Activate my plugins via FTP

Question

Hi I have disabled all my plugins to try and determine a plugin conflit and ended up breaking my site with one click!

I have searched arrond to find people saying that you can turn them om via FTP.

I think I have found my "active plugins" tasble in phpmyadmin and it reads as follows

a:1:{i:4;s:27:"cornerstone/cornerstone.php";}

But I have all these in my plugins folder and they were all active before.

File path:
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/all-in-one-wp-security-and-firewall
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/business-worldpay-gateway-for-woocommerce
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/contact-form-7
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/contact-form-7-to-database-extension
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/cornerstone
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/really-simple-captcha
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/remove-query-strings-from-static-resources
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/revision-control
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/simple-301-redirects
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/simple-custom-css
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/updraftplus
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/woocommerce
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/woocommerce-order-delivery
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/woocommerce-products-filter
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/woothemes-updater
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo-premium
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-optimize
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-smushit
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/x-content-dock
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/x-custom-404
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/x-facebook-comments
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/x-google-analytics
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/x-smooth-scroll
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/advanced-cache.php
/public_html/wp-content/plugins/index.php

How do I turn all those on? Sorry I know it is a big ask! Could anyone tell me if I can activate my plugings again from here please?

Thanks

Ben

Answer 1

Try the below mysql query to activate your plugin:

UPDATE wp_options SET option_value = 'a:22:{i:0;s:19:"akismet/akismet.php";i:1;s:58:"contact-form-7-to-database-extension/contact-form-7-db.php";i:2;s:36:"contact-form-7/wp-contact-form-7.php";i:3;s:27:"js_composer/js_composer.php";i:4;s:23:"revslider/revslider.php";i:5;s:23:"soliloquy/soliloquy.php";i:6;s:27:"updraftplus/updraftplus.php";i:7;s:41:"wordpress-importer/wordpress-importer.php";i:8;s:24:"wordpress-seo/wp-seo.php";i:9;s:25:"wp-smushit/wp-smushit.php";i:10;s:33:"x-content-dock/x-content-dock.php";i:11;s:29:"x-custom-404/x-custom-404.php";i:12;s:39:"x-disqus-comments/x-disqus-comments.php";i:13;s:39:"x-email-mailchimp/x-email-mailchimp.php";i:14;s:43:"x-facebook-comments/x-facebook-comments.php";i:15;s:41:"x-google-analytics/x-google-analytics.php";i:16;s:43:"x-olark-integration/x-olark-integration.php";i:17;s:29:"x-shortcodes/x-shortcodes.php";i:18;s:35:"x-smooth-scroll/x-smooth-scroll.php";i:19;s:45:"x-under-construction/x-under-construction.php";i:20;s:29:"x-video-lock/x-video-lock.php";i:21;s:31:"x-white-label/x-white-label.php";}' WHERE option_name = 'active_plugins';

But as you say 'determine a plugin conflit and ended up breaking my site' I suggest you to follow below steps:

1 De-activate All Plugins via phpmyadmin In the options table, find the option_name column and find find the line named active_plugins. On the active_plugins line, click edit. You will see something similar to this:

a:22:{i:0;s:19:"akismet/akismet.php";i:1;s:58:"contact-form-7-to-database-extension/contact-form-7-db.php";i:2;s:36:"contact-form-7/wp-contact-form-7.php";i:3;s:27:"js_composer/js_composer.php";i:4;s:23:"revslider/revslider.php";i:5;s:23:"soliloquy/soliloquy.php";i:6;s:27:"updraftplus/updraftplus.php";i:7;s:41:"wordpress-importer/wordpress-importer.php";i:8;s:24:"wordpress-seo/wp-seo.php";i:9;s:25:"wp-smushit/wp-smushit.php";i:10;s:33:"x-content-dock/x-content-dock.php";i:11;s:29:"x-custom-404/x-custom-404.php";i:12;s:39:"x-disqus-comments/x-disqus-comments.php";i:13;s:39:"x-email-mailchimp/x-email-mailchimp.php";i:14;s:43:"x-facebook-comments/x-facebook-comments.php";i:15;s:41:"x-google-analytics/x-google-analytics.php";i:16;s:43:"x-olark-integration/x-olark-integration.php";i:17;s:29:"x-shortcodes/x-shortcodes.php";i:18;s:35:"x-smooth-scroll/x-smooth-scroll.php";i:19;s:45:"x-under-construction/x-under-construction.php";i:20;s:29:"x-video-lock/x-video-lock.php";i:21;s:31:"x-white-label/x-white-label.php";}

Cut that code and click Go. Now all the plugins are successfully Inactivated.

2 Determine the cause plugin Now the best way to determine which plugin is causing the issue is to enable each plugin one by one via your WordPress admin login page > Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins > Enable a plugin one by and check you website front every time.

Hope this work for you

Answer 2

In FTP, rename:

1. wp-content/themes to wp-content/themes-tmp
2. wp-content/plugins to wp-content/plugins-tmp

...at this point, you should be able to log back in/get at your dashboard (the front end of your site will be completely dead at this point, that's ok).

So now you're in, go to "Plugins" - this will ensure that WP permanently deactivates all plugins, now that they are technically no longer installed (from having renamed the directory).

Back in FTP, restore the plugins directory, leave themes-tmp alone. Then back again to WordPress, and reactivate all your required plugins.

Now finally back to FTP to restore themes.