WordPress has become a part of us. Most websites on the internet run on this platform simply because it is efficient, reliable and easy to use. As a result, WordPress has become very popular and it is only an added advantage that you do not need any coding language to build a website, many website owners are not familiar with steps involved when it comes to uninstalling or reinstalling WordPress.

Various reasons could lead a website owner wanting to reinstall a fresh copy of WordPress. There could be an error with your version of WordPress and you have tried all possible means to fix the situation with no success. Whatever the reason might be, it is crucial for you as a website owner to have a full understanding of the steps that need to be taken while reinstalling WordPress.

This article we will be taking an in-depth look on the steps that need to be followed while uninstalling and reinstalling WordPress. We will be looking at two popular processes: the full clean uninstall and the quick fix uninstall.

Process One (Full Clean Uninstall)

  1. The first step in this approach is deleting all associated WordPress folders and files from your site. These files would normally be located in the ‘public_html’
  2. Go to SQL database section on your dashboard and delete the WordPress database and the attached user too.

There are several options available when deleting your files. At the end of the day, it boils down to your preference. In this article, we will cover only two because of simplicity. The third is a very complex process and is best left for experts:

Option 1:

  1. Log in to your hosting dashboard and find the file browser.
  2. Locate the folder that contains your WordPress website files and simply delete them.

Option 2:

This option will involve the services of an FTP software for example FileZilla.

  1. Log in to your host using any FTP software like FileZilla.
  2. Llocate the folder containing WordPress files (usually this will be the ‘public_html’ folder).
  3. Select all files and hit delete. When prompted to confirm your deletion, click on ok and voila! You have successfully deleted all WordPress files and folders.

Approach Two (Quick Fix uninstall)

Just as the name suggests, this is a quick way of uninstalling WordPress. So let us take a look at the steps to be followed shall we?

  1. Login to your WordPress site and locate your website’s database table and associated user.
  2. Now delete the database. What this does is it simply deletes any records of your WordPress website. This means that your website can no longer fetch data because its references have been wiped clean.
  3. Create a new database table and a new user too, then update the file“WP-config.php” with the new information.
  4. Reinstall your website by entering its url. It will automatically redirect to the installation page where you can finish the install.

Re-installing WordPress

Re-installing WordPress is really just similar to the first time you installed but if you have no idea here’s how. Please note that this process explains how to install wordpress on your computer. We will assume that you already have a local server eg XAMPP or WAMP for windows, or MAMP for Mac installed.

  1. Create a database to store you WordPress data. For this open you browser and type in localhost and a user interface of either XAMPP or WAMP or MAMP will appear.
  2. Locate phpMyAdmin and select it.
  3. Select the databases tab and in the context box under create database type in the name of your database and click on create. Your database is now created.
  4. Download the latest version of WordPress.
  5. Create a new folder in your local server’s hosting folder and give it a name you wish. In XAMPP, the default hosting folder is Extract the content of the WordPress .zip file into the folder you just created.
  6. Open another tab in your browser and type in localhost and select WordPress. A WordPress user interface should load. Click on Create a Configuration File.
  7. Follow the instructions and when prompted to enter your credentials like database name enter the name of the database you created. The password and username will be root but you can edit that later.
  8. Click on submit and another page will load asking you to Run the Install. You have now successfully installed WordPress on your computer. From there simply enter the name of your website and any other information that might be required.
  9. Click on Install WordPress and there you go. You have fully installed WordPress.

Conclusion

In this tutorial we have covered the various steps of how to uninstall WordPress successfully as well as the procedures to follow while re-installing WordPress. I hope that this article as provided more insight and made life much easier when dealing with WordPress.

If you need any WordPress tech support when removing WordPress or re-installing WordPress, please do not hesitate to reach us on this link.