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How To Disable WordPress Plugins Manually


If you recently installed a new plugin and now cannot view your site or go to wp-admin to disable it. To quickly test if a plugin is causing the issue you may also be able to rename your plugins directory or temporarily move all of your plugins folders out of it. For more advanced troubleshooting to disable your plugins you can follow the instructions below.

Go to your cpanel and click phpMyAdmin, click on the name of your database typically in the format of [cpanel_username][wdrp][#] click on the table wp_options find the row active_plugins, click on the pencil icon to edit this value.

You will see something similar to the following, depending on the number and type of plugins you have installed:

a:3:{i:0;s:19:"akismet/akismet.php";i:1;s:23:"wp-photo-album/wppa.php";i:2;s:37:"wp-shopping-cart/wp-shopping-cart.php";}

That entire array of code represents every active plugin on your site. Thus, to quickly disable all plugins without using the WP Admin area, highlight the entire block of code, cut it out, and paste it into a safe, offline text file. After removing the code, click the button to save your changes, and that’s it.

All WordPress plugins are now deactivated (yet still installed, and with all plugin options intact).

You can go through and reactivate all the plugins except the one that was causing you problems.

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