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When I look in my public\_html directory there seems to be extra folders, including “staging” “staging1” “old” and “backup”. I assume this is not helping site speed or function.
I think this is just left over crap from plug ins and developers. If I take a copy of all of these with FTP, can I delete them, or would you advise against screwing with it?
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What is important is the files in your main site.
Yes you can delete it to tidy up your hosting directory.
Although I doubt it will affect the speed of your site.
Definitely take a backup before doing this, but yes you could simply delete them. If you’ve previously had a staging plugin on your site (aka you’ve used a crappy developer) then you may need to also clean up your database as you could in effect have an entire other WordPress database on the back of your site.
Figure out which one you actually need – go to Tools > Site Health > Info (tab) > Directories and Size – that will show you the path of the site you’re looking at currently.
On that same page, click “Database” – note down the database name.
Then you can safely delete what you don’t need.
As long as your pages don’t reference anything in those paths.
Does nothing for page speed or function.
First, backup everything. Then, remember don’t delete wp-admin , wp-content, or wp-includes
The ‘staging’ folders are only useful if you are actively developing and staging changes… and it’s interesting to note that a lot of infections come in from these folders because people stop updating the WordPress files in the staging folders, so definitely do delete those if you do not need them.
The ‘old’ folders are usually from migrations or dev packing things up. It is probably fine to delete it, especially because you did save that backup!
The ‘backup’ folder is probably OK to delete if it is not being used. Just make sure you know where your new backups actually are being stored and don’t delete them. And download the latest backup to keep at home is always a good suggestion.
Last thing on backups… don’t rely on backups to be safe in your hosting account. That just means your backups are somewhere in the same hosting account folder that you have everything else. That’s not safe. Store it offsite, or keep it at home. Just make sure you keep a good copy of your website assets safe.
Best of Luck