How to activate and deactivate plugins
Updated about 1 month ago
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Plugins are the add-ons that give your site extra abilities — a contact form, a shop, a photo gallery. You can switch any of them on or off from one screen, and switching one off leaves it installed and ready for next time.
Before you start
- An administrator account on your site — only admins can switch plugins on and off.
- The plugin already installed. This guide covers switching plugins on and off, not adding new ones.
Steps
Turn a plugin on
In the left-hand menu, click Plugins. Find the plugin you want and click Activate underneath its name. The page reloads with a Plugin activated message at the top and the row turns blue, so you can see at a glance that it's running.
Turn a plugin off
Click Deactivate underneath the name of a plugin that's running. You'll see a Plugin deactivated message and the row goes back to its usual colour. The plugin stops working immediately, but nothing is removed — click Activate whenever you want it back.
Tips
- Switching a plugin off is always safe to try. Its settings are kept, so turning it back on restores things the way they were.
- If your site starts behaving oddly and you're not sure which plugin is behind it, switch them all off, then switch them back on one at a time until the problem returns.
- The plugins list shows every plugin you have, with the ones that are running marked Active and the rest marked Inactive.
Summary
Activate switches a plugin on, Deactivate switches it off, and neither one removes it from your site. You can go back and forth as often as you need.
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