Shortcode Cleanup nots

shortcode-cleanup-notes.md

Plugins

• Shortcodes Finder

  • general "shortcode utility"
  • positive reviews from ~4000 installs
  • last updated 4 months ago
  • mentioned in article

• Clean unused shortcodes ⭐️ probably this? ⭐️

  • purpose built
  • last updated 10 months ago
  • positive reviews from ~100 installs
  • indicates that it's probably doing it's cleanup at DB level:
    Works extremely well. I imported posts from a client site which previously used Divi, so they were littered with Divi shortcodes. I tried a few Divi shortcode cleaner plugins while they removed some of the shortcodes, there were will many remaining. This plugin worked quickly to remove all of remaining ones – I’d highly recommend it for this purpose (just remember to backup your database before you attempt anything like this!).

• Remove Orphan Shortcodes

  • Mostly postive reviews on ~1000 installs
  • negative reviews mention removing still in use codes, also has issues w/ gutenberg?
  • some of the reviews make it confusing as to what it is actually doing (hiding vs removing)

• Remove Empty Shortcodes

  • Keeps shortcodes in the content, but hides them from rendering on the fly
  • Good if the plugins/themes/etc that use them may be reactivated in the future
  • last updated 6 months ago

• Shortcode Cleaner - closed March 6, 2025 for security reasons

DB manipulation

Manually remove them from the DB w/ sql - Article, would have to
UPDATE wp_post SET post_content = replace(post_content, ‘[shortcode]’, ” ) ;
I would probably build a array of all shortcodes to remove & then loop through them? or something like that?

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chatgpt's suggestion:

🚀 Recommended path for most migrations:

1. Temporarily install WPBakery (or a “Visual Composer Compatibility” plugin) to view the original page content.
2. Export content (using the built-in Tools → Export).
3. Create a staging site with the new theme.
4. Manually rebuild key pages in blocks while batch-removing [vc_*] shortcodes from minor posts using a script or plugin.
5. Remove WPBakery once all key content is clean.