Temporarily Deactivating Plugins

Temporarily deactivating plugins on your website is an excellent option if you have any issues and need to troubleshoot. Code isolation can be a challenge in the world of WordPress due to the diverse array of plugins and development approaches. Conflicts on websites can be inevitable, and isolating the cause can be challenging. Identifying conflicting plugins is crucial for effective issue diagnosis and resolution. The most straightforward method involves deactivating plugins until the conflicting ones are revealed.

Let’s Get Started

There are several methods to temporarily deactivate plugins on a WordPress site, depending on your access to the site. Here are the most common ways to do it:

1. Deactivating plugins one by one can be concerning because it could break something on the site or disrupt the user experience. The first port of call would be to work in a staging site, where you can easily reactive the plugins one by one. We highly recommend WP Staging Pro; the free version can be found in your WordPress repository.
2. The Health Check Plugin developed by the WordPress community provides a more reliable way to test for conflicts without creating a staging, though we always recommend it.

Using the Health Check plugin

To temporarily deactivate plugins on WordPress using the Health Check Plugin, you can put your site into “Troubleshooting Mode.” This mode allows you to deactivate plugins only for your user session without affecting the live site for other visitors. You can also troubleshoot issues without taking your site offline or causing disruptions.

Here’s how you can do it:

1. You can install the Health Check Plugin by going to Plugins > Add New, searching for the plugin, installing it, and activating it.
2. Access Troubleshooting Mode: Once the plugin is activated, go to Tools > Site Health from the WordPress dashboard, then click on the “Troubleshooting” tab at the top.
3. Enable Troubleshooting Mode; this will deactivate all plugins and switch your theme to the default theme only for your session (without affecting visitors to your site).
4. After enabling Troubleshooting Mode, a message will appear at the top of your screen indicating that you’re in Troubleshooting Mode.
5. You can selectively activate plugins by going to Plugins > Installed Plugins. Next to each plugin, you’ll see an Enable while troubleshooting option.
6. Activate or deactivate plugins one by one to diagnose issues without affecting your site’s front end.
7. When you’re done, click Disable Troubleshooting Mode at the top of your dashboard to exit. This will restore your site to its normal state, with all plugins reactivated as before you enabled Troubleshooting Mode.

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