[Top] 87 How to Disable WordPress Plugins via FTP

How to Disable WordPress Plugins via FTP

Sometimes, in the world of WordPress, you may run into a situation where you can no longer access the WordPress website or its Admin dashboard due to a plugin having compatibility issues with some aspect of your WordPress based installation. Therefore, the first step of troubleshooting a WordPress issue usually starts with disabling the plugins and themes.

If the Admin Dashboard is not available, we can disable the plugins by manually renaming their data directories which is what we are going to learn today.

STEP #1: Use any of the FTP client like FileZilla to access your hosting home directory.

STEP #2: Navigate to public_html directory and you should see the following files and folders:

STEP #3: You will need to access the “plugins” folder under the “wp-content” directory in your document root, this is where all the plugin data files are located.

STEP #4: Rename the plugin which you think might be causing the issue and try accessing the Dashboard.

Keep repeating the process for all your plugins until your WordPress website loads. That will help identify which plugin is causing the compatibility issues with your WordPress site.

Congratulations! You will now be able to access the Dashboard if the issue was caused due to a plugin. Please note that you will find some error messages in the plugins section of WordPress which is normal as the plugins directories were manually renamed to disable them. Once you find your culprit you can revert the changes made on the plugin name via FTP to make it active again if you wish.

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