Sep, 2014 : How to Manually Disable a WordPress Plugin

📅 September 26, 2014 - The easy way to disable a WordPress plugin for your blog is to log into the dashboard, click “Plugins” and then click “Deactivate”. In some rare instances, however, a plugin might malfunction and prevent you from even being able to log into the dashboard. In such a scenario, you will need to deactivate the plugin manually.

There are two ways you can manually disable a plugin: 1) by disabling the files or 2) by disabling the database entries.

1. Disabling the files

To do this, you will need access to your website's filesystem through your control panel's file manager, FTP or direct shell access via SSH. Follow these steps:

Navigate to /wp-content/plugins

Find the directory/folder of the plugin causing the problem
Rename the directory to something else (i.e. badplugin-disabled)

You should now be able to login to WordPress, and you will receive a small error message indicating that the plugin failed to load.

2. Disable the database entry

For this method, you will need access to your database, either through the command line via SSH or through a graphical interface such as phpMyAdmin. Follow these steps:

Find the database table labeled “wp_options“
Find the row labeled “active_plugins“
The data will something like this: a:1:{i:0;s:19:”badplugin/badplugin.php”;}

Change the “a:1” to “a:0“, which will change the plugin from active to inactive
Save your changes

The second method is a little cleaner than the first, but they both essentially accomplish the same thing. Once you have disabled the plugin, you can try to figure out why it misbehaved or simply delete it and move on from this ordeal.