InMotion Hosting servers have WordPress Command Line Interface (WP-CLI) installed. Therefore, you can install and toggle a WordPress plugin using SSH in lieu of the WordPress dashboard. You may want to activate a newly uploaded plugin. Maybe a recently updated plugin prevents you from logging into your WordPress site. Or WordFence Security notified you that a plugin hasn’t been updated in over a year and you want to uninstall it for security purposes. Regardless of the reason, below we cover how to deactivate, remove, and update a WordPress plugin via WP-CLI.
Deactivate Remove Update
Activate and Deactivate Plugins
- SSH into the cPanel account which owns the website.
- Use the cd command to enter the domain’s document root, e.g.
cd public_html
.
- Ensure you’re in the correct directory with the following command:
wp option get home && wp option get siteurl
https://example.com
https://example.com
- View the installed plugins for the WordPress website:
wp plugin list
+--------------------+----------+--------+---------+
| name | status | update | version |
+--------------------+----------+--------+---------+
| akismet | active | none | 4.0.8 |
| redirection | inactive | none | 3.5 |
| wp-piwik | active | none | 1.0.19 |
| wp-super-cache | active | none | 1.6.4 |
| advanced-cache.php | dropin | none | |
+--------------------+----------+--------+---------+
- Type the following to activate the plugin, replacing plugin with the plugin name from the wp plugin list:
wp plugin activate plugin
Plugin 'plugin' activated.
Success: Toggled 1 of 1 plugins.
- Type the following to deactivate the plugin but leave it installed:
wp plugin deactivate plugin
Plugin 'plugin' deactivated.
Success: Deactivated 1 of 1 plugins.
- Type the following to activate or deactivate the plugin depending on its former state with a single command:
wp plugin toggle plugin
Plugin 'plugin' deactivated.
Success: Toggled 1 of 1 plugins.
Remove Plugins
Uninstall Plugins
Type the following to uninstall a plugin:
wp plugin uninstall plugin
Uninstalled and deleted 'plugin' plugin.
Success: Uninstalled 1 of 1 plugins.
Delete Plugins
Type the following to delete a plugin without deactivating or uninstalling it first:
wp plugin delete plugin
Deleted 'plugin' plugin.
Success: Deleted 1 of 1 plugins
Note: Whether this fixes an issue better than uninstalling it varies per plugin.
Update Plugins
- Type the following to update a plugin:
wp plugin update plugin
Plugin updated successfully.
Success: Updated 1 of 1 plugins.
You can read more about using WP-CLI in our WP-CLI Education Channel.