Uninstalling & Removing Your Data
When you remove the plugin, it’s important to know that your data does not go with it. This article explains exactly what’s left behind and how to clean it up if you want a completely fresh slate (relevant for testing, for data-retention policies, and for GDPR “right to be forgotten” requests).
Table of Contents
Deactivate vs delete
- Deactivate (Plugins screen → Deactivate) stops the plugin running but keeps everything — files, database table, settings. Coming-soon products simply revert to normal Add to Cart while it’s off. Reactivating picks up exactly where you left off.
- Delete (Plugins screen → Delete) removes the plugin files. But because the plugin currently has no uninstall routine, deleting it leaves all of its data in your database.
What’s left behind after deleting
| Data | Where | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Signup records | wp_sscs_signups table |
Every collected email + referral data. |
| Global settings | wp_options (sscs_mailerlite_api_key, sscs_honeypot_enabled, sscs_captcha_enabled, sscs_turnstile_site_key, sscs_turnstile_secret_key) |
Includes your API/secret keys. |
| Per-product settings | wp_postmeta (_sscs_coming_soon, _sscs_arrival_date, _sscs_offer_description, _sscs_email_provider, _sscs_mailerlite_group_id, _sscs_sse_form_id) |
One set per product you configured. |
| Visitor cookies | The shopper’s browser (sscs_mailerlite_user_id, sscs_shared_by_id) |
Not on your server; they expire on their own. |
Two practical consequences:
- Re-installing reuses the old data — your settings and signups are still there, which is usually convenient.
- A database export still contains the API key and collected emails even after the plugin is gone — treat exports as sensitive (see Privacy & Data Handling).
Fully removing the data manually
If you want everything gone, run these after deleting the plugin. Back up your
database first, and adjust the wp_ prefix to match your install.
With WP-CLI:
wp db query "DROP TABLE IF EXISTS wp_sscs_signups"
wp db query "DELETE FROM wp_options WHERE option_name LIKE 'sscs\_%'"
wp db query "DELETE FROM wp_postmeta WHERE meta_key LIKE '\_sscs\_%'"
Or the same three statements via phpMyAdmin (your host’s database tool). The
postmeta line removes the per-product coming-soon settings; skip it if you might
re-install and want to keep those.
The
\_in theLIKEpatterns escapes the underscore so it matches literally — leave it as written.
Planned enhancement
A proper uninstall routine (uninstall.php / register_uninstall_hook) with an
opt-in “Delete all data on uninstall” setting is tracked as an enhancement (see
the contents index). Until then, the manual cleanup above is the way to do it.
- Privacy & Data Handling — what’s collected and handling deletion requests.
- Viewing & Exporting Your Signups — export the records before you remove them.
