2 Easy Manual Way to Disable a WordPress Plugins

There is very simple way to disable a WordPress plugin that is go to Plugins on side bar of your dashboard, click the button “Deactivate” under the plugins that you want to disable. Sometime the plugins malfunction cause to prevent you from deactivate plugin with this simple method, in case you would need a manual way to disable your WordPress plugins.

Here we are sharing two ways that will help you to disable a plugin manually:

1. by disabling the files
2. by disabling the database entries

1. Disabling the files

In this way you would have to get access to your website’s filesystem by your website control panel’s file manager or you may have the access of FTP or direct shell access via SSH. Once you get the access follow the given steps:

Step 1. Navigate to /wp-content/plugins2 Easy Manual Way to Disable a WordPress Plugins

Step 2. Find the directory/folder which is the causing the issue

Step 3. Rename the directory with (badplugin-disabled)

Now you can login to your WordPress WP-admin and there would be an error appears with a message of indicating that the plugin failed to load that you have disabled via your control panel, FTP or SSH access.

2. Disable the database entry

In this method you would require the access of your website database, SSH or GUI like phpMyAdmin. Once you get access follow the given steps:

Step 1. Discover the database table with the labeled of “wp_options“

Step 2. Discover the row with the labeled of “active_plugins“

Step 3. You will see the data like a:1:{i:0;s:19:”badplugin/badplugin.php”;}

Step 4. Change the “a:1” to “a:0“, this method will change plugin from active to inactive

Step 5. Save changes you made

Both methods are can work to disable WordPress plugins but the second one is little bit cleaner than the first. However, you may use any of them to disable any kind of plugin if you don’t have access to your WP-admin panel.