Optimize Your wp_options Table and Autoloaded Data

wp_options Table

The wp_options table stores several types of data for your site, including:

• Settings for your plugins, widgets, and themes
• Temporarily cached data
• Site URL and home URL
• Category settings
• Autoloaded data

Check the Size of Your Autoloaded Data

If your website is running slow and you receive the following message in the database stats: consider autoloading only necessary options, follow the steps below.

Check the size of your autoloaded data:

1. Log in to your MySQL client.

2. Select your database (by default pantheon) and then click the SQL tab.

3. Run the following code to see the total autoloaded data and data count:

   SELECT 'autoloaded data in KiB' as name, ROUND(SUM(LENGTH(option_value))/ 1024) as value FROM wp_options WHERE autoload='yes' UNION SELECT 'autoloaded data count', count(*) FROM wp_options WHERE autoload='yes';

If your autoloaded data is less than 1 MB, it is unlikely that autoloaded data is slowing down your site. If your data is higher than 1 MB, you have a high number of options being autoloaded, and it is most likely slowing down your site.

Check Your Top Autoloaded Items

1. Run the following code to see the top items with autoloaded data:

   SELECT option_name, length(option_value) FROM wp_options WHERE autoload='yes' ORDER BY length(option_value) DESC LIMIT 20;

2. Select and run one of the SQL queries below if you want to turn off autoload for an item:

   Option 1:

   update_option( 'wp_option', 'value' ); to be update_option('wp_option', 'value', 'no');

   Option 2:

   UPDATE wp_options SET `autoload` = 'no' WHERE `option_name` = 'example_option_name';

   Info:

   Note

   You must specify no in the third parameter or the command will automatically default to yes.

Tips to Minimize Autoloaded Data

We recommend minimizing your autoloaded data to increase to your site's performance. We've provided a few tips for reducing your autoloaded data below.

Redirect Your Site with PHP

Redirect plugins are common culprits for causing increased autoloaded cache. You can clean up your excess autoloaded data by redirecting your site configuration with PHP.

Clean up Transient Data

Transients cache data for a set amount of time in WordPress. Although transients are only stored temporarily, they can become excessively large and slow down your site.

Run the code below to clean up your transient data:

   /** Show all transient data. **/
   SELECT *
   FROM `wp_options`
   WHERE `autoload` = 'yes'
   AND `option_name` LIKE '%transient%';
   /** Remove all transient data. **/
   DELETE
   FROM `wp_options`
   WHERE `autoload` = 'yes'
   AND `option_name` LIKE '%transient%';

Avoid Using Transient Data

You can use Pantheon's Object Cache Pro to minimize the use of transient data inside the wp_options table.

Use Pantheon's Professional Services

You can also use Pantheon's Professional Services to reduce requests to your CMS by moving page redirects to the edge.