Disable WordPress plugins in the database

If you cannot access your WordPress dashboard, you can disable all your plugins in the database. This can be helpful when troubleshooting errors on your site.

Note: When you deactivate some plugins, your site may look or function differently.

1. Sign in to phpMyAdmin.
2. In phpMyAdmin, in the left menu, select the name of the database your site uses.
3. Select the wp_options table (select the text, not the checkbox).

   Note: wp_ is the default database table prefix. If your table prefix isn't wp_, focus on finding _options. There should only be one _options table.

4. Under the option_name column, find the active_plugins entry. You may need to navigate beyond the first page of entries.
5. Select Edit next to the active_plugins entry.
6. In the option_value row, select all the text found in the field, copy it, and paste it into a text editor.
7. Once the text is copied to a safe place, you can delete it in phpMyAdmin.
8. Select Go to apply the change and deactivate plugins.

You can re-enable your plugins at any time by editing the active_plugins entry again and pasting in the text you removed earlier.

Related steps

• If you disable all your plugins in the database, you can enable them again from your WordPress dashboard if you have access.

More info

• If you are not familiar with phpMyAdmin and you can access your WordPress dashboard, you can deactivate your plugins from there.
• Troubleshooting WordPress
• Disable a WordPress plugin with FTP
• Change my WordPress theme in the database
• If you don't want to disable plugins yourself, our WordPress Premium Support team can do that for you.