Slugs Manager Shows “No Slugs Found” – How to Fix

Fix “No old slugs found” in Slugs Manager #

If Slugs Manager: Delete Old Permalinks from WordPress Database reports “No old slugs found in database,” there are usually genuinely no _wp_old_slug records stored. The scan reads every record with no post-type filter, so the old slugs were likely already removed, or WordPress never stored one because the slug changed while the post was not published.

How the scan works #

Slugs Manager reads every _wp_old_slug record in the postmeta table, with no post-type filter. If a post has an old slug, it appears in the list regardless of its post type. So an empty list almost always means there genuinely are no old slugs stored, not that some are being hidden by a filter.

Common causes #

• The old slugs were already removed, by a previous clean up, another optimization plugin, or a manual database clean up.
• The URLs you are thinking of never created an _wp_old_slug record. WordPress only stores an old slug when a published post’s slug changes, not for drafts or for posts that were deleted outright.
• A redirect or SEO plugin is holding the old URL history in its own tables, which Slugs Manager does not read.

Steps to confirm #

1. Click Refresh list to rescan the database.
2. Go to Settings > Permalinks and click Save Changes to rebuild permalinks, then refresh the list again.
3. To create a test entry, edit a published post, change its slug, and update it. WordPress stores the previous slug as an old slug, which then appears in the table.
4. If you use a redirects or SEO plugin, check its records for the old URLs. Those tools sometimes keep their own history that Slugs Manager does not touch.

Still expecting entries? #

If you are sure old slugs should exist but the list stays empty, our team answers every ticket on the Slugs Manager support forum. Include your WordPress version, the plugin version, and an example post whose slug you changed.