Deleting a plugin from WordPress using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is relatively straightforward. Follow these steps:
- Backup your website: Before doing any changes, it’s always good practice to backup your website, including your files and database. In case anything goes wrong, you can restore your website from the backup. You can use WP STAGING to backup your website.
- Download and install an FTP client: FTP clients like FileZilla, Cyberduck, or WinSCP can be used to access your website files. Download and install an FTP client if you haven’t already.
- Connect to your website: Open your FTP client and connect to your website using the FTP credentials. You can obtain these from your hosting provider if you don’t already have them.
- Navigate to the plugins directory: In the FTP client, navigate to the directory that contains your WordPress installation. The path to your plugins folder is usually something like
public_html/wp-content/plugins/. - Locate and delete the plugin: Within the ‘plugins’ directory, you’ll find the directories for all your plugins. Each plugin has its own directory, and the name usually matches the name of the plugin. To delete a plugin, locate its directory, right-click on it and choose the delete option from the context menu.
- Confirm deletion: The FTP client will ask you to confirm the deletion. Confirm that you want to delete the plugin. This will permanently delete the plugin and all its files from your server.
Remember, deleting a plugin this way will remove it completely from your website, but it won’t delete any data that the plugin has stored in your database. If you wish to remove the plugin’s data from your database as well, you’ll need to do this manually through your database management interface like phpMyAdmin.
Please note that deleting a plugin via FTP should be your last resort. The preferred method to delete a plugin is through the WordPress admin interface, as it ensures that any cleanup function the plugin may have is properly run.