Disable WordPress plugins without dashboard

Plug­ins can be dis­ab­led in two ways if you don’t have access to the backend:

1. Disable via SQL
2. Rena­me plug­in fol­der

The fas­test way to deac­ti­va­te plug­ins is to rena­me the respec­ti­ve fol­der.

Where can I find the WordPress plugins? #

This is quite simp­le with Word­Press. All plug­ins are pla­ced in the wp-con­­ten­­t/­­plu­g­ins fol­der.

How do I deactivate a plugin? #

You can access the plug­in sim­ply by ren­aming the plug­in fol­der.

It’s best to look at the gra­phic abo­ve. The­re you will see a lot of fol­ders on the right. Each fol­der repres­ents a plug­in.

By ren­aming e.g.:

enable-media-replace

To:

_enable-media-replace

If the plug­in is deac­ti­va­ted.

You will then recei­ve a mes­sa­ge after log­ging into Word­Press that the plug­in could not be found. It will be remo­ved from the list of acti­ve plug­ins.

Disable the plugin via SQL #

Important: Chan­ges to the data­ba­se can cau­se errors. You should the­r­e­fo­re crea­te a back­up befo­re each chan­ge.

In Word­Press, all plug­ins that are acti­ve are stored in the data­ba­se. You can find the ent­ry in the wp_options table. Look the­re for the ent­ry active_plugins in the column option_name.

If you are fami­li­ar with seria­li­zed texts, you can also deac­ti­va­te the plug­in here by remo­ving the ent­ry.

You can check if your string is still cor­rect for exam­p­le on fun­c­­ti­ons-online . Enter your text the­re after you have edi­ted it.

For exam­p­le, with our text from abo­ve, the result would look like this:

If you have made a mista­ke, you will prompt­ly recei­ve an error mes­sa­ge:

Then you should check your chan­ge befo­re you store it in the data­ba­se.

Conclusion #

Today we found out how to disable plug­ins if you don’t have access to the dash­board. This can hap­pen when a plug­in cau­ses an error.

Howe­ver, ren­aming the fol­der or adjus­ting the data­ba­se can quick­ly sol­ve the pro­blem.

Have you ever had the pro­blem with your Word­Press web­site? Then lea­ve us a com­ment and tell us about it.