Title: Pingback comment data disappears
Last modified: June 14, 2026

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# Pingback comment data disappears

 *  Resolved [Kayako Saeki](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kayakosaekivn/)
 * (@kayakosaekivn)
 * [4 days, 2 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/pingback-comment-data-disappears/)
 * The pingback comment data has disappeared. I checked but found no errors. Even
   after I tried updating and disabling the plugin, the data still disappeared.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Plugin Author [pontocinza](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pontocinza/)
 * (@pontocinza)
 * [3 days, 17 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/pingback-comment-data-disappears/#post-18937746)
 * Hi Kayako, thanks for the report.
 * The plugin has no code path that deletes, trashes, or modifies existing comments
   in any way. It only does one thing — on transition_post_status to publish, it
   scans the post content for internal links and calls wp_insert_comment() to add
   a new pingback comment if one doesn’t already exist. There is:
 * No deactivation hook
   No uninstall routineNo scheduled task (cron)No DELETE, wp_delete_comment(),
   or wp_trash_comment() anywhere in the code
 * This means that, technically, deactivating or updating the plugin cannot remove
   pingback comments that were already inserted into your database — those rows 
   stay in wp_comments regardless of the plugin’s state. So whatever you’re seeing
   as “disappeared” is very likely happening somewhere else in your stack, not in
   this plugin.
 * A few things to check, in order of likelihood:
    - Check the Comments screen directly (Dashboard → Comments), not just the front
      end of the post. Also check the Spam and Trash filters there. If the pingbacks
      are sitting in Spam or Trash, that’s almost certainly Akismet (or another 
      anti-spam plugin): pingback-type comments are a very common target for spam
      filters, and they can be moved without throwing any visible error.
    - Do you have Akismet (or similar) active? If so, try checking its log/history
      for those specific comments.
    - Do you have a database cleanup/optimization plugin installed? Plugins like
      WP-Optimize, Advanced Database Cleaner, WP-Sweep, or Optimize Database after
      Deleting Revisions commonly include a “Trackbacks/Pingbacks cleanup” feature
      that runs a query equivalent to DELETE FROM wp_comments WHERE comment_type
      = ‘pingback’, sometimes on an automatic schedule (daily/weekly), with no error
      or notification shown. This matches your symptoms very closely: comments disappearing
      on their own, with nothing logged. Some all-in-one cache/performance plugins(
      WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache, Perfmatters, etc.) also bundle this kind of database
      optimization under their advanced settings, so it’s worth checking those too.
      Could you check your list of active plugins for anything like this, and if
      found, check whether it has a scheduled cleanup enabled?
    - Page/CDN cache — as in the previous thread, if a cached version of the page
      is being served, newly inserted pingbacks (or ones that were removed by something
      else) might appear/disappear from the front end independently of what’s actually
      in the database. Worth purging cache and comparing with the admin Comments
      screen.
 * Just to rule it out: when you say “data disappeared,” do you mean comments that
   were previously visible (in wp-admin → Comments) are now gone from there too,
   or only that they’re no longer showing on the front end of the post?
 * If you can confirm what you see in Dashboard → Comments (including the Spam/Trash
   filters) and your list of active plugins, that will narrow this down quickly.
   Happy to keep digging once we know whether the rows are actually gone from the
   database or just not displayed.
 *  Thread Starter [Kayako Saeki](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kayakosaekivn/)
 * (@kayakosaekivn)
 * [3 days, 4 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/pingback-comment-data-disappears/#post-18938049)
 * It seems you’re right. The Litespeed and Advanced Database Cleaner plugins are
   causing this error. I rarely use them until there’s too much junk data.
 * So what’s the solution? I don’t know how to prevent these cleaning plugins from
   deleting the pingbacks I’m generating.
 * Furthermore, I’m very grateful for your detailed answer.
 *  Plugin Author [pontocinza](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pontocinza/)
 * (@pontocinza)
 * [2 days, 15 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/pingback-comment-data-disappears/#post-18938732)
 * Check if both LiteSpeed Cache and Advanced Database Cleaner have a database cleanup
   option specifically for “Trackbacks/Pingbacks” (any comment with comment_type
   = ‘pingback’), and that includes the internal pingbacks this plugin creates.
 * Since you said you only run these cleanups occasionally when there’s too much
   junk data, the safest habit going forward is: whenever you run a manual cleanup
   in either plugin, just double-check that the Trackbacks/Pingbacks option is unticked
   before clicking “Optimize”/”Clean now.”
 * That’s a much better trade-off than giving up either those plugins or Internal
   Pingback Comments.
 *  Thread Starter [Kayako Saeki](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kayakosaekivn/)
 * (@kayakosaekivn)
 * [2 days, 3 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/pingback-comment-data-disappears/#post-18939281)
 * Thank you.
 * I have resolved my issue. Hopefully, in the future, you can develop more features
   for the pingback plugin.
 * Thank you again for your reply.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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 * ![](https://ps.w.org/internal-pingback-comments/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=3521492)
 * [Internal Pingback Comments](https://wordpress.org/plugins/internal-pingback-comments/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/internal-pingback-comments/#faq)
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## Tags

 * [pingback](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/pingback/)

 * 4 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Kayako Saeki](https://wordpress.org/support/users/kayakosaekivn/)
 * Last activity: [2 days, 3 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/pingback-comment-data-disappears/#post-18939281)
 * Status: resolved