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DataPrune is a bulk-deletion and database-cleanup plugin for WordPress.
It lets you remove any type of content — posts, pages, media, comments, users, taxonomy terms, and metadata — with precise filters and conditions, without ever risking a 503 timeout thanks to its AJAX batch processing engine.

Whether you manage an automated content site (e.g. WP Automatic / ValvePress), a high-traffic blog, or a large e-commerce store, DataPrune gives you full control over what stays and what goes.

✨ Key Features

8 deletion modules, each with dedicated filters:

📄 Posts / Pages / CPT — filter by status (published, draft, private, pending, scheduled…), date range, categories, tags, authors, post type. Option to also delete associated media in one click.
🖼️ Media & Attachments — delete orphaned media (not linked to any post and not used as featured image), filter by MIME type, minimum file size, and upload date range. Protected media (site logo, favicon, header/background image) are never deleted.
🔁 Revisions — delete all post revisions or only those older than a specific date range.
🗑️ Trash — permanently empty the WordPress trash, by content type.
💬 Comments — delete spam, pending, approved or trashed comments with date filter.
👤 Users — delete users by role, registration date, and activity (users with no published posts). Administrators and the currently logged-in user are always protected.
🏷️ Taxonomy Terms — delete empty terms (no associated posts) for any taxonomy.
🔑 Post Meta & User Meta — delete metadata records by key and optional value.

⏱️ Scheduled Auto-Deletion

Create automatic deletion tasks that run on a recurring schedule (hourly, twice daily, daily, weekly, monthly):

Choose deletion type, filters, and frequency
Enable/disable each task independently
Run any task manually on demand
Option to also delete associated media when auto-deleting posts
Ideal for sites that auto-publish content (WP Automatic, RSS importers, etc.)

♻️ Recovery System

Every permanent deletion is saved in a dedicated database table before being executed:

Visual grid with thumbnail previews for media and posts
Text search by title
Filters by type (post/media), deletion date range, restoration status
One-click restore — posts are restored as drafts with all meta and taxonomy terms
Activity log with user, timestamp and item count for every operation

🔒 Security Features

Safe mode (Trash) — move items to trash instead of permanent deletion (recoverable)
Confirmation dialog — JavaScript confirmation before every bulk operation
Protected media detection — automatically excludes site logo, favicon, header image, background image, WooCommerce placeholder, and any media protected via the wbdp_protected_media_ids filter
Admin protection — administrators and the current user can never be deleted
Nonce verification on every request
manage_options capability check on every action
Activity log with configurable retention period

⚡ No More 503 Timeout

All deletion operations use AJAX batch processing: the browser sends small batches of 50–100 items at a time, showing a real-time progress bar. No single request ever exceeds the server timeout, even with tens of thousands of items.

🌐 Multilingual

Default language: Italian
Full English (en_US) translation included
Ready for any language via standard .po/.mo files

🤝 WP Automatic / ValvePress Integration

DataPrune is specifically optimized for sites using WP Automatic by ValvePress:
* Auto-generated images are stored as WordPress attachments linked to posts
* The „Delete associated media“ option removes both the article and its generated image in a single operation
* Orphaned images left by previously deleted articles are detected and cleaned up automatically
* Scheduled tasks can be configured to delete posts + media on a recurring basis

❤️ Support the Project

DataPrune is free and open-source software, released under the GPL v2 license.
If it saves you time and keeps your database healthy, please consider making a small donation to support its continued development and maintenance.

Donate via PayPal

Obrázky

Dashboard — panoramica con stat card (post, media, spam, revisioni, cestino) e stream delle ultime attività
Elimina Contenuti — selettore dei tipi di contenuto con conteggi live e filtri avanzati
Modulo Media — rilevamento orfani, filtro MIME type, dimensione minima e intervallo di date
Automazione — lista task con stato, prossima esecuzione e form di creazione rapida
Recupero — griglia visuale con anteprime, ricerca, filtri e ripristino in un click
Barra di avanzamento AJAX — elaborazione batch in tempo reale, nessun timeout 503

Inštalácia

Upload the dataprune folder to /wp-content/plugins/
Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress
Navigate to DataPrune in the admin sidebar
Configure Security Settings before running your first deletion

Important: After activation, go to Settings and verify:
– ✅ Safe mode (Trash) is enabled for your first operations
– ✅ Logging is enabled
– ✅ Confirmation dialog is enabled

Časté otázky

Will this plugin delete my site logo or favicon?

