309: How to Disable WordPress Plugins

Posted on March 30, 2016 by John -Paul Briones

1 Minute, 4 Seconds to Read

In this tutorial:

Disable plugins in Dashboard Disable plugins in cPanel

When troubleshooting a WordPress issue, it may be necessary to disable the plugins. You can easily disable (deactivate) plugins from the WordPress Dashboard, but this can be an arduous task if you have a large amount of plugins, or do not have access to your Admin Dashboard . The quickest method for disabling all your plugins is to rename the entire folder plugins folder. In this tutorial we will show you how to disable your WordPress plugins from the dashboard, and also by renaming the plugins folder in cPanel.

Disabling Plugins in the Dashboard

Log in to your WordPress Dashboard.
Click Plugins in the navigation menu.
Find the plugin you want to disable, and click the Deactivate link.

You will then see a message stating “Plugin deactivated” and your plugin is now disabled.

Disabling Plugins in cPanel

Login to your cPanel.
Click the File Manager in the Files section.
Navigate to your WordPress installation folder, and open the wp-content folder.
Right-click the plugins folder, then select Rename.
Rename the plugins folder, for example “plugins.old” then click the Rename File button.

All of your WordPress plugins are now disabled.

Congratulations, now you know how to disable (deactivate) your WordPress plugins from the Dashboard, and cPanel!

Thoughts on “309: How to Disable WordPress Plugins”

Galia says:

March 29, 2020 at 9:06 am

Thank you so much!! it saved my site 🙂

Reply
fatal error says:

June 20, 2017 at 8:54 pm

I have a fatal error occuring when I tried to update plug in and wordpress new OS version. Error states:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 67108864 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 88 bytes) in /home/heidishangups/public_html/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php on line 300

I’m not a tech person so step by step instructions would be ideal.

Thank you

Heidi

Reply
- InMotionFan says:
  
  June 20, 2017 at 10:57 pm
  
  If the error is triggered by that particular plugin then the best thing to do is contact the plugin developer for suggestions and leave the plugin disabled in the meantime.
  
  Reply
Simon says:

December 29, 2016 at 1:57 am

How do you re-enable them to get them working again?

Reply
- InMotionFan says:
  
  December 29, 2016 at 6:02 am
  
  Hello Simon,
  
  If you disabled them by renaming the folder, you’ll have re-name the folder BACK to what it was before. Then you need to login to the WordPress Admin and go to the plugins section. Then you can activate each plugin that was previously disabled.
  
  If you have any further questions, please let us know.
  
  Kindest regards,
  Arnel C.
  
  Reply
  - Dan says:
    
    January 28, 2020 at 5:02 pm
    
    Hi Amel,
    I turned off the plugins but still can’t login into the wp-admin, because one of them is redirecting my whole site to its site. Any suggestions on how to solve?
    
    Thanks,
    Dan
  - Arnel Custodio says:
    
    January 29, 2020 at 3:30 pm
    
    Hi Dan – sorry to hear that you’re still having problems logging into the WordPress Administrator. I know this is a headache. Make sure that your browser cache has been cleared, as it can cause problems to repeat if it’s got old site information cached. You can also find the official WordPress.org’s troubleshooting list here: https://wordpress.org/support/article/login-trouble/. I was going to recommend that you reset your theme to a default one as well. There are unfortunately many possible causes to the WordPress admin login issue. If you were using a security plugin, make sure to check the documentation as it may have changed your login URL as well. I hope this helps!