Remove WordPress Multisite Feature – ToDo List!

You can activate the Multisite functionality of WordPress relatively quick and it is well explaind in the backend how to do it. But not always you like to keep it as a multi site installation and therefore you have to do some measures to remove the Network function again.

Not easy and probably not an every day task – so that’s why I created a small todo list in order not to forget a step to restore to the default installation.

1. Save all your data – Database and files via FTP
2. Set the constant WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE to FALSE or delete the definition
3. Remove the following line in your wp-config.php; Just comment out is enough.

   /**
   define( 'MULTISITE', true );
   define( 'SUBDOMAIN_INSTALL', false );
   $base = '/wordpress/';
   define( 'DOMAIN_CURRENT_SITE', 'localhost' );
   define( 'PATH_CURRENT_SITE', '/wordpress/' );
   define( 'SITE_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1 );
   define( 'BLOG_ID_CURRENT_SITE', 1 );
   */
   

4. Remove the entries for the network in your .htaccess which is in the root of your installation

   # BEGIN WordPress
   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteBase /wordpress/
   RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
   
   # uploaded files
   RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?files/(.+) wp-includes/ms-files.php?file=$2 [L]
   
   # add a trailing slash to /wp-admin
   RewriteRule ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?wp-admin$ $1wp-admin/ [R=301,L]
   
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -f [OR]
   RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} -d
   RewriteRule ^ - [L]
   RewriteRule  ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(wp-(content|admin|includes).*) $2 [L]
   RewriteRule  ^([_0-9a-zA-Z-]+/)?(.*\.php)$ $2 [L]
   RewriteRule . index.php [L]
   # END WordPress
   

5. Now recreate the permalinks and add the necessary lines to .htaccess (wp-admin/options-permalink.php)
6. Remove the fields spam and deleted in the user-table (adjust prefix)

   ALTER TABLE `wp_users` DROP `spam`, DROP `deleted`;
   

7. You can delete the following tables in your database (adjust prefix)
   • wp_blogs
   • wp_blog_versions
   • wp_registration_log
   • wp_signups
   • wp_site
   • wp_sitemeta
   • wp_sitecategories (if global terms were active)

     DROP TABLE 
         `wp_blogs`, 
         `wp_blog_versions`, 
         `wp_registration_log`, 
         `wp_signups`, 
         `wp_site`, 
         `wp_sitemeta`, 
         `wp_sitecategories`;
     

8. Now you have your default installation of your default blog back. But in your database there are still tables of the 2nd created blog. You have to check if you need some information of this former blog. If not, you can also delete the tables of the former 2nd blog.

Just remember: Before proceeding I really recommend to create a backup.

Here’s an interesting post by Pantheon that can help you understand whether Multisite is suitable for your specific scenario and website.