New tables appeared in WordPress site - looking for help understanding what they are for?

Question

I noticed that on one of my WordPress sites that recently went through a Core update (5.5.3), that there are now four new tables in my database:

wp_actionscheduler_actions  
wp_actionscheduler_claims
wp_actionscheduler_groups
wp_actionscheduler_logs

I am finding this a little strange for a couple different reasons:

1. My other WP sites that went through similar Core updates do not have these tables.
2. From some searching, it appears that these are related to WooCommerce, which I do not have installed on any of my sites.
3. This site does use WPForms Pro/ACF Pro, which are it's main plugins, but I have not found anything in their documentation that would lead me to believe these were created from those.

When I visit /wp-admin/tools.php?page=action-scheduler I see that there is one pending Scheduled Action for action_scheduler/migration_hook that appears to be stuck in the pending status and not doing anything.

I'd like to try and figure out where these came from and how/if it can be removed or disabled.

Answer 1

WPForms is using the Action Schedule library from WooCommerce. This helps to make deferred actions in the future. For example, when customers fill out a form, they are instantly notified, and tasks that take time, for example, sending data to some API (ex. Mailchimp), will be in delayed action. Typically, a request from the API side takes a few seconds, and it will be executed later without the customers' participation, and they will not have to wait.

The task you see in the pending list is an additional task that launches all other tasks from WPForms.

I don't recommend deleting some tables yourself because it can break some of the plugin functionality. As for WPForms, then you will break all lengthy operations and third-party integrations. I think you have already guessed that this is highly discouraged.

Important! If you deleted tables, you could recreate them just visit the WPForms -> Tools -> Scheduled Actions page.

P.S. with love, WPForms developer