Shop Cleaner

Overview

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Shop Cleaner is a comprehensive WooCommerce store cleanup plugin. It helps you remove unwanted products, find and eliminate duplicate listings, clean orphaned media files, delete inactive customer accounts, and optimize your database — all from a single, modern interface integrated into WooCommerce settings.

Requirements:

• WordPress 6.4 or higher
• WooCommerce 8.0 or higher
• PHP 7.4 or higher

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Installation

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1. Download the plugin ZIP file from your WooCommerce.com account.
2. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin.
3. Select the ZIP file and click Install Now.
4. Click Activate Plugin.
5. The plugin interface is available at WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > Shop Cleaner.

Note: WooCommerce must be installed and activated before activating Shop Cleaner. If WooCommerce is not active, you will see an admin notice prompting you to install it.

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Getting Started

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After activation, navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > Shop Cleaner. You will see a tabbed interface with seven sections:

• Products — Filter and remove products
• Duplicates — Find and remove duplicate products
• Media — Detect and delete orphaned product images
• Database — Optimize your WooCommerce database
• Customers — Remove inactive customer accounts
• Logs — View the history of all cleanup operations
• Settings — Configure plugin behavior and scheduling

We recommend starting with the Settings tab to configure your preferences before running any cleanup operations.

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Product Cleanup

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The Products tab lets you filter your product catalog and remove matching products in batches.

Filtering Products

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Use any combination of the following filters to narrow down which products to target:

Filter	Options	Description
Category	Any product category	Filter by product category slug
Product Type	Simple, Variable, Grouped, External	Filter by WooCommerce product type
Status	Published, Draft, Pending, Private	Filter by post status
Stock Status	In Stock, Out of Stock, On Backorder	Filter by inventory status
Created Before	Date picker	Only include products created before this date
Min Price	Numeric value	Only include products at or above this price
Max Price	Numeric value	Only include products at or below this price
Tag	Any product tag	Filter by product tag slug

Scanning

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Click Scan to preview all products matching your filters. The preview table shows:

• Product ID
• Thumbnail image
• Product name
• SKU
• Product type
• Status
• Stock status
• Price
• Creation date

Cleaning

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After reviewing the scan results, choose an action:

• Move to Trash — Moves products to the WordPress trash. They can be recovered from the trash at any time.
• Delete Permanently — Permanently removes products. This action cannot be undone.

Products are processed in batches (configurable in Settings, default: 20). A progress indicator shows how many items have been processed.

Emptying Trash

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Use the Empty Trash button to permanently delete all products currently in the WordPress trash.

Image Deletion

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When the Delete images with products setting is enabled, featured images and gallery images associated with deleted products are also removed.

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Duplicate Finder

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The Duplicates tab helps you identify and remove duplicate product listings.

Detection Methods

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Choose how duplicates are detected:

• By SKU — Products with identical SKU values are grouped together.
• By Title — Products with identical names are grouped together.
• By Both — Products matching by either SKU or title are found and deduplicated.

Scanning for Duplicates

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Click Scan for Duplicates to run the detection. Results are displayed as groups, with each group containing all products that match. For each product you can see:

• Product ID
• Product name
• SKU
• Product type
• Status
• Price
• Creation date
• Thumbnail image

The scan displays up to 200 duplicate groups.

Cleaning Duplicates

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Configure cleanup options:

• Keep — Choose to keep the oldest or newest product in each group (based on creation date). All other products in the group will be removed.
• Action — Choose Move to Trash or Delete Permanently.

Click the cleanup button to process all duplicate groups at once.

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Media Cleanup

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The Media tab scans for orphaned product images and lets you remove them to recover storage space.

What Is an Orphaned Image?

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An orphaned image is a media file that is attached to a product but is not currently used as:

• The product’s featured image
• An image in the product’s gallery

These images remain on your server and in your media library but serve no purpose.

Scanning for Orphaned Images

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Click Scan for Orphaned Images. The results table shows:

• Image ID
• Thumbnail preview
• Filename
• File title
• File size
• Upload date

Deleting Orphaned Images

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You can:

• Delete All Orphaned — Remove all detected orphaned images at once.
• Select individual images — Choose specific images to delete.

Deleted images are permanently removed from the media library and the server.

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Database Cleanup

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The Database tab provides seven cleanup operations that target different types of stale data in your WooCommerce database.

Cleanup Types

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Type	What It Finds	What It Does
Orphaned Variations	Product variations whose parent product has been deleted	Permanently deletes the orphaned variation posts
Orphaned Post Meta	Metadata rows referencing posts that no longer exist	Deletes the orphaned postmeta entries
Empty Categories	Product categories with zero products assigned (excludes the default “Uncategorized” category)	Deletes the empty category terms
Empty Tags	Product tags with zero products assigned	Deletes the empty tag terms
Expired Transients	WooCommerce transient cache entries that have expired	Deletes the expired transient data from the options table
Expired Coupons	Published coupons with an expiration date in the past	Permanently deletes the expired coupon posts
Expired Sessions	WooCommerce session records that have passed their expiry time	Deletes expired rows from the sessions table

How to Use

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The Database tab displays a scan count for each cleanup type. Click Clean next to any type to remove those items. After cleanup, the count will drop to zero.

