How To Change Default wp_ Table Prefix in WordPress

Every WordPress developers or website owners should put their website security as their top priority. In WPFeed.com, I’ve written many security tips on hardening your WordPress site, some of them are:

• How To Limit Login Attempts in WordPress
• How to Force Strong Passwords in WordPress
• How To Get Notification for WordPress Updates on Email
• How To Change Default ‘admin’ Username in WordPress
• How to Prevent Brute-Force Attack in WordPress

In this article, I’m going to show you how to change the default wp_ prefix in your WordPress site. There are two ways, either change it from the phpmyadmin from Cpanel or by using a WordPress plugin.

If you are wondering why is this so important, I recommend to read these two articles:

• SQL Injection: What is it?
• WordPress Database Security: Why Change the Database Tables Prefix

Installing WordPress with Cpanel

If you installed your WordPress site with Softculous software from Cpanel or another one-click installation software, you probably have changed the default wp_ prefix upon installing the WordPress script. Upon installing the WordPress script, there is a field to change the default wp_ prefix.

Change the _wp Table Prefix

However, if your forgot to change that or maybe you have installed WordPress manually, I’m going to show you a very easy way to change it with a plugin.

Firstly, you need to install and activate WP Security Scan plugin.

Once activated, click on the WSD Security menu from your dashboard. The plugin will scan your website and notify if your current table prefix is still wp_. Click on the ‘here‘ link to change the default wp_ table prefix.

Then, create a new name for the table prefix. Make sure it’s short, unique and end with “_”.

Hit the Start Renaming button. If everything is fine, you’ll see the status saying all the tables and wp-config.php file have been updated.