How to Reset WP Standalone Site and Multisite?

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Delete and installing a WordPress site again is a huge hassle. Fortunately, WP allows resetting. It means to wipe the slate and start over. Let’s understand how reset WordPress of standalone site and multi-sites works?

How WordPress works?

WordPress works together with MySQL or MariaDB [databases], where all the information gets stored and retrieved. Every WP installation is connected to a lone database by default. All the data including pages, blog posts, settings, usernames, passwords, comments, file links and where to locate them, etc. gets stored on your WP site. This information is all stored as values under separate tables within the database.

The database can be regarded as a large trunk holding many books in the form of tables. You can reset all the tables with their initial values, after erasing all the data. Resetting will not delete the downloaded or uploaded files like media, plugins, themes, etc. Many WP plugins allow options to delete them all or selectively.

How to practically reset the WP site?

Install and activate the WordPress Reset plugin

WP Reset plugin is a highly rated one, and is free. Their developers regularly update the plugin, so it is very popular.

  1. Go to the dashboard

Your plugins, themes, media files, site settings, username, current password, and uploads will remain intact, even if the warning sign says everything will be deleted. Media files will not be visible in the media library after reset, but will be present on the server. 

  1. Hit reset button

If you wish to install the same theme and plugin, then before you hit the reset button look for post-reset actions. Reactivate the existing theme, WP reset plugin, and currently active plugins, which are all off by default. 

Clean the old WP files

To refresh your WordPress blog, it is necessary to clean the old files on your website. WP Reset has a tool to help in a clean wipe. Make sure to have a backup, because WP Reset is not designed for a backup process. If something goes wrong, you can lose all the data. There is no chance of ‘UNDO’. 

  • Delete transients 
  • Clean uploads folder
  • Reset theme options
  • Remove themes
  • Delete plugins
  • Erase custom tables
  • Delete .htaccess File

The advanced version of WP Reset includes WP-CLI. It allows to quickly execute the reset process using line commands. Every command is available by default with WP –CLI. You just need to confirm for security reason. 

How to reset WP multisite installation?

The popular WP Reset plugin can be used to reset WP multisite setup. Make sure to have a backup before resetting WP multisite network. On the right end of the backup listing, there are three dots, where you need to click. A dropdown menu shows up, select Restore and your WP multisite will get revived as a single unit. 

Sub-site reset in WP multisite set-up

If you desire to reset the whole WP multisite network or just a single sub-site, then you have a couple of options.

  1.    Complete reset –First delete the sub-site and then re-create using the same name. 
  2.    Database reset– Sub-site can be restored using a plugin like WP Reset. Follow the same steps as you would with a single WP site.