Title: _wp_delete_orphaned_draft_menu_items
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: February 24, 2026

---

# _wp_delete_orphaned_draft_menu_items()

## In this article

 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_wp_delete_orphaned_draft_menu_items/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_wp_delete_orphaned_draft_menu_items/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_wp_delete_orphaned_draft_menu_items/?output_format=md#changelog)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_wp_delete_orphaned_draft_menu_items/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

This function’s access is marked private. This means it is not intended for use 
by plugin or theme developers, only by core. It is listed here for completeness.

Deletes orphaned draft menu items

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_wp_delete_orphaned_draft_menu_items/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    function _wp_delete_orphaned_draft_menu_items() {
    	global $wpdb;

    	$delete_timestamp = time() - ( DAY_IN_SECONDS * EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS );

    	// Delete orphaned draft menu items.
    	$menu_items_to_delete = $wpdb->get_col(
    		$wpdb->prepare(
    			"SELECT ID FROM $wpdb->posts AS p
    			LEFT JOIN $wpdb->postmeta AS m ON p.ID = m.post_id
    			WHERE post_type = 'nav_menu_item' AND post_status = 'draft'
    			AND meta_key = '_menu_item_orphaned' AND meta_value < %d",
    			$delete_timestamp
    		)
    	);

    	foreach ( (array) $menu_items_to_delete as $menu_item_id ) {
    		wp_delete_post( $menu_item_id, true );
    	}
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-admin/includes/nav-menu.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-admin/includes/nav-menu.php#L1372)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-admin/includes/nav-menu.php#L1372-L1391)

## 󠀁[Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_wp_delete_orphaned_draft_menu_items/?output_format=md#related)󠁿

| Uses | Description | 
| [wp_delete_post()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_delete_post/)`wp-includes/post.php` |

Trashes or deletes a post or page.

  | 
| [wpdb::get_col()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/get_col/)`wp-includes/class-wpdb.php` |

Retrieves one column from the database.

  | 
| [wpdb::prepare()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/prepare/)`wp-includes/class-wpdb.php` |

Prepares a SQL query for safe execution.

  |

[Show 1 more](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_wp_delete_orphaned_draft_menu_items/?output_format=md#)
[Show less](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_wp_delete_orphaned_draft_menu_items/?output_format=md#)

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/_wp_delete_orphaned_draft_menu_items/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [3.0.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/3.0.0/) | Introduced. |

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