Each cleanup type is independent — you can clean one, several, or all types as needed.

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Customer Cleanup

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The Customers tab helps you find and remove inactive customer accounts.

Filter Types

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Filter	Description
No Orders	Customers who have never placed an order
Failed Orders Only	Customers whose every order has a failed or cancelled status. You can set a minimum number of failed orders as a threshold.

Additional Filters

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• Registered Before — Only include customers who registered before a specific date.
• Exclude Roles — By default, Administrator and Shop Manager roles are always excluded from cleanup.

Scanning

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Click Scan to preview matching customers. The table shows:

• User ID
• Username
• Email address
• Display name
• Registration date
• Order count
• Last order date
• User roles

Deleting Customers

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Select customers or use the bulk action to delete all matching customers. Before deletion:

• The customer’s posts and content are reassigned to an administrator account.
• The currently logged-in user is never deleted.
• Users with Administrator or Shop Manager roles are never deleted.

Customer deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.

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Operation Logs

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The Logs tab provides a complete history of every cleanup operation performed by the plugin.

Log Records

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Each log entry includes:

• Timestamp — When the operation was performed
• Operation Type — Products, Duplicates, Media, Database, or Customers
• Action Taken — The specific action (trash, delete, empty trash, etc.)
• Items Affected — How many items were processed
• Item Details — Detailed information about each affected item (stored as JSON)
• Filters Used — Which filters were applied when the operation was triggered
• User — The WordPress user who performed the operation

Filtering Logs

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Use the following filters to find specific log entries:

• Operation Type — Show only logs for a specific cleanup type
• Date Range — Filter by start and end dates

Log Statistics

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The Logs tab displays summary statistics:

• Total number of operations performed
• Total items affected across all operations
• Breakdown by operation type (count and items per type)
• Operations performed in the last 30 days

Clearing Logs

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Click Clear All Logs to remove all log records. This action requires confirmation.

Log Retention

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Logs are automatically cleaned up based on the Log Retention Days setting (default: 30 days). Old logs are removed after each scheduled cleanup run.

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Scheduled Cleanups

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Shop Cleaner can automate recurring cleanup operations using WordPress Cron (WP-Cron).

Enabling Scheduling

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1. Go to the Settings tab.
2. Toggle Enable Scheduled Cleanups to on.
3. Select a Frequency: Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
4. Choose which Cleanup Types to include:

• Products
• Media
• Database
• Customers

1. Save your settings.

How Scheduled Cleanups Work

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When a scheduled cleanup runs:

• Products — Cleans products matching your saved product filters with a batch size of 100.
• Media — Scans and deletes all orphaned product images.
• Database — Runs all seven database cleanup types sequentially.
• Customers — Removes customers with zero orders (using the “No Orders” filter).

Every scheduled run is fully logged in the Logs tab with all details.

Disabling Scheduling

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Toggle the Enable Scheduled Cleanups setting to off. The scheduled WP-Cron event will be removed immediately.

Note: WP-Cron relies on site visits to trigger scheduled events. If your site has very low traffic, scheduled cleanups may not run exactly on time. Consider setting up a real cron job on your server for more precise scheduling.

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Settings

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The Settings tab lets you configure the plugin’s behavior.

Setting	Default	Description
Delete Images with Products	No	When enabled, featured images and gallery images are deleted along with their products
Batch Size	20	Number of items processed per batch during cleanup (range: 10–100)
Confirm Permanent Delete	Yes	Show a confirmation dialog before any permanent deletion
Enable Scheduled Cleanups	No	Activate automated cleanup scheduling
Schedule Frequency	Weekly	How often scheduled cleanups run (Daily, Weekly, or Monthly)
Schedule Actions	Products	Which cleanup types to include in scheduled runs
Schedule Product Filters	None	Product filters to apply during scheduled product cleanup
Log Retention Days	30	How many days to keep operation log records

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REST API

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Shop Cleaner provides a full REST API for programmatic access. All endpoints are under the sc/v1 namespace and require the manage_woocommerce capability.

Authentication

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All requests must be authenticated with a user who has the manage_woocommerce capability. Use standard WordPress REST API authentication methods (cookie with nonce, application passwords, or OAuth).

