Maintenance
- Expired Transients in the DB: Cleanup, Optimisation and Hygiene Expired transients are not auto-deleted. Here is how to clean thousands of dead rows from wp_options and keep the DB lean.
- Missed WP-Cron Events: Diagnosing Stuck Hooks and Recovering Jobs When WP-Cron events go unrun for over a day, backups stop, emails stall and sync jobs fail. Here is how to find the stuck hook and bring it back.
- WordPress Backup Strategy: A Complete Setup and Recovery Guide A WordPress site without backups is a ticking bomb. Here is how to set up reliable off-site backups, test restores and avoid total data loss.
- Stale doing_cron Transient: Releasing the WP-Cron Lock When the doing_cron transient stays locked, every scheduled task stops. Here is how to clear it and find the root cause.
- WP-Cron Status: Why to Disable It and Move to System Cron Internal WP-Cron does not run on schedule. Here is how to disable it, set up a server cron and finally get reliable timing.
- Dormant WordPress Users: Safe Cleanup and a Preventive Policy Subscriber accounts dormant for years are an attack vector. Here is how to identify them, delete safely and define an ongoing policy.
- Server Clock Drift on WordPress: Causes, Impact and NTP Fix When the server clock drifts, scheduled posts publish at the wrong time, API signatures fail and logs mislead investigations. Here is how to fix it.
- WordPress Database Upgrade: When, Why and How to Run It Safely After a core update the database schema must be upgraded too. Here is how to run upgrade.php or wp core update-db safely, with a backup and a check.
- Missed Scheduled Posts: Causes, Quick Fix and Root-Cause Solution A scheduled post that did not publish is a symptom of WP-Cron not firing on time. Here is how to ship it now and stop it from recurring.
- Missing .htaccess on Apache: Consequences and Rewriting It On Apache without .htaccess, permalinks return 404 and security headers vanish. Here is how to restore the file with the right rules.
- A Bloated WordPress debug.log: Tracking the Source and Cleaning Up A huge debug.log means the site is leaking PHP errors. Here is how to find the offending plugin or theme and stop them coming back.
- Inactive WordPress Themes: Why Leaving Them Hurts Unused themes remain reachable code editable from wp-admin. Here is how to keep only what you need and remove the rest.
- Duplicate WordPress Plugins: Why It Hurts and How to Pick One Two SEO plugins, two cache plugins or two security plugins fight for the same resources. Here is how to find the duplicates and pick one.
- Inactive WordPress Plugins: Security Risk and Removal Guide An inactive plugin is code on the server that can still be exploited. Here is how to decide what to remove and do it safely.