Remove a target

This is how you remove a target you no longer need: without the backups stored there, or together with them.

What happens when you remove a target

• The backups at the target stay where they are. The plugin deletes them only if you ask for it in the confirmation prompt.
• The plugin deletes the settings and the credentials of the target. For a target in Dropbox, it then revokes the access at Dropbox; see the section “Targets in Dropbox and Google Drive”.
• The target leaves every backup plan. A plan without a target is paused. It can only be switched on again once you give it a target.
• If backups in the list still refer to the target, its entry stays as removed. This way an old backup never points to a different target.

Step 1: Choose Remove

Open the Targets page. In the row of the target, click More …, then Remove.

Step 2: Answer the confirmation prompt

1. The checkbox names the number of backups at the target. With the checkbox ticked, the plugin first deletes these backups and then removes the target. Without the tick, the backups stay where they are.
2. Cancel closes the confirmation prompt without changing anything.
3. Remove removes the target.

What the confirmation prompt shows depends on what is stored at the target:

Stored at the target	The confirmation prompt shows
no backups	only the question Remove “…”?
backups	the question and the checkbox Also delete the … backups stored at this target, for a single backup Also delete the one backup stored at this target
locked backups	the question and a note instead of the checkbox; see below

Tick the checkbox only if you no longer need the backups at this target. Then click Remove.

Step 3: Read the result

Message	Meaning
“…” deleted.	No backup in the list refers to the target. Its entry is completely gone.
“…” removed. … backups in the history still refer to it, so its entry stays.	The target is removed. Its entry stays without settings and without credentials; the Extended view shows it.
“…” is being removed: the backups at the target are deleted first.	You ticked the checkbox. The deletion runs as a job; a line below the status tile shows the progress.
“…” removed; … backups deleted at the target.	The job deleted the backups and the catalog files at the target and removed the target.

With the checkbox ticked, the page looks like this while the plugin deletes the backups:

1. The message: the target is being removed, the backups at the target are deleted first.
2. The progress: Deleting backup, then how many entries are done and how long it will still take.
3. Abort backup stops the deletion at the next step. What has been deleted by then stays deleted; the target stays set up.

If locked backups are stored at the target

1. The note names the number of locked backups: unlock them first to remove the target together with its backups.
2. Remove removes only the target here. The backups stay where they are.

As long as a backup is locked, the plugin does not delete it, not even together with the target. That is why the checkbox is missing. You have two ways:

• Remove the target without its backups.
• Or unlock them first: on the Backup page in the More … menu of the backup with Unlock backup. After that, the confirmation prompt shows the checkbox. More on this: Protect a backup from deletion.

Targets in Dropbox and Google Drive

A target of these target types has, instead of a password, an access that the provider issued after your consent. The plugin deletes it from the database of the website when removing the target. What happens at the provider depends on the target type:

Target type	At the provider	What you can do
Dropbox	The plugin revokes at Dropbox the access the target had. Other websites that you have connected with the same Dropbox account have their own access and stay connected.	Nothing. If the revocation does not succeed, the plugin removes the target anyway. The access then stays valid at Dropbox until you disconnect the app in your Dropbox account.
Google Drive	The plugin revokes nothing: the access the target had stays valid at Google. The consent stays listed in your Google account, in the Security area under third-party apps and services.	Remove the consent there if you no longer need it. Whoever removes it there disconnects every website that is connected with this Google account.

In both cases the backups stay at the provider if you do not tick the checkbox. More on the target types: Store backups in Dropbox and Store backups in Google Drive.

The revocation at Dropbox does not always succeed:

• The plugin does not send it if it can no longer read the stored credentials of the target, for example after a changed database password, or if the web server lacks cURL.
• If you permanently delete the entry of a target that has already been removed, the plugin sends no further revocation. It already tried that when removing the target.
• The revocation fails if Dropbox or the sign-in service cannot be reached at that moment. The plugin needs the sign-in service when the access has expired: then it fetches a new one first.

A target of the type Dropbox that you do not remove keeps its access even if you deactivate the plugin or delete it without the uninstall switch. How deleting with the switch revokes the access: Uninstall the plugin.

Permanently deleting the entry of a removed target

At the bottom of the page, switch to Extended. The list now also shows removed targets: with the name struck through and the label removed. The More … menu of such an entry offers only Delete permanently.

1. Cancel
2. Delete permanently deletes the entry. Nothing is deleted at the target.

This only works once no backup in the list refers to the target any more.

If something does not work

Message	What you can do
“…” could not be removed: … backups could not be deleted.	At least one backup could not be deleted; it stays at the target and in the list. The link in the message leads to the log. Then look in the list of targets whether the target is still set up. If it is still there and no longer reachable, remove it without ticking the checkbox.
A job is already running.	You ticked the checkbox while another job was running. Deleting the backups is itself a job, and only one runs at the same time. The plugin deleted nothing and did not remove the target. Wait until the running job has finished, then remove the target once more.
“…” cannot be deleted yet: … backups in the history still refer to it.	The entry of the removed target stays as long as backups in the list refer to it.

Good to know

• The name of a removed target stays taken as long as its entry exists.
• The identifier of a target, for example ftp-2, is never assigned by the plugin a second time, not even after deletion.
• If you set up the same storage again later, you bring the backups there back into the list: Find backups again after a total loss, section “Other cases”.

See also

• The “Targets” page
• Delete a backup
• Protect a backup from deletion
• Backup plans: tile and form
• Manage targets with WP-CLI

On the command line

WP-CLI not set up yet? How to install WP-CLI.

You name the target by its identifier or its name. Without a parameter, the backups stay at the target. With --with-backups, the command first deletes the backups at the target; if locked backups are stored there, it refuses.

# Show targets with ID and state
wp cloneworx-backup target list

# Remove a target; the backups there are kept
wp cloneworx-backup target remove local-1

# First delete the backups at the target, then remove the target
wp cloneworx-backup target remove local-1 --with-backups