How to deactivate WordPress plugins when you are locked out of the dashboard

You can switch WordPress plugins off without the dashboard. WordPress keeps a list of its active plugins in the database and loads each one from a folder on the server. Both can be reached from outside: through a link WordPress emails you, the command line, the file manager or the database.

Use the least invasive way that is open to you. If you know which plugin broke the site, switch off that one and leave the rest running. Switch them all off only when you cannot tell. Nothing on this page deletes a plugin or its settings.

Which way to use

The ways are in order, least invasive first.

If the screen says "There has been a critical error on this website", how to fix the white screen of death explains the error and how to read the log that names the plugin at fault.

Use the recovery link

When to use it: WordPress emailed you. When a plugin or theme stops the site with a fatal error, WordPress sends a message with the subject "Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue". It names the plugin or theme and holds a link.

What you should see: the site loads for everyone. Until you deactivate the plugin, it is paused only for you, and visitors still see the error.

To undo it: activate the plugin again on the Plugins screen. If the fault is still in it, the site will fail again.

If the email did not arrive

• It went to another address. The message goes to the site's administrator address, which may be an old one or a developer's. A site can also send it elsewhere, with the RECOVERY_MODE_EMAIL constant in wp-config.php.
• The site cannot send mail. How to fix WordPress not sending email covers that, but you need to get in first.
• The error has only shown on public pages. WordPress sends the email when the error occurs on the login page or in the dashboard. Open https://example.com/wp-admin/, with your own domain, then check the inbox and the spam folder.
• One was sent within the last day. By default WordPress sends one such email a day, and the link in it works for a day.
• The failing code is not an ordinary plugin or theme. Recovery mode does not cover must-use plugins, drop-ins or, on a multisite network, plugins activated for the whole network.

In any of these cases, use one of the ways below.

Use WP-CLI

When to use it: you can log in to the server over SSH and WP-CLI is installed. Your host can tell you. Run the commands from the folder that holds wp-config.php, or add --path= with that folder.

First print the active plugins and keep the list, so that you can put the site back as it was.

--skip-plugins and --skip-themes stop WP-CLI from loading the plugins and the theme while it runs. Without them, the broken plugin would stop the command too.

To switch off one plugin, use its folder's name:

To switch off all of them:

What you should see: a line such as Plugin 'plugin-folder-name' deactivated. for each plugin, then a line that begins Success:. Reload the site.

To undo it: wp plugin activate plugin-folder-name.

Must-use plugins are still loaded even with --skip-plugins. If the command itself stops with a PHP error, look at those (see below). On a multisite network, add --network for a plugin that is active for the whole network, and --url= to name one site.

Rename one plugin's folder

When to use it: you know which plugin failed. It was the one you had just installed or updated, or the error log names its folder.

What renaming does and does not do. Until you open the Plugins screen, the plugin is only missing. It is still on the list of active plugins. Rename the folder back at that point and it runs again, fault included. Once the screen has recorded it as deactivated, renaming the folder back does not activate it.

To undo it: rename the folder back and select Activate under the plugin's name.

Rename the whole plugins folder

When to use it: you cannot tell which plugin failed and you have no WP-CLI.

What you should see: every plugin is listed again and every one is inactive. Their settings are kept.

To undo it: activate the plugins on the Plugins screen, one at a time, as described below.

Empty the list in the database

When to use it: last, when you have no file access and no command line, only a database tool such as phpMyAdmin in your host's control panel.

In SQL, with your own prefix in place of wp_, the same change is two lines. Save the first one's result before you run the second.

What you should see: the site loads with no plugins, and the Plugins screen lists every plugin as inactive.

If nothing changes: WordPress reads its options through the object cache before it asks the database. On a site with a persistent object cache, the old list can still be held there. Empty that cache from your host's control panel, or with wp cache flush.

To undo it: paste the saved value back into the row. That turns every plugin on at once, the broken one included, so prefer activating them from the Plugins screen.

On a multisite network, plugins activated for the whole network are not in this row. They are kept as active_sitewide_plugins in the network's sitemeta table, so emptying active_plugins leaves them running. Renaming a folder works on those as well.

What none of these switches off

Two kinds of code run without being on the list of active plugins.

• Must-use plugins are PHP files placed directly in wp-content/mu-plugins. They are always on, they load before ordinary plugins, and the dashboard cannot disable them. The Plugins screen shows them in a section of their own. To switch one off, move its file out of that folder. Ask whoever put it there before you do.
• Drop-ins are single files in wp-content that WordPress loads by name. object-cache.php supplies an external object cache. advanced-cache.php is a caching layer that WordPress loads when WP_CACHE is true in wp-config.php. To switch one off, rename the file, for example to object-cache.php.off.

If the site still fails with every plugin off, and the error log names a file in one of those places, that file is the one to move. wp plugin list --status=must-use and wp plugin list --status=dropin list them.

Bring the plugins back one at a time

With WP-CLI, wp plugin activate plugin-folder-name does the same, one name at a time.

Then deal with the plugin you found:

• Update it. A fixed version may already be out. Update the plugin, then activate it.
• Go back one version. If the fault came with an update, the version before it worked. How to safely update WordPress shows how to install it again.
• Replace it. If the author no longer maintains the plugin, find another that does the job.

If every plugin works alone and the site fails only with certain ones together, you have a conflict. How to find and fix a WordPress plugin conflict shows how to find the pair and report it to the authors.

When the cause is not a plugin

The theme. The same ways apply. The recovery link pauses a failing theme as it does a plugin. With WP-CLI, list the installed themes and activate a default one, whose name begins with "twenty":

Without WP-CLI, rename the active theme's folder in wp-content/themes, log in, and go to Appearance, then Themes. WordPress says "The active theme is broken. Reverting to the default theme." and switches to a default theme if one is installed. To undo it, rename the folder back and activate your theme again.

The login. If the login page loads and will not let you in, switching plugins off may not help.

• A wrong password gets an error message on the login page. Use the password reset link on that page.
• A form that comes back empty with no message is a different fault: see how to fix a login page that keeps refreshing or redirecting.
• A security plugin that has blocked your address is the one case here that a plugin does cause. Rename that plugin's folder as above. How to fix the 403 Forbidden error has the details.

Something else. If the site fails with every plugin off and a default theme active, look outside both. WordPress site down: a runbook for the first hour helps you find the layer at fault.

When to get help

Ask your host if you have no way into the files or the database, or if a must-use plugin you did not install is the file at fault. If the site is down and you would rather hand it over, an Emergency Fix is a one-time repair for a WordPress site that is down, and it begins with a free diagnosis that gives you a written cause and a fixed quote.