Database Cleanup: Deleting Old Events

Deleting old events can be a cumbersome process, especially for online calendars that host hundreds or thousands of events. But it shouldn’t be, so that’s why we added new admin settings to make your life a whole lot easier.

Why Delete Old Events?

Although The Events Calendar is designed to handle both very high traffic and large numbers of events, some performance factors are beyond our control.

Just like regular blog posts, events are stored in your WordPress database. The more events displayed at once—whether on the front end or in the admin dashboard—the harder WordPress needs to work, increasing the likelihood you’ll see slowdowns on your site. And nobody wants to see that.

Automatically Delete Old Events

In version 4.6.13 of The Events Calendar, we introduced a setting that makes automatically deleting old events a breeze. Thanks to Patricia and our Community Team, you can quickly clean up outdated events on your calendar.

Screenshot of settings to delete old events

To find the settings, head to Event Settings → General from your dashboard. There you’ll find options to move events to the trash or to permanently delete them. Once you’ve configured your settings, you can rest easy knowing past events will be automatically removed from your calendar without any additional input or effort on your part.

Increased Performance

Automatically deleting all events past a certain date frees up space in your database, which in turn increases the performance of your site and sales.

Faster load time improves user experience, helps decrease bounce rates, increases conversions, and positively impacts your search ranking.

For more tips to keep your site running smoothly, check out our Knowledgebase articles on calendar optimization: