When you cannot access the admin of a WordPress installation because of a plugin issue, you can delete the plugins directly from a database management tool like PHPmyAdmin. (And if you can’t access the WP backend, there’s a good chance it is because of a plugin issue.)
This helpful tidbit comes from the WP FAQ
- In the table wp_options, under the option_name column (field) find the active_plugins row
- Change the option_value field to: a:0:{}
If you have FTP access, you can also rename your original plugin folder (/wp-contents/plugins) and and add an empty plugin folder. After you sign on to your WP admin area, you can delete the dummy folder and rename the plugin folder back to “plugins,” as it will have deactivated all your plugins when you signed on with the empty folder.
Happy WordPressing!
Thank you so much for this post! Just happened to me and being a back-end-of-the-site dummy, this was just what I needed!
i’m very glad it was helpful to you.
Hey this helped alot, could not find this recommendation anywhere and it helped solved my problem.
Excellent advice.
To add, there are some plugins that create folders under wp-content, in addition to what they already have under wp-content/plugins.
So take care of these too if trying to solve a plugin issue that was not resolved by the above.
Like I had a problem once of 500 Internal error (i.e. just a white screen), and I found out the issue by looking at the error.log created by my hosting service under wp-admin folder.
Thank you. Helped me
Glad to hear it!
Thank you! Saved my day
Glad it was helpful!