How to Reset your Business Website

Depending on what kind of business website you are running through WordPress, you will probably sooner or later want to reset it in order to fix something or start over. People’s interests and span of attention are often fickle so this shouldn’t come as a surprise. If you are in one of those situations right now and you want to reset your site for the first time, it might seem like a problem. Luckily there is a completely free and easy to use solution to your problem – WP Reset plugin.

This particular plugin will provide you with a clean slate, so you can start over swiftly and without hiccups. Well, face it, business sometimes just works this way.

WP Reset will reset the database of your website, and return it to its default installation without modifying any of your files or tempering with them in any way. However, it will delete all of the customizations and other content. In case that sounds final and scary to you, we should note that the plugin has a bunch of fail-safe mechanisms, so nothing that occurs can’t occur by mistake or unless you wanted it.

These safety mechanisms basically guarantee that you cannot accidentally lose any of your valuable data or info. So if you want to start a small business change you site from a simple blog to an e-commerce site, this plugin is exactly what you need to start over. On the other hand, if you are testing plugins or developing themes, WP Reset will provide you with a quick and easy way to reset all of the settings and re-test code. It is no wonder that it is said that WP Reset plugin was developed by developers for developers.

If you’ve opted to take your chances with this awesome plugin, then we should explain how it all works, as well as mention a thing or two you should be aware of before hitting that “reset” button. First of all, you can access the WP Reset on your admin page through the “Tools” menu. Right off the bat, we should also note that this plugin is completely integrated with WP Webhooks plugin. This plugin is a totally safe, universal system that connects your WP site to any 3rd party system, which ultimately enables you to initiate wanted actions from both the WP and any other app.

Once you click the “reset” button, several things will happen:

-  You will be asked to confirm the action, as there is no UNDO to resetting process

-  Once you’ve confirmed the action, everything will be reset

-  Site title, site address, WordPress address, site language, current user and settings of the search engine visibility will be fully restored

-  During the resetting you will be logged out, and automatically logged in straight to the admin dashboard

-  If you’ve chosen the reactivation option, the WP Reset plugin will also e automatically reactivated once the reset is done.

In case it is unclear what exactly resetting will delete, here is the comprehensive list of everything that will be deleted during the process:

-  All default WP database tables

-  All posts, custom post types, pages, media entries, comments and users

-  All of the custom database tables with the same table prefix as the one that is defined in wp-config.php and the one used by default tables

However, multiple valuable data will be saved or restored, so it is good to be aware that the process won’t delete the following:

- Files remain untouched; plugins, uploads, themes – all of it is saved

- Media files, they won’t be listed under Media in admin any more, but they will stay in the wp-uploads folder

- Site title, address language, as well as WordPress address and search engine visibility settings will all remain untouched

- The user that is presently logged in will be restored wit its current password and username

This terrific plugin also comes with WP-CLI support, which ultimately makes it super-quick to work with. It is good to know that by default the commands will have to be confirmed here as well, but you can always use the –yes option to skip the overall confirmation process. If you decide to go with this WP-CLI supported reset, you should be aware that the first user who has the admin privileges is the one that gets restored after the reset, and not the active user.

Just like when using WP Reset with GUI, there is no undo, so be carefully and think thoroughly before you confirm the reset.

If you are worried about losing your custom tables you need for testing or some valuable demo data, you can always choose to restore your installation to the particular database snapshot. Database snapshot is basically a copy of all standard and custom WP database tables, saved in the presently used database. In case you are planning on using database snapshots for backups, we should note that they are primarily created as a development tool. If necessary, they can be used for backups, but it would ne good if you could find other more suitable tool for live site backups. Database snapshot are also easy and quick to use, and making one on an average WP installation takes just one or two seconds.

WP Reset plugin also features several partial reset tools, including:

- Delete uploads – deletes all files, as well as the folder in the /uploads/ folder.

- Delete transients – deletes all database entries related to transients, as well as non-expired and expired transients, as well as orphaned timeout entries.

-  Delete plugins – deletes every plugin, aside from WP Reset, which stays active

-  Delete themes – this option deletes all themes.

-  Reset theme options – resets every option for every theme with WP theme mods API

-  Empty or delete custom tables – this tool empties or deletes all custom tables.

-  Delete .htaccess file – deletes the .htaccess file.

In the end, it is important to mention that WP Reset is yet to be fully tested with multisite, so you should be careful if you’ve opted to use it on multiple sites. Sub-sites should be fine, but resetting the main site is not recommended. However, the crew that developed this great plugin Is working on adding several highly useful features including the nuclear reset button, WP Network compatibility, option to change WP Version, plugins and themes collection, as well as the already mentioned multisite testing.

About the author

Vikash Kumar is an Online Marketing Manager at Tatvasoft Australia, an Enterprise level Mobile application Development and Software development Company in Australia. Apart from his profession, he also has a passion of blogging in which he shares his expert advice on Enterprise Solution and cloud services.

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
CAPTCHA
This question is for preventing automated spam submissions.