No. DataPrune automatically detects and protects the site logo (custom_logo), favicon (site_icon), header image, background image, and WooCommerce placeholder image. These are never treated as orphans.

Can I recover deleted items?

Yes, if the item was permanently deleted through this plugin. Before every permanent deletion, a snapshot of the item (all data, meta, and taxonomy terms) is saved to a dedicated recovery table. You can restore it from DataPrune Recovery as a draft.

Note: if Safe mode (Trash) is active, items go to the WordPress trash and can be recovered from there directly.

Why use AJAX batch processing?

With thousands of items to delete, a single PHP request would exceed the server’s max_execution_time (usually 30–60 seconds) and return a 503 error. Batch processing splits the work into small chunks of 50–100 items, each processed in a separate request, with a live progress bar.

Can I automatically delete old auto-generated posts?

Yes. Go to DataPrune Scheduled and create a new task:
– Type: Posts / Pages
– Status: Published (or any)
– Older than: 30 days (or your preferred period)
– ✅ Delete associated media
– Frequency: Daily

This will automatically delete posts and their images every day.

Is it compatible with WooCommerce?

Yes. You can delete products (custom post type product), WooCommerce-specific meta, and product terms. The WooCommerce placeholder image is always protected.

What WordPress version is required?

WordPress 5.8 or higher. PHP 7.4 or higher.

Is the plugin free?

Yes, completely free and open-source (GPL v2). If you find it useful, a small donation helps cover development and maintenance costs.

Recenzie

Pre tento plugin nie sú žiadne recenzie.

Prispievatelia a vývojári

“DataPrune” je softvér s otvoreným zdrojovým kódom. Do tohto pluginu prispeli nasledujúci ľudia.

AiReport

Preložiť „DataPrune“ do vašho jazyka.

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Zoznam zmien

1.2.1

Plugin renamed to DataPrune (slug: dataprune, text domain: dataprune)
Removed Plugin URI header (was identical to Author URI — WP.org requirement)
Updated description: removed comparative marketing language per WP.org guidelines

1.2.0

Fix CRITICO: il filtro „Più vecchi di“ nei task programmati veniva ignorato — tutti i contenuti corrispondenti al tipo/stato venivano eliminati indipendentemente dall’età. I parametri older_than_value/older_than_unit ora vengono convertiti correttamente in datetime prima dell’esecuzione
Fix: aggiornamento immediato di next_run all’avvio di ogni invocazione cron — previene la doppia esecuzione del task da parte di run_due_tasks() mentre il cron chaining è ancora attivo
Fix: il flag force_recovery ora viene correttamente gestito in delete_batch() — gli snapshot di recupero vengono salvati anche quando la modalità cestino è attiva (per i task programmati)

1.1.9

New: „Esegui ora“ usa AJAX batch con progress modal — nessun timeout 503, elabora l’intero dataset senza ricaricare la pagina
New: Esecuzione automatica WP-Cron a catena — ogni invocazione elabora un batch, poi schedula automaticamente il successivo finché non rimangono elementi
New: Snapshot di recupero forzata per i task di tipo „Post“ — possibilità di ripristino dalla pagina Recovery in caso di errore (non applicabile al task „Svuota Cestino“)

1.1.8

New: Filtro per categorie disponibile anche nel form dei task programmati (Automazione)
Fix: Errore 503 durante l’esecuzione manuale dei task programmati — aggiunto time-guard di 20 secondi per invocazione; se rimangono elementi, verranno eliminati alla successiva esecuzione

1.1.7

New: Redesigned admin UI — Dashboard overview page with stat cards and activity stream; Bulk Delete page with content-type selector cards and live counts; Log page with stats header; Scheduled page with task card list
Fix: Added phpcs:ignore for inherent DirectDatabaseQuery/NoCaching in log, scheduler, recovery, comments, meta, posts, media classes (Plugin Check WARNINGs)
Fix: Added phpcs:ignore for NonceVerification.Missing/Recommended in admin page renderers — nonce is verified via WBDP_Helper::verify_request() (Plugin Check WARNING false positives)
Fix: Added phpcs:ignore for PostNotIn_exclude in delete-users class — user exclusion is inherently required for admin safety (Plugin Check WARNING false positive)
Fix: Added NoCaching suppression to uninstall.php DROP TABLE queries
Fix: Rewrote WBDP_Recovery::count_items() to use explicit if/else instead of ternary to resolve NotPrepared PHPCS ERROR
Fix: Removed .DS_Store files and .gitignore from plugin assets (Plugin Check ERROR — hidden_files)
Fix: Updated „Tested up to“ to 6.9 in plugin header and readme (Plugin Check ERROR — outdated/mismatched header)

1.1.5

Fix: Added /* translators: */ comments to all i18n strings with placeholders (Plugin Check ERROR — WordPress.WP.I18n.MissingTranslatorsComment)
Fix: Replaced unordered %s, %d placeholders with ordered %1$s, %2$d in recovery success message (Plugin Check ERROR — WordPress.WP.I18n.UnorderedPlaceholders)
Fix: Wrapped _n() output in esc_html() in recovery page (Plugin Check ERROR — EscapeOutputDocumentedFunctions)
Fix: Removed all .DS_Store files from the plugin directory (Plugin Check ERROR — hidden_files)
Fix: Updated „Tested up to: 6.8“ (Plugin Check ERROR — outdated WP version)
Fix: Replaced date() with gmdate() in helper, log, and scheduler classes (Plugin Check WARNING — WordPress.DateTime.RestrictedFunctions)
Fix: Added wp_unslash() before all sanitize_*() calls on $_POST/$_GET data (Plugin Check WARNING — WordPress.Security.ValidatedSanitizedInput.MissingUnslash)
Fix: Added phpcs:disable WordPress.NamingConventions.PrefixAllGlobals to all template files (local variables in included files)
Fix: Removed deprecated load_plugin_textdomain() call — WordPress auto-loads translations for WP.org plugins since 4.6
Fix: Added phpcs:ignore for inherent DirectDatabaseQuery/SchemaChange in uninstall.php

1.1.4

New: Donation page inside the plugin admin (DataPrune Donate)
New: uninstall.php — custom tables and options are now removed on plugin deletion (GPL/WP.org compliance)
Fix: date() replaced with wp_date() throughout — dates now respect WordPress timezone settings
Fix: HTML tags inside esc_html_e() in recovery page notes (tags were being escaped and shown as text)
Fix: Unescaped CSS class echoes in recovery grid template
Fix: Deprecated get_users(['who'=>'authors']) replaced with capability parameter (WP 5.9+)
Fix: Hardcoded Italian strings in admin.js moved to wp_localize_script for full i18n support
Fix: Admin CSS header updated; GPL-2.0+ license header added to all PHP/JS/CSS files
Fix: readme.txt — tags reduced to 5, short description shortened to ≤150 chars (WP.org validator)

1.1.3

Fix: Fatal error on activation — activation/deactivation hooks moved to file scope (WordPress best practice)
Fix: Scheduler „revisions“ and „trash“ task types now use batch processing (previously called non-existent methods)

1.1.2

Plugin renamed from WP Bulk Delete Pro to ExpirePress Delete (historical)

1.1.1

Scheduled tasks: added „Delete associated media“ option for post deletion tasks
Scheduler now uses batch processing (no timeout on large datasets)

1.1.0

New: Recovery System — snapshot and restore permanently deleted items
New: Visual recovery grid with thumbnail previews
New: Search and filter in recovery page
Updated: Plugin metadata (Author: AiReport, Requires at least: 5.8, Requires PHP: 7.4)
Added: English (en_US) translations

1.0.3

Fix: Protected media detection — site logo, favicon, header/background images are now excluded from orphan queries
New: wbdp_protected_media_ids filter for third-party extensions

1.0.2

Fix: AJAX nonce field name mismatch causing -1 response on media deletion

1.0.1

New: Media tab with orphan detection, MIME type, size, and date range filters
New: AJAX batch processing with progress modal (solves 503 timeout on large datasets)
New: Date range filter (from/to) replacing the simple „older than“ field
Updated: Tab slug for media changed to media-files

1.0.0

Initial release
Bulk delete: posts, pages, CPT, revisions, trash, comments, users, taxonomy terms, post meta, user meta
Scheduled deletion with WP-Cron
Activity log
Security settings (trash mode, confirmation, log retention)
English translation