How to Disable Comments in WordPress

It’s surprisingly difficult to disable comments globally in WordPress.

Comments can be turned off for new posts in “Settings > Discussion” screen. However, all previously published posts would still retain their comment settings and need to be disabled individually under the “Discussion” metabox on the post edit screen (which can be very time consuming).

Disable Comments with One Click

The easiest way to turn off comments globally is actually