Have you ever had problems with your WordPress website, but could not access the admin area to troubleshoot? This is a frustrating experience that many WordPress users face at some point.
One common troubleshooting step is to deactivate all plugins and then reactivate them one by one. This helps identify if a plugin conflict is causing the issue. But what do you do when you can’t even log in to wp-admin to perform this important step?
Don’t worry, there’s a solution. In this guide, we will show you how to deactivate all WordPress plugins when you are locked out of your admin area.
There are two commonly used methods to deactivate plugins without accessing the admin area of your WordPress website. You can choose the method that looks easier:
Method 1: Deactivate All WordPress Plugins Using FTP
For this method, you will need to either use an FTP client or the file manager app in your WordPress hosting control panel.
If you haven’t used FTP before, then you may want to see our guide on how to use FTP to upload files to WordPress.
First, you need to connect to your website using an FTP client or the file manager in cPanel. Once connected, you need to navigate to the /wp-content/ folder.
Inside the wp-content folder, you will see a folder called plugins. This is where WordPress stores all plugins installed on your website.
You need to right-click the plugins folder and select ‘Rename’.
Next, change the name of the folder to anything that you like. In our example, we will call it plugins.deactivated.
Once you do this, all of your plugins will be deactivated.
That’s because WordPress looks for a folder called ‘plugins’ to load the plugin files. When it does not find the folder, it automatically disables the active plugins in the database.
Usually, this method is used when you are locked out of your admin area. If the issue was with your plugins, then you should be able to log in to your WordPress admin area.
If you visit the Plugins » Installed Plugins page inside the WordPress admin area, then you will see notifications for all the plugins that have been deactivated.
You will also notice that all your plugins have disappeared now. Don’t worry; they are all safe, and you can easily restore them.
Simply switch back to your FTP client and go to the /wp-content/ folder. From here, you need to rename the plugins.deactivated folder back to plugins.
Now, you can go back to the Plugins » Installed Plugins page inside the WordPress admin area and activate one plugin at a time until your site breaks again.
At this point, you will know exactly which plugin caused the issue. You can then delete that plugin’s folder from your site using FTP or ask the plugin author for support.
Method 2: Deactivate All Plugins Using phpMyAdmin
The FTP method is definitely easier, in our opinion. However, you can also deactivate all WordPress plugins using phpMyAdmin.
Important: Before you do anything, please make a complete database backup. This will come in handy if anything goes wrong.
Next, you will need to log in to your web hosting dashboard. In this example, we are showing you a cPanel dashboard. Your hosting account’s dashboard may look different.
You will need to click the ‘phpMyAdmin’ icon under the Databases section.
This will launch phpMyAdmin in a new browser window.
You will need to select your WordPress database if it is not already selected. After that, you will be able to see WordPress database tables.
As you can see, all tables in the database have wp_ prefix before the table name. Your tables may have a different database prefix.
You need to click on the wp_options table. Inside the wp_options table, you will see rows of different options. Find the option ‘active_plugins’ and then click on the ‘Edit’ link next to it.
On the next screen, you will need to change the option_value field to a:0:{}.
Then, click the ‘Go’ button to save your changes.
You have successfully deactivated all WordPress plugins using phpMyAdmin. If a plugin was stopping you from accessing WordPress admin, then you should be able to log in now.
Video Tutorial
Expert Guides on WordPress Plugins
We hope that this article helped you deactivate all plugins in WordPress. You may also want to see some other guides on troubleshooting WordPress plugins:
- What Are WordPress Plugins? And How Do They Work?
- How to Easily Deactivate WordPress Plugins (Beginner’s Guide)
- How to Enable / Activate WordPress Plugins from the Database
- Do Inactive Plugins Slow Down WordPress? Should You Delete Them?
- How Many WordPress Plugins Should You Install? What’s too many?
- Is It Safe to Use Outdated WordPress Plugins? (Explained)
- Should You Install Plugins Not Tested With Your WordPress Version?
- How to Properly Update WordPress Plugins (Step by Step)
- Should I Update WordPress or Plugins First? (Proper Update Order)
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phills.B
THANK YOU! tonight wpbeginner saved my life
you have no idea how long i’ve been looking for a fix and never would have thought it’s that simple …
Sanjay Rath
Awesome articles. Just followed the steps and removed WP-Optimize which I had just upgraded
miraben
Solved a problem just following this article. A BIG Thanks.
Martyn
THANK YOU!! This article got me out of an issue that I had suffered for months. I thought a Wordpress update would solve the issue – but when the next update came – I couldn’t access it as it was also suffering the ‘white screen of death’
Followed the instructions – sorted!
Thank you again
MM
I had the white screen throughout my entire site after updating some plugins. I did this and I was able to access admin panel, but still had white screen on front in. Wouldn’t making all them inactive bring the site back all together? Not sure why deactivating them let me access admin panel but nothing else.
WPBeginner Support
Please check out the article how to fix white screen of death in WordPress.
Admin
Peter
Wow! I owe the author of this article some doughnuts from McDonalds
The procedure works like charm \m/
Hurray!
Yannick
Thanks! This article saved me twice already using the phpMyAdmin option
Dragan Avramovic
Thank you!
Max William
This really helped. Thanks!
Dorian
This post saved all my work. Thank you.
Ayda
Thank you so much.
Ayda
Elias Obeid
This solved my problem. An update for the [NextGEN Gallery by Photocrati] plugin was available, and the update messed things up. Maybe it ran out of memory, I don’t know. I was unable to acces my plugin site.
I increased the memory limit as described in a post from this site, by editing the wp-config.php file on the site. After this I deactivated the plugins, logged in and reactivated them. Thanks a lot.
WHITEFEATHER HUNTER
OK! I managed to find the htaccess_old file, rename it to htaccess and my site is back online with no more problems. I was able to identify the bad plugin (Front End Users) and now the site is allllllllll good! Thanks so much for this extremely useful post.
zippy
deactivate plugins – thank you so much
bibhuti
After I renamed the plugins folder, I am able to login but….as soon as i rename the plugins folder to default ,,,i am again getting a blank page………… please help………….how should i resolve this problem
WPBeginner Support
One of the plugins you had installed is causing the issue. Install and activate plugins one by one to figure out which plugin is causing the issue.
Admin
Laura
I am very new to wordpress, which we use at work to manage all the sites we do (I am not the web designer, so I don’t know how anything other than the basic wordpress dashboard works. I do not know how to access either of the things you mention in this post. I know it was a plug-in that caused the problem because I was trying to add plug-ins when this happened. Since we host a lot of wordpress sites, all with different plug-ins, I don’t know how to only fix the problem on the site that has the issue. Also, it’s not just the admin panel with the white screen, I also get that if I try to visit the actual site. Help!
WPBeginner Support
If you have FTP access to your site then you can try deactivating all plugins. Otherwise, we would suggest that you contact your network administrator, or web host.
Admin
olivier percheron
Thanks for this precious post. I’ve managed to restart my admin console with the plug-ins deactivation.
Thanks a lot for the help !!!
Mark Klinefelter
Your article saved my day!! Thank you so much! Had the white screen of death after I installed uber menu plugin…..Your advice got me back to the admin again to retest plugins!! Superb!
Mike
Just saved me some time, but in my case I had to activate plugins to get in.
kristine
Thanks a lot sir. I was able to fix it. Really grateful for this post. <3
Chad Ritchie
Thanks Syed, quick and simple solution got our site back up in less than a minute.
Taylor
Thank you very much! Quick and easy!
Didi Zaharieva
Thank you
my web host could not figure it out but you helped me solve the issue 
mhmd
Thanks for this info i found it very helpful
Stephanie
I’ve spent an hour trying to get back into my site, and you solved my problem within minutes. You directions were simple and easy to follow. Thanks so much for what you do!
Namit kapoor
Sir you and your ideas are really great and awesome.. always work for me…
ana
Hi! I ‘m having this trouble. I Know that is a plugin who is crashing my website bc it is failing since I installed it. But my problem is that even my wp-content is white so I cannot change the plugin folder name. I haven’t been able to enter trough ftp either. What should I do next? Thank you very much in advance
WPBeginner Support
Most good WordPress hosting providers offer cPanel dashboard or other similar web based interface to manage your hosting account. Log in to your hosting account and find File Manager on your cPanel dashboard. Navigate to your wp-content/plugins directory. Now you can either rename only the plugin that is causing the problem or you can rename the entire plugins directory. This should deactivate all your plugins.
Admin
ana
Thank you! I’ll definitively try that!
Brian Dollin
I went in through the file manager and deleted the conflicting plugin. You have a new follower now. Thanks for the advice!
Brian
Michael Price
Thank you for this. I’m very new to wordpress and my own blog. Panicked with all of a sudden it didn’t work. I use HostLatte and they are of zero help to me (I need to switch). Your suggestion worked! Thank you soooo much
Natasha
This has been beyond helpful! Actually your whole site is a goldmine of useful info for Wordpress newbies like me!
Many thanks!
Renate Hoornstra
thanks for this, i was locked out and this helped me get back in. thank you so much
Baker
This was really helpful, thanks. I couldn’t access my wp-admin page. I have just deactivated all plugins.
stephanie
Hello! I can’t access my admin site. I’m also not sure how to FPT? How can I do this?
WPBeginner Support
take a look at how to upload files to WordPress using FTP
Admin
Dani Perkins
Oh wow, you just saved me so many hours of freaking out! I love you. Seriously, thanks! When I had the white screen of death just now, I followed your directions and re-did the plugins to no avail, but when I restored my theme all was right with the world.
Shaneel
I tried using this but as soon as i enter my wp_options table i cannot find the active plugins tab..
Could you please help me out with this?
Thank You
sally
thank you for the easy to follow solution….
A plug in provider had suspended my access to WP admin with a big red screen after I asked to change from annual payments to monthly payments for the plug in.
Carlos Escórcio
It worked after renaming the plugins folder, thanks.
David
This advice, like many of your other ones, worked like a charm. The first time I switched back “on” the file, it crashed, then I deactivated again and it said no plugins files exist, then it worked.
So some of you may have to do it twice (perhaps a cache thing, I don’t know), but it worked.
In my case, the plug in that seemed to do it, wouldn’t reactivate as WP returned it would cause fatal error.
So I am thrilled to know what to do going forward.
thanks, WPBeginner!
Editorial Staff
It’s always our pleasure to help. Thanks for the comment.
Admin
Natalie Proffitt
Disabling the plugins has resolved the white screen on the front end but I’m still getting white screen on /wp-admin. Any ideas how to fix this as i can’t log in to the admin panel now
Edwin Lynch
Great post. Naturally, if you are using a security plug (that rewrites your .htaccess file for example) you might want to keep a bare Wordpress .htaccess file handy, too – and upload that to the root dir. You can get a copy of the standard .htaccess file from the root of any virgin WP install. Just keep it handy for lockouts generally… As you were.
David
I held my breath longer than a deepsea diver as I followed your instructions. It requires a degree of confidence and trust. For others, my problem was a plug-in which froze on activation, before getting the white screen treatment. I followed teh instructions about looking for wp-content, then to deactivate plug-ins. However, I decided just to delete the last plug-in only, and that did the trick! Thanks for providing such a ‘saver’!
Hari Babu
It worked thanks a lot.
Jordi
It works !!
THANK YOU my WordPress risen.
Maria
I deactivated all my plugins and themes except WP default theme, but the screen is still white and I cannot get to wp-admin.
Editorial Staff
Not sure why that is happening then.
Admin
Chetan Sharma
It worked!! Thanks a lot friend!! It worked and you have saved me!!
Roger Kamena
Your post SAVED ME….
Twice!!!
Thanks so much for writing this you don’t know how many hours of pain you saved me. Both times I had the problem I was able to resolve it in 10 minutes using your post instructions.
Roger
Lee Miller
Thank you for your articles on how to fix WordPress when something goes wrong.
I’m somewhat new to WordPress and so far i have been not able to access my admin panel twice and both times it took me months to fix. The last time I couldn’t fix it so I just removed WordPress from my domain and started all over. I had to have my domain host help me get everything off so that I could start over. Extreme way to correct a problem but with low tech knowledge it was what I had to do. Good thing that I’m persistant as I would have given up blogging a long time ago. It’s my joy in writing that keeps me going.
Thanks again for your site.
You are helping people worldwide. USA for me. Lee
Brad Dalton
Very handy tip if you get the white screen of death and not sure what caused it. Thanks
karthik
Recently i also suffered from a problem caused from a newly activated plugin and i think this post should have come before few days
Muhammad Yaqoob
Very informative and a must known thing!!
Thanks for the Post