily', 'wp_scheduled_delete' );
}

This code checks if the event is scheduled; if not, it schedules it.

Step 3: Optimizing the Database

Using a plugin like WP-Optimize or phpMyAdmin, clean up your database. Remove unnecessary data, optimize tables, and ensure there’s no overhead slowing down operations.

Step 4: Implement SQL Commands

For more advanced users comfortable with SQL, log into phpMyAdmin, and execute the following SQL command to manually delete all auto-drafts:

DELETE FROM wp_posts WHERE post_status = 'auto-draft';

Caution: Always back up your database before running direct SQL commands.

Step 5: Modify Auto-save Interval

To reduce the creation of excessive auto-drafts, consider increasing the auto-save interval by adding the following line to your wp-config.php file:

define('AUTOSAVE_INTERVAL', 300); // Seconds

This changes the autosave from every minute to every five minutes, potentially reducing the number of auto-drafts generated.

Step 6: Monitoring and Maintenance

Regularly check the status of auto-draft deletions and database health. Implement a consistent database cleaning schedule either monthly or quarterly based on site usage and complexity.

Final Thoughts

Managing auto-drafts in WordPress ensures a lean and efficient database, fostering better performance and quicker backups. By understanding the roots of issues with auto drafts not deleting and applying systematic fixes, you can maintain optimal database health, which is critical for long-term site performance and user satisfaction. Additionally, consider setting up more sophisticated database management and backup solutions if managing a large or high-traffic WordPress site.