Database cleanup & best practices before deploying to production, what do you do?

[zilli]

Hey folks,

Quick question, is there anything you usually do to the database before pushing a project to a live server? Any kind of cleanup, optimization, that sort of thing?

The reason I'm asking is that during development it's pretty common to install/uninstall modules, add and remove fields, rename things, test content... and after all that back and forth I'm a bit worried about leftovers sitting in the database that I might not even be aware of. Orphaned fields, stale module data, log entries, sessions, you name it.

Do you have a checklist you follow? Any specific things you always make sure to clean up?

Cheers.

[ryan]

There really shouldn't be any orphaned or stale module data. If there are /site/ modules you no longer need, uninstall then erase them. The same goes for fields and templates. You should be able to see which are not in use by going directly to the Setup > Fields and Setup > Templates screens. When it comes to logs and sessions, those are things that I wouldn't migrate to the production server. Though I usually just transfer everything, and then remove those kinds of things afterwards. 

[zilli]

Thanks @ryan

[wbmnfktr]

On 5/28/2026 at 3:05 PM, zilli said:

is there anything you usually do to the database before pushing a project to a live server?

Yes.

1. A full update of everything including the database from LIVE/PROD.
2. Having a running copy of that backup locally.