How to Uninstall WP Simple Pay and Remove Its Data

Reading time: 4 minutes | Difficulty: Beginner

Overview

When you delete WP Simple Pay from Plugins → Installed Plugins, the Save Plugin Settings setting decides what happens to its data:

• Checked (the default): everything is kept. If you install WP Simple Pay again later, your payment forms, settings, and payment records are still there.
• Unchecked: WP Simple Pay removes all of its data from your site when it is deleted.

Deactivating the plugin never removes anything. Data is only removed when the plugin is deleted.

Since WP Simple Pay 4.17.5, the cleanup is complete: it covers the plugin’s database tables, scheduled tasks, and files, not just its settings.

Prerequisites

• An administrator account on your WordPress site
• A backup of your site, if you might need any of the data later. Removed data cannot be recovered.

Step 1: Choose Whether to Keep Your Data

1. Go to WP Simple Pay → Settings → General → Advanced.
2. Find Save Plugin Settings.
3. To keep your data when the plugin is deleted, leave Save plugin settings checked. To remove all of it, uncheck it.
4. Click Save Changes.

Step 2: Delete the Plugin

1. Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins.
2. Click Deactivate under WP Simple Pay.
3. Click Delete, then confirm.

What Gets Removed

With Save plugin settings unchecked, deleting the plugin removes:

• Payment forms, including all of their settings.
• The payment confirmation pages chosen in Settings → Payment Confirmation → Pages (the success, failure, and cancelled pages). These pages are deleted permanently, not moved to the trash.
• All plugin settings, including your license key and Stripe connection.
• Payment records stored in WordPress: the transactions, subscriptions, notifications, coupons, and webhook tables.
• Scheduled tasks that WP Simple Pay created, such as email reminders and reports.
• Temporary data and caches, including license update caches.
• Per-user preferences, such as dismissed notices and report settings.
• Files in your uploads folder that WP Simple Pay created, including the rate limit log (which stores visitor IP addresses).

What Is Kept

• Everything in Stripe. Your payments, customers, subscriptions, and coupons in your Stripe account are not touched. Active subscriptions keep billing.
• Files customers uploaded through a File Upload field. They stay in wp-content/uploads/wp-simple-pay/ and in your Media Library, so you can still open them. Delete them yourself if you no longer need them.

If You Have Both WP Simple Pay Lite and Pro Installed

If the other edition of WP Simple Pay is still installed (for example, you are deleting an old copy of Lite after upgrading to Pro), nothing is removed, even if Save plugin settings is unchecked. Lite and Pro share the same data, so this stops you from wiping your Pro forms and payment records by deleting a leftover Lite install.

To remove everything, delete the other edition first, then delete the last one.

Multisite Networks

On a multisite network, each site is cleaned up on its own, based on that site’s own Save Plugin Settings value. Sites that kept their data are left alone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will my customers’ subscriptions be cancelled?

No. Subscriptions live in Stripe and keep billing. Without WP Simple Pay, though, your site no longer sends its emails or records renewals for them.

I deleted the plugin and my forms are still there after reinstalling. Why?

Save plugin settings was checked, or the other edition of WP Simple Pay was still installed when you deleted it.

What’s Next?

• How to Upgrade from WP Simple Pay Lite to Pro – Move from Lite to Pro without losing data
• How to Transfer Your WP Simple Pay License to Another Domain Name – Move your license to a new site