Lots of articles are written across the web about how one can use WordPress Multisite capabilities to power several blogs from one installation. This feature comes from WPMU being merged into WP. Recently I was working with a client, which was stucked in between of the process of setting up and wanted me to complete it.
Removing WordPress Multisite data was a new subject and Google search gave nothing useful, so I am sharing on how you can remove WordPress Multisite data completely incase you don’t want it or you want to re-install with a fresh state or whatever.
Before proceeding make sure you take a backup of the database so you can restore it if something goes wrong. And if you don’t feel comfortable or don’t really know what you are doing, then you shouldn’t be doing it. Get a developer to do this for you.
- Remove all the lines added to wp-config.php
- Revert back to older .htaccess file or delete it and regenrate it by going to Settings > Permalinks
- Remove the two fields added to the users table that are multisite-only (deleted and spam columns).
- Remove the following tables in database (prefixed by your DB prefix which is generally wp_):
- wp_blogs
- wp_blog_versions
- wp_registration_log
- wp_site
- wp_sitemeta
- wp_signups
- wp_sitecategories (if you have global terms enabled)
Now you have a clean WordPress install without any trace of Multisite data. Let me know if you have any questions 🙂
Thanks for doing this. It’s a dumb question – but I have to reinstall the multi-site and I don’t really understand where to find these tables! I’m going nuts here. Any help would be really appreciated.
ZB
You can use phpMyAdmin to do that
Thanks again. This was super helpful.
Glad that you found it useful 🙂
Thanks for this I had big issue with my main site thinking it was a multi site when trying to upgrade had problems it auto creating new db tables hope this fixes it.
Unfortunately, after deleting the .htaccess file I’m getting errors.
Fatal error: Call to undefined function wp() in /home/bookieb/public_html/stupidnothings.com/wp-blog-header.php on line 14
and
Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_option() in /home/bookieb/public_html/stupidnothings.com/wp-admin/admin.php on line 22
Hi Edwin,
These errors don’t seem to relate with .htaccess file
Did you regenerate the permalinks from Settings > Permalinks?
[…] Remove WordPress Multisite data. […]
Thank you so much for this info! I broke a lot of stuff when I turned this on for my site, I couldn’t figure out how to get everything working in wordpress again until I found this!
Happy to help 🙂
Brilliant! Worked like a charm. Thanks for the tutorial!
Glad to help 🙂
You may also need to deal with images depending on the multi-site install.
If your .htaccess included
#RewriteRule ^(.*/)?files/(.*) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$2 [L]
Then change it to:
RewriteRule ^(.*/)?files/(.*) wp-content/uploads/$2 [L]
You will also need to copy over the files from the files dir to the usual content/uploads dir.
And change the upload dir setting in Media Settings in the admin panel.
I also had a problem that the blog’s tables were wp_1_xxx but the user table was wp_user.
Fix:
a) rename wp_user to wp_1_user
b) change db prefix in wp-config.php to be wp_1_
Its better to regenerate the .htaccess file then editing it. Not sure about the uploads setting (may be you are right), and your others steps are more of like keeping one of the blog as the primary blog and removing others, else you won’t need to do that. User tables are shared across a multisite install.
Great post, finally got rid of that WPMU install! Alot better than what you find on the wordpress.com forums 😉
Haha thanks, I have never dealt with WPMU. Glad that the post helped you.
Thank You So Much I Have Been Trying To Find A Way To Go Back To A Regular WP Account For A While Now!
Thank You!! I have tried to find a way to do this for some time. I have found a lot of people are looking for this but only just today I found this site! Aloha to you!!
THANKS. I was very concerned on how to go back.
Thanks man!
Hi,
Please help. When I removed those tables I get this error when I access the website: Error establishing database connection.
thank you!
Fantastic, worked perfectly for me.
Thanks for the write-up; This kind of information should be on the official WP website, along with installing the network.
Thank you very much!
Well thanks…. Lost every bit of information in my blog following your instructions.
You do realize you did something wrong in following the instructions, right? This post was for developers and not end users. Do you have a recent backup to restore it? If not, ask your webhost if they have one.
Thank you so much for this! Worked like a charm.
First of all, thank you for posting this.
I am new to using wordpress and I wanted to see what Multi-site was like for a bit but I realized this isn’t for me yet. I installed multi-site a year ago but never really used it so I’m wiping everything out and starting afresh. I want to make sure I’ve properly uninstalled this in case of future complications with other plug-ins and so on.
I managed to get through Steps 1-2 but I can’t seem to get through Steps 3 and 4.
3) I wasn’t able to locate ‘deleted/spam’ columns cos I don’t know where the user table is. Is this located within my WordPress dashboard? I do not see any new user tables in my FTP database either
4) Also could not locate any of the listed tables in my FTP. I don’t see anything with wp_.
Overall, I know in my wordpress dashboard, the subdirectory i had created from multi-site is gone (as in, I don’t see the option to visit my other site). I do not see the extra user under Users either. Under Settings the ‘Enable multi-site’ option is still there but it gives me the initial introduction to the “Network installation process” which I recall when I first installed Multi-site. since this option is there, it doesn’t seem like I’ve uninstalled Multi-site right?
Help would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
thnx very useful
Hi,
I followed every step in the tutorial. But now I cannot see my site’s dashboard. When I log in i can see only profile page no other tabs are available. Any idea where I went wrong in removing the multisite feature?
Hello, thanks it’s work for me.
Hi,
i did everything right, but have the same problem as ASK : “I cannot see my site’s dashboard. When I log in i can see only profile page no other tabs are available.”
May you help me please?
Thank you.
you may also require a single site wp_config file (original) otherwise your site will end up in a singup loop, i panicked at first seeing The webpage at http://yourdomain.com/wp-signup.php?new=yourdomain.com has resulted in too many redirects.
its because there are lines of code in the wp_config file that refer to MU.
Thanks for the help.
i am done all the step but when i do this my site registration don’t sent mail why?
now i can restor my site but i still need to remove multisite. please help
Thanks!! You saved my bacon!