I update my WordPress Network quite often. Especially to prevent security issues. Load time for typical WordPress pages is as good as perfect. However, I discovered on some of my WordPress Network setups the wp-admin pages suddenly took forever to load. I was waiting 2 minutes to load any wp-admin page. After a long search I discovered the problem was a faulty db_version value in the wp_options table.
I usually auto update my sites and found out this value was not updated (or could not be updated automatically).
WordPress Codex pages (http://codex.wordpress.org/Version_3.6) list this value for every WordPress version. For example: Version 3.6 has database version 24448. Thus, you should update this value manually in your mySQL database: change db_version (option_name) in wp_options to 24448 (for version 3.6). You should repeat this for every site in your wordpress network (wp_2_options, wp_3_options, …).
It’s as ‘simple’ as that!
I think you meant to change the version from 24448 to 22448. However, everytime I make the change in mysql, I get a “Datebase Update Required” page on my site and I have to update the database – which rewrites the db_version back to 24448.
Hi Matt,
Wordpress codex says
I didn’t experience the database upgrade message you encountered. Are you sure you are using 3.6.x?
It’s actually a typo on the WP website – http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Versions
It says version 3.6.1 is 22448. Obviously that’s wrong.
My db version is correct but my admin is still super slow. It’s a slow troubleshooting process.
Matt, I double checked and I’m using db_version 24448 in combination with WordPress 3.6.1 coming from initial_db_version 21115. (It’s a network setup with 3 different blogs)
You are a lifesaver man!
I’ve been pulling my hair off for a month now due to extreme slowdown in my WP MU sites. Whew! Can’t believe that’s all I need! 🙂
Why there’s not a lot of info about it.
Thank you! Thank you!
My pleasure
Saved my life!!
The best way to see WordPress version and dp_version is using this URL:
https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Versions
the last column says wich db_version
Thanks thanks and thanks
Ver 4.3 and db opption is on the right version 33055 but still so damn slow in admin
Any furthers clues ?
Same here – tons of people having this problem, evidently. Are you also running WooCommerce by chance?
Yes, i’m also facing this problem with woocommerce. Still no solution!
Awesome post. This solved our problems. Not sure how the db_version got out of sync but it does seem to solve the problem. Not sure if there was an update that failed and didn’t update the ddl/metadata for the individual sites or not.
I was experiencing this slow admin issue running WP 4.4.1, Woocommerce 2.5.1 and found the culprit to be my Stamps.com plug-in. Disabling the Stamps.com plug-in fixed the speed issue. Just today a new update was released from plug-in author for Stamps.com that fixed the plug-in so I can reactivate it without slow down.
I hope this helps. We have 2 woocommerce shops and we are loosing lots of time (and money) for 2 years now because of the slow backend. When we have the solution I’ll let know.
Did you were able to fix your issue?
i have same problem
Pleeeeaaase help me, tell me what fixed it for you, I can’t really figure out what’s wrong.
You are a pure genius. My WordPress-based multi-site control panel area now flies like a jet. Thank you Sir!
Mine, is still slow.