Delete & Disable Comments

Delete & Disable Comments gives WordPress administrators a focused screen for comment cleanup and comment shutdown tasks. Open it under Tools → Delete & Disable Comments.

Many older sites collect spam comments, unused discussion threads, or imported comment data that no longer belongs on the site. This plugin keeps those maintenance actions in one place without asking you to edit the database manually.

Why use it?

• See counts before deleting and select the comment types to remove.
• Clean ordinary spam or selected comments in small, resumable requests.
• Keep WordPress editor Notes, product reviews and other custom comment types by default.
• Export all comment rows to CSV for inspection or a manual import workflow. The CSV is not a restorable database backup and omits comment metadata.
• Open CSV exports in spreadsheet applications without executing formula-like comment values.
• Disable public comments site-wide with a toggle while keeping editor Notes available through REST.
• Restore previously recorded Discussion defaults when switching the toggle off. Existing posts closed by the separate maintenance action stay closed.
• Use a standard WordPress admin screen available only to administrators.

Common use cases

• Remove accumulated spam comments from a site.
• Prepare a site that no longer accepts discussion.
• Clean comments before a redesign, migration, or client handover.
• Export a CSV copy of comment data before permanent deletion, and make a database backup with your host.
• Close open comment status on existing posts without triggering save_post hooks.

What Disable Comments does

The Disable Comments toggle changes the site’s comment behavior. When enabled, it sets WordPress defaults for new content to closed, prevents new public comment and ping submissions, hides front-end comment output, removes comment-related UI, unregisters comment-related blocks, and removes the recent comments widget. Product reviews are also closed. The comment REST route remains available for internal editor Notes.

It does not delete existing comments. It also does not run a scheduled cleanup. If existing posts still have open comment or ping status, the admin screen shows a maintenance notice with a Close all comments now button. This separate, confirmed action permanently changes those fields and avoids per-post save_post hooks. Switching the toggle off does not reopen those posts. On sites disabled by an older version, the earlier Discussion defaults were not recorded and cannot be restored automatically.

Before deleting

The default selection covers ordinary comments, pingbacks and trackbacks on non-product content, regardless of status. Product reviews, editor Notes and other custom types require explicit selection. The spam button only deletes ordinary public spam. The CSV export includes all comment types and personal data; keep it private. For a recoverable copy, make a full database backup with your host before deleting. Deletion is permanent.

For a step-by-step guide or help with complex cleanups and migration work, see Ostheimer’s Delete & Disable Comments guide.

Translations

The current admin interface is translated into German. Other included locale files may use English for newer messages until their translations are updated. WordPress loads the matching .mo file based on the site language. Text domain: delete-disable-comments.