Uninstalling is deliberate about what it removes and what it leaves. The distinction is worth knowing before you rely on either half.
What is deleted
Uninstalling removes Sohay’s own data:
- Its database tables — conversations, messages, sync jobs, diagnostic logs.
- Its settings, including your encrypted API keys.
- The capabilities it added to roles.
What is kept
Your Knowledge Base articles.
They are regular WordPress posts. Removing a plugin does not delete your content, and Sohay does not make an exception. Reinstall later and they are still there, ready to sync again.
Their categories and tags stay too.
If you want the articles gone as well
Delete them under KB Articles before you uninstall — and empty the trash, since trashed posts are still in the database.
Doing it in that order matters. Once the plugin is gone, the sohaychat_kb
post type is no longer registered, and the articles become invisible in the
admin while remaining in the database. Recovering that situation means
re-installing the plugin or going in with WP-CLI.
Deactivate versus uninstall
Deactivating stops the plugin running and touches no data. The widget disappears, the admin disappears, scheduled jobs stop. Everything is still there when you reactivate.
Uninstalling — deleting the plugin from the Plugins screen — is what runs the cleanup above.
If you only want the chatbot off your site, you do not need either. Uncheck Show widget under Sohay → AI Settings and everything else keeps working. See Turning the chat widget on and off.
Remote data
Uninstalling removes Sohay’s data from your site. It does not reach into your OpenAI account and remove the indexed copies of your articles.
To clear those, use Delete KB data from OpenAI under Sohay → KB Settings before uninstalling. That button is irreversible on the remote side, which is exactly what you want here and worth being sure about otherwise.
On Multisite
Uninstalling from the network removes Sohay’s data from every site in it. As on a single site, Knowledge Base articles are kept — on each site individually, so clearing them means visiting each one.
Where to go next
How long conversations are kept, if what you actually want is less data retained rather than none.
