Delete duplicate past events from database

[morktron]

Hi, we’ve noticed that events from 2012 and before have all been duplicated around 170 times each, meaning there are now over 10k events and the database is bloated as a result.

I found your Tribe Cleanup plugin in a previous post, and tried the duplicate post cleanup button but I get: Error 500

I’ve duplicated the site using Siteground’s staging feature, so I can try a few things out.

So is there a way to remove all these duplicates without having to delete them 30 at a time? I hope someone can help, many thanks

[Cliff]

Hi. Sorry you’re experiencing this.

Could you please make sure all your Modern Tribe plugins (and WordPress core) are at their latest versions?

• Downloads / Version Numbers
• TEC Automatic Updates
• or TEC Manual Updates
• WordPress core updates

It’s hard to tell if this is your issue or not, but, once you verify you’re on the latest versions, please do strongly consider trying the fix for runaway recurring events (a bug introduced in version 4.2.2 and fixed within a few days via version 4.2.2.1).

You can reference these code snippets to help determine if this is your problem and how to go about resolving it in your database:

• Delete all recurrences of an event via SQL (make a database backup first)

Please let me know how it goes for you.

[morktron]

Hi Cliff, thanks for getting back to me. Yes, everything is running on the latest version.

I tried the SQL method on a duplicate of the site but it didn’t do anything because it looks like it only works for duplicates that have a parent ID.

I assume to have a parent ID it must be a recurring event in TEC, however these are not recurring events but are duplicate events with no parent ID. I could be wrong though.

I tried your Advanced Post Manager plugin and found only 9 recurring events.

I could increase the items per page to 300 or so and delete all the old events, but that will be very boring! Can you think of a way to do this? thanks

[Cliff]

I asked someone else on the team for help, and we haven’t heard of this bug happening before (even in past versions).

You might be able to use a plugin like https://wordpress.org/plugins-wp/delete-duplicate-posts/ (untested & third-party, not guaranteed or supported by us)

And, yes, “child” events are part of the “parent” / series event, which is how recurring events currently work in the database.

[morktron]

Thanks Chris, I tried that plugin you mentioned but it only works for Posts, Pages and Attachment post types. I’m checking with the developer to see if it can be adapted easily for TEC.

A while ago we used your iCal Importer to sync with a Google Calendar, I assume that is where the duplicate events came from, but i could be mistaken.

Anyway I’ll let you know how I go, cheers

Mark

[Cliff]

Thanks for the feedback. Please do keep me updated.

[Support Droid]

Hey there! This thread has been pretty quiet for the last three weeks, so we’re going to go ahead and close it to avoid confusion with other topics. If you’re still looking for help with this, please do open a new thread, reference this one and we’d be more than happy to continue the conversation over there.

Thanks so much!
The Events Calendar Support Team

[Author]

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