Documentation · Technical Documentation

Uninstall And Cleanup Behavior

This document explains exactly what happens when the ADP Car Market Hub plugin is deleted from a WordPress site, including which data is always removed, which data is only removed when the opt-in cleanup flag is enabled, and how multisite installations are handled.

When to use this document

Read this document if you need to:

Plan a clean removal of the plugin from a production site.
Understand whether deleting the plugin will keep or destroy imported vehicles, leads or settings.
Audit GDPR / data-protection compliance for plugin removal.
Migrate a site to another plugin and need to know what is left behind.

Overview

The plugin ships with an uninstall.php script that WordPress runs automatically when the plugin is deleted from Plugins → Installed Plugins. The script:

Always removes plugin transients and unschedules the plugin's WP-Cron events.
Always drops the plugin's custom database tables, including those holding visitor or personal data.
Optionally removes plugin-created posts (vehicles, leads, imported attachments, plugin-created pages) when the Delete data on uninstall setting is enabled.
Always removes the full set of plugin options.

The intent is privacy-first by default: any data the plugin collects about visitors (analytics events, search-agent subscriptions) is removed unconditionally, while content authored on top of imported data (which a customer may want to keep even after uninstalling the importer) is only removed when the customer explicitly opts in.

What is always removed

Regardless of the Delete data on uninstall setting, the uninstall routine performs the following:

Transients:
as24ci_access_token — cached AutoScout24 access token.
as24ci_cron_import_running — import run lock.
as24ci_image_queue_running — image-queue worker lock.
WP-Cron events:
as24ci_scheduled_import — main scheduled import.
as24ci_daily_cleanup — analytics retention cleanup.
Custom tables:
<prefix>as24ci_analytics — visitor tracking events.
<prefix>as24_vehicles — vehicle field data table.
<prefix>as24ci_search_agents — saved-search subscriptions (contains email addresses and search criteria).
<prefix>as24ci_content_studio_assets — Content Studio assets.
<prefix>as24ci_content_studio_jobs — Content Studio jobs.
Schema-version options:
as24ci_vehicles_db_version.
as24ci_search_agent_db_version.
as24ci_content_studio_db_version.
Plugin options: every key declared by AS24CI\Options::get_all_keys(), plus a small set of non-constant keys appended explicitly: as24ci_models_cache_keys, as24ci_page_archive_id, as24ci_page_compare_id, as24ci_page_favorites_id, the legacy as24ci_api_total_cache, and the Content Studio settings (as24ci_content_studio_db_version, as24ci_content_studio_google_api_key, as24ci_content_studio_default_language, as24ci_content_studio_default_tone, as24ci_content_studio_brand_voice, as24ci_content_studio_disclaimer_text, as24ci_content_studio_compliance_notes).

What is removed only when opt-in is enabled

The setting as24ci_delete_data_on_uninstall controls destructive cleanup of plugin-created content. When it equals 1, the uninstall routine additionally:

Iterates all as24ci_car posts (any status) and:
Deletes attachments listed in _as24ci_image_ids (imported images).
Deletes the post's featured image attachment when present.
Deletes the vehicle post itself with wp_delete_post( $id, true ).
Deletes all as24ci_lead posts.
Deletes activation-created pages whose IDs are stored in as24ci_page_archive_id, as24ci_page_compare_id and as24ci_page_favorites_id.

Manual gallery attachments (referenced from _as24ci_manual_image_ids) are intentionally not deleted. This protects images that a customer added by hand, even if the parent vehicle post is removed.

Multisite handling

On a network installation:

The script iterates every site returned by get_sites().
For each site, it switch_to_blog(), runs the destructive cleanup (when opted in), drops the per-site analytics, vehicles, search-agent and Content Studio (jobs + assets) tables, removes per-site options and restore_current_blog().
After processing every site, the function returns and does not run the single-site branch.

Verify the multisite path against your network's role configuration before bulk-uninstalling in production; the script does not perform any cross-site cascading beyond the operations listed above.

Step by step instructions

Remove the plugin and keep all imported content

(Optional) Open the plugin's settings and confirm Delete data on uninstall is off.
Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins, deactivate "ADP Car Market Hub", then click Delete.
Confirm the deletion. WordPress executes uninstall.php. Imported vehicle posts and their images remain in the database; plugin settings and visitor data are removed.

Remove the plugin and all plugin-created content

Open the plugin's settings.
Enable Delete data on uninstall.
Save.
Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins, deactivate the plugin, then click Delete.
Confirm. WordPress runs uninstall.php, which removes imported vehicles, imported attachments, leads and the plugin-created archive/compare/favorites pages.

Configuration reference

Option key	Effect
`as24ci_delete_data_on_uninstall`	When `1`, also removes imported posts, imported attachments, lead posts and plugin-created pages on uninstall. Default `0`.

For the full list of plugin options, see Options And Settings Storage.

Operational notes

Uninstall runs in a special WordPress context with limited bootstrap. The script avoids loading heavy dependencies and is defensive about missing classes (a hard-coded option list is used as a fallback if AS24CI\Options cannot be loaded).
Custom-table drops are issued with raw DROP TABLE IF EXISTS on the prefixed table name. Hosts that restrict schema-changing privileges may produce warnings here; the drop is best-effort and does not abort the uninstall.
Imported images that are referenced by other posts (for example reused as featured images in unrelated content) will still be removed when the opt-in cleanup is enabled. Audit reuse of imported attachments before opting in.
Manual gallery images stay in the WordPress media library even when the opt-in cleanup is enabled; remove them separately if required.
Webhook URLs and shared secrets are stored in plugin options and therefore removed unconditionally on uninstall. External systems will stop receiving events as soon as the plugin is deleted.
Deactivation alone (without deletion) does not run uninstall.php. It only clears pending WP-Cron events and refreshes rewrite rules.

Troubleshooting

Imported vehicles remain after uninstall — *Delete data on uninstall* was off when the plugin was deleted. Restore the plugin temporarily to obtain the admin UI, enable the toggle, then delete again. Alternatively, remove as24ci_car posts manually with WP-CLI.
Custom tables still exist after uninstall — the database user lacks DROP privileges. Drop the tables manually with a privileged account.
Multisite uninstall left some sites with data — confirm the network admin executed the deletion. Per-site uninstalls triggered by site administrators do not always cascade across the network depending on the WordPress version. Verify the current behaviour against your WordPress release before large rollouts.
Plugin options reappear after reinstall — they were re-created by activation. Cleanup runs only on delete, not on deactivate.