What Are The Original WordPress MySQL Tables?
Why are you searching for the original WordPress MySQL Tables? Let me guess? You’ve been blogging on your WordPress blog for about ten months now, you have around 50 WordPress plugins installed, things have been going slow for a few weeks and now your blog finally kicked the bucket and crashed. Well, don’t worry, the same thing happened to me many times. Your blog is starting to pick up a little bit of traffic, during times when there is a lot of it, seems like your server is on its last leg.
Maybe that isn’t the case at all. Perhaps your WordPress blog just got hacked and you have got it pinpointed down to a WordPress plugin being the cause. Whatever the reason may be, even if it is for no reason, it’s a good idea to always know what the original MySQL tables are in your WordPress database. As of WordPress version 2.6.2. the original database tables are as follows:
- wp_comments
- wp_links
- wp_options
- wp_postmeta
- wp_posts
- wp_terms
- wp_term_relationships
- wp_term_taxonomy
- wp_usermeta
- wp_users
These are the original ten tables in your WordPress MySQL database. If you have more then ten, then the additional tables were created when you installed some various WordPress plugins.
The great thing about WordPress plugins is that they enhance your blog — either for yourself as the publisher or for the reader. WordPress plugins make things easier for people and allow publishers to do certain things with their WordPress blog with out the need to know how to program.
With that said, the disadvantages of WordPress plugins is that some of them add additional tables to your MySQL database. The problem with that is that additional tables in your database can cause your WordPress blog to become unstable and at times even unsecured. Commonly though, a lot of WordPress plugins will cause a MySQL conflict resulting in your WordPress blog crashing.
The reason for this is simply because many of the programmers who create WordPress plugins write the code in a way that doesn’t take into consideration the code that other WordPress plugin developers are writing. Secondly, as WordPress itself updates to newer versions, a lot of WordPress plugin developers fail to provide updates to their plugins to run on the current version of WordPress.
All in all, WordPress plugins are great. However, I would steer clear of using any WordPress plugin that adds additional tables to your WordPress MySQL database. Doing things right, you should investigate each plugin that interests you. Do a Google search to find out what others have said about the plugin. Also, visit the developer’s web site and see if it is active.
It might not be a bad idea to contact the developer as well. Ask him if the plugin adds additional tables to the MySQL database and why. Depending on the response you get — if any — should reflect on your decision to install the plugin you are interested in.
The best thing that you can do to keep your blog healthy and secure is to really limit the number of tweaks, modifications and customizations that you make. The more changes and enhancements that you make to your WordPress blog increase the risk of your blog getting hacked and increase the chances of your blog crashing and failing.
If you would like to learn more about the original WordPress MySQL tables, check out the WordPress.org Database Description page.
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13 comments
THanks for this useful information Garry. I just checked my Database and there were many tables present. I am going to check and get rid of many of them
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Hey bud! Long time no talk. I sure hope things are going well for you.
With the tables, Just be VERY careful man… you can TOTALLY screw your blog up if you delete the wrong tables.
Be sure to create an entire back up of your MySQL Database prior to doing any changes.
Also, as you delete tables from your database, export a copy of it to textpad, notepad, etc… then check your blog to make sure it is still running. If you crashed your blog, then import the database back into MySQL simply by copying the contents from textpad and pasting it back into the import option within phpmyadmin.
Hmm, very usefull information Garry, but I fear even to enter PhpAdmin, so actually I don’t know how many tables I have.
Which are the symptoms that your blog is crashing ?
How do I know that’s definetely time that I’ve to go in that scary place called “PhpAdmin” ?
thanks in advance
ciao
alex
I’m curious about why you say that. The number of tables per se—unless we’re talking about zillions—shouldn’t affect your database performance, and most security issues are on the PHP side of things.
When all is said and done Garry what are the plugins you use or recommend as musts?
I’m looking at my blog and I’d swear I have 30 plugins in there that I’ve tried over time …. they’re still activated but going nowhere.
Check out DOC’s last blog post..Stamp Collecting Tools
That’s some good tech stuff there.
I went the easy way and hired CyberCoder to go in and make things work well. That guy is good!
On a side note, what the crap is this Yahoo Pipes thing I am going thru outta the feed reader?
What are you cooking up Garry?
AL
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@Allyn, thanks for the kind words.
Another thing to be careful of is the Wordpress Table Prefix, it throws some people off. The default is wp_, however, depending on your system it can be different.
Example : wp_comments = wp_abcdefg_comments
The [abcdefg] represents part of the prefix assigned to your tables. So each table Garry has listed, will also have the extra prefix as part of the name.
The reason for this is twofold, running multiple blogs on a server and added security If you have just the standard prefix, it is much easier to get hacked, since the default is well known.
Check out David Cooley’s last blog post..Wigix Marketplace
[...] a backup of your database is an essential key to blogging. This plugin allows you to backup the default wordpress database tables along with any other tables that other plugins may be [...]
Good stuff, Gary. Just FYI, I referred Dayne Dylan from The Warrior Forum to your blog as he had questions about setting up a WP blog. I recommended your Starter Kit to him.
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Everything is fine buddy. Even Though i haven’t commented on your blog, i have been following it through the feed reader. And yes i will definitely perform a backup before performing such actions.
Check out Madhur Kapoor’s last blog post..Create Presentations Online with SlideRocket
I have a blog on an old, old version, but when I tried to upgrade it “Crashed”. Thankfully, I did have everything backed-up and was able to return it to its original state. Unfortunately it has been hacked twice. I’m just too afraid to upgrade again. But, alas, I’ll have to try.
And some CommentLuv…Sorry for having to post twice.
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Can you help me?
I had my blog up and running but made the stupid, stupid mistake of going into settings and I changing the extension (“computer”) to “tech”. Once I realised it didn’t work, I went back and renamed the site extension to “computer” but my site is being directed to “tech” My front page page is showing up but without the theme (although the site says the theme is installed). When I click on a page, I get the 404 message.
Is my problem in the MySQL datbase? If so, how do I fix it? I am in big trouble because I need this site up and running in about 18 hours time.
Any help would be appreciated. It goes without saying that I am an idiot for changing the file name.
Thanks in advance.
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