Smart Cleaner

Keep your WordPress database lean by finding and removing orphaned postmeta rows safely from the admin panel.

Why Smart Cleaner?

Over time, plugins, imports, and deleted content can leave behind metadata that no longer belongs to any post. This plugin helps you:

• Detect orphaned rows in wp_postmeta.
• Review entries before deletion.
• Delete in small batches (safer on large sites).
• Remove all orphaned rows in one action when needed.

Features

• Top-level admin menu under Smart Cleaner.
• Overview page under Smart Cleaner -> Overview.
• Orphaned postmeta cleanup page under Smart Cleaner -> Orphaned Postmeta.
• Custom SVG admin menu icon with WordPress-style default and active states.
• Paginated orphaned rows view (50 rows per page).
• Filter orphaned rows by meta_key with per-key counts.
• Batch delete for current page.
• Batch delete for the current page and selected meta_key.
• Full delete for all orphaned rows.
• Full delete for only the selected orphaned meta_key.
• Nonce-protected destructive actions.
• GitHub-based plugin update checks via plugin-update-checker.

Requirements

• WordPress with admin access.
• PHP and MySQL versions supported by your WordPress installation.

Installation

Standard

1. Copy the plugin folder into wp-content/plugins/smartcleaner.
2. Activate Smart Cleaner from the WordPress Plugins screen.
3. Open Smart Cleaner -> Orphaned Postmeta.

Development (Composer)

composer install

This installs yahnis-elsts/plugin-update-checker used for update checks.

Development (Frontend Build)

cd build
npm install
npm run build

This installs the local webpack toolchain used for plugin frontend/admin assets.

Usage

1. Go to Smart Cleaner -> Orphaned Postmeta.
2. Optionally filter the results by meta_key using the select field.
3. Review the table of orphaned meta rows.
4. Choose one of the cleanup actions:
   • Delete This Batch: deletes only the currently listed page.
   • Delete All Orphaned Postmeta: deletes all orphaned rows.

When a meta_key filter is selected, both delete actions apply only to that selected orphaned key.

Safety Notes

• Start with batch deletion on production sites.
• Take a database backup before using full deletion.
• Test first on staging if the site has custom metadata-heavy plugins.

How It Works

The plugin checks rows where postmeta.post_id no longer matches an existing posts.ID using SQL joins.

Core logic lives in:

• includes/orphaned-postmeta.php
• smartcleaner.php

Build tooling lives in:

• build/package.json
• build/webpack.config.js
• dist/

Updates

The plugin can check for updates from this repository:

• https://github.com/dragipostolovski/smartcleaner

Configured branch: master

Changelog

1.0.3 (13.03.2026)

• Added a custom SVG admin menu icon for the top-level Smart Cleaner menu.
• Added local npm/webpack build tooling under build/ for plugin asset development.

1.0.2 (12.03.2026)

• Added a top-level Smart Cleaner admin menu with an overview page.
• Moved the orphaned postmeta screen under Smart Cleaner -> Orphaned Postmeta.
• Added meta_key filtering with per-key counts.
• Added filtered batch and full deletion support for a selected orphaned meta_key.
• Preserved active filters across pagination and reset actions.

1.0.1 (12.03.2026)

• Improved orphaned postmeta cleanup workflow.
• Added batch deletion support in admin.
• Added GitHub-based update checking.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome.

If you open a PR, include:

• What changed
• Why it changed
• Any admin/UI impact
• Testing notes

License

GPL-2.0-or-later