In this article, we’ll go through different case scenarios and what you should do to disable WordPress Plugins without Administrator Access (i.e. you can’t login to your site).
We all agree that Plugins extend the functionality of our WordPress Websites but sometimes it doesn’t always work as smoothly as we want.
Some Plugins may incompatible with your WordPress Version or Other Active Plugins or even just coded badly to the extent that they may break your site and lock you out.
This means that you lose Administrator Access and can’t to your admin area (wp-admin).
If this happens to you, don’t lose hope yet, because this article will guide you through the steps you need to take to recover your Administrator Access.
You must understand that you need to always back up your WordPress Website, if you don’t have time for that, then switch to Hosting that does it automatically for you like Hostinger.
How to Disable WordPress Plugins without Admin Access
Case #1 – You Know the Plugin That Caused the Break
The very first step that you need to take is to log in to your Hosting’s cPanel and then locate the File Manager.
Once you’ve located File Manager, you should click on it and then your website’s files will be loaded, Navigate to public_html > wp-content > plugins.
The Plugins folder contains the files of all the WordPress Plugins on your website both active and inactive.
The next step is to find the Plugin that you want to Disable and then rename or delete the Plugin’s folder, either way, your WordPress Dashboard will now be accessible to you.
Case #2: You Don’t Know Which Plugin is stopping you from Accessing WP Admin Area
The plugin you suspect might not be the cause of the issue you are facing (which in this case is not being able to access wp-admin).
If that is the case for you, you just need to rename the entire Plugins folder to something like plugins1, then go and log in to your Site’s admin area.
Once you’re logged in, head back to the file manager and rename the plugin folder again, this time back to what it was named in the first place.
Go Back to your WP Admin Area and then navigate to Installed Plugins and then activate the plugins one by one and see which one broke your site’s admin area.
If the plugin is vital to your site and previous versions were working correctly, then you should downgrade the plugin to an older version.
If you find that you don’t need the plugin then you should delete it faster than you can say ADIOS.
Final Thoughts
I hope that with this guide you were able to recover access to your WP Admin Area as well as spot the plugin that locked you out in the first place.
Before you install any plugin, you should make sure that the plugin is stated as compatible with your current WordPress Version as well as your WordPress Theme.
You can get premium plugins from Themeforest and the plugin developers will help you correct any issues caused by their plugins.
Nonetheless, I’ve prepared these articles for your next readings, I hope you’ll enjoy them:
- How to Fix a Hacked WordPress Website
- How to Speed up your WordPress Website
- How to Backup your WordPress Website Manually
- Can an Inactive WordPress Plugin be hacked?
- How to Install a WordPress Theme for Beginners
If you found this guide on how to disable WordPress Plugins without Administrator access helpful, give back by sharing it with others, and don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
