Understand data retention when removing POM Translate

Deactivating POM Translate preserves its stored work. The deactivation process stops scheduled translation-generation callbacks, but it does not empty translation tables or remove settings.

Before deactivation

1. Download a fresh translation export.
2. Create a full database backup.
3. Record localized slugs, exclusions, custom URL mappings, and settings not present in the JSON file.
4. Decide what should happen to existing language-prefixed URLs.
5. Check whether another component depends on POM Translate helpers or language context.

When the plugin is inactive, it no longer provides translated rendering, localized route parsing, selectors, canonical adjustments, or background translation processing. Existing prefixed URLs may therefore stop resolving as before.

Removing plugin files

Deleting the plugin from WordPress removes its files; it is not the documented method for clearing its multilingual storage. Retained database data may be useful if the plugin is reinstalled, but it also means file removal alone should not be treated as a data-erasure workflow.

If the goal is to rebuild or deliberately erase the multilingual dataset while the plugin is available, use Reset translation storage after creating a backup. That tool clears the main translation data but does not represent a complete removal of every plugin setting or account record.

Plan URL retirement

Before permanent removal, choose redirects for published localized URLs, update navigation and sitemaps, and remove language selectors. External links and search indexes can continue requesting those URLs long after the plugin is gone.

Verify the site

After deactivation or deletion, check the base-language home page, posts, terms, menus, WooCommerce flows, REST requests, and scheduled tasks. Preserve the backup until the replacement or rollback period has ended.