Endpoints

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Settings

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/wp-json/sc/v1/settings	Get current plugin settings
POST	/wp-json/sc/v1/settings	Update plugin settings

Products

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/wp-json/sc/v1/products/scan	Scan products matching filters
POST	/wp-json/sc/v1/products/clean	Clean one batch of matching products
POST	/wp-json/sc/v1/products/empty-trash	Permanently delete all trashed products

Scan/Clean Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
category	string	Product category slug
product_type	string	simple, variable, grouped, or external
status	string	publish, draft, pending, or private
stock_status	string	instock, outofstock, or onbackorder
date_before	string	Date in YYYY-MM-DD format
min_price	number	Minimum product price
max_price	number	Maximum product price
tag	string	Product tag slug
action	string	trash or delete (clean endpoint only)
delete_images	boolean	Delete associated images (clean endpoint only)

Duplicates

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/wp-json/sc/v1/duplicates/scan	Find duplicate products
POST	/wp-json/sc/v1/duplicates/clean	Remove duplicate products

Scan Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
criteria	string	sku, title, or both

Clean Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
groups	array	Duplicate groups from scan results
keep	string	oldest or newest
action	string	trash or delete

Media

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/wp-json/sc/v1/media/scan	Scan for orphaned product images
POST	/wp-json/sc/v1/media/clean	Delete orphaned images

Clean Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
ids	array	(Optional) Specific image IDs to delete. If omitted, all orphaned images are deleted.

Database

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/wp-json/sc/v1/database/scan	Get counts for all cleanup types
POST	/wp-json/sc/v1/database/clean	Clean a specific database type

Clean Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
type	string	Required. One of: orphaned_variations, orphaned_postmeta, empty_categories, empty_tags, expired_transients, expired_coupons, expired_sessions

Customers

Method	Endpoint	Description
POST	/wp-json/sc/v1/customers/scan	Scan customers matching filters
POST	/wp-json/sc/v1/customers/clean	Delete customers

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
filter_type	string	no_orders or failed_orders
registered_before	string	Date in YYYY-MM-DD format
min_failed_orders	number	Minimum failed orders threshold (for failed_orders filter)
customer_ids	array	Specific customer IDs to delete (clean endpoint only)

Logs

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/wp-json/sc/v1/logs	Get log records with pagination
DELETE	/wp-json/sc/v1/logs	Clear all logs

GET Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
page	number	1	Page number
per_page	number	20	Records per page (max: 100)
operation_type	string	—	Filter by operation type
date_from	string	—	Start date (YYYY-MM-DD)
date_to	string	—	End date (YYYY-MM-DD)

Statistics

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/wp-json/sc/v1/stats	Get cleanup statistics

Response:

{
  "total_operations": 42,
  "total_items": 1250,
  "by_type": {
    "products": { "operations": 10, "items": 500 },
    "media": { "operations": 8, "items": 200 },
    "database": { "operations": 15, "items": 400 },
    "customers": { "operations": 5, "items": 100 },
    "duplicates": { "operations": 4, "items": 50 }
  },
  "recent_30_days": 12
}

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Compatibility

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WooCommerce HPOS

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Shop Cleaner is fully compatible with WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS / Custom Order Tables). All customer and order queries automatically detect whether HPOS is enabled and use the appropriate query method.

WordPress & WooCommerce Versions

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• WordPress: 6.4 through 6.9.1 (tested)
• WooCommerce: 8.0 through 10.5.1 (tested)
• PHP: 7.4 and above

Themes

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Shop Cleaner has no frontend output. It operates entirely within the WordPress admin, so it is compatible with any WordPress or WooCommerce theme.

Languages

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The plugin is fully internationalized and translation-ready. It is available in 19 languages: English (US), Arabic, Danish, German, Greek, Spanish, Finnish, French, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Swedish, and Turkish.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Can I undo a cleanup operation?

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Products moved to trash can be restored from the WordPress trash at any time. Permanently deleted items (products, media, customers, database entries) cannot be recovered. We recommend using the trash option first if you are unsure.

Will the plugin modify my store automatically on activation?

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No. The plugin does not perform any cleanup operations on activation. All operations must be triggered explicitly from the settings page or through a scheduled cleanup that you configure.

Is it safe to use on a live store?

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Yes. Shop Cleaner includes multiple safety features: trash before permanent delete, confirmation dialogs, batch processing, role protection for admins, and a complete audit log. We recommend testing on a staging site first and always maintaining backups.

Will this slow down my store?

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No. Shop Cleaner only runs when you trigger a cleanup operation or when a scheduled cleanup executes. It does not add any overhead to your storefront or regular admin operations.

What happens to customer content when I delete customers?

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Before a customer account is deleted, all of their posts and content are reassigned to an administrator account. This ensures no content is lost.

Can I schedule different cleanup types at different frequencies?

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The current scheduling system uses a single frequency for all selected cleanup types. All selected types run together on the chosen schedule (daily, weekly, or monthly).

Does the plugin work with WooCommerce HPOS?

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Yes. Shop Cleaner declares full compatibility with WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage and automatically uses the correct query methods.

How do I access the REST API?

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All endpoints are under the sc/v1 namespace. You need to authenticate as a user with the manage_woocommerce capability. See the REST API section for full endpoint documentation.

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Uninstalling

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When you deactivate the plugin:

• Scheduled cleanup events are removed.
• Your settings and operation logs are preserved (in case you reactivate).

When you delete the plugin through the WordPress admin:

• The cleanup logs database table is dropped.
• All plugin settings are removed from the options table.
• Scheduled events are cleared.
• No product, media, customer, or other WooCommerce data is affected.