Where does EE2 get the latest member_id from?

Question

I've deleted a bunch of members (on purpose), so that I only have member_id '1' left. Now if I create a new member... The newest member_id is '176' and then increments as I add more… If the members have been deleted where did expression engine get that number from? The last member_id created must be stored somewhere in order for EE to reference it? I can’t find it for the life of me.

Answer 1

This has nothing to do with ExpressionEngine. This is a counter that exists in MySQL when a column is set to AUTO_INCREMENT and is the primary key.

You can reset the column in this table if you'd like.

TAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR exp_members TABLE BEFORE PROCEEDING

This warning is just in case you fall down the rabbit hole of miss-typed syntax.

Run this MySQL query (provided your table prefix is the standard exp) to reset your counter to whatever you'd like:

USE `my_database_name`;
ALTER TABLE `exp_members` AUTO_INCREMENT = 1;

Set 1 to whatever you want the counter to start with (it will default to highest current index plus one if you have a row with 1 for the primary key). Remember, messing with your production database requires serious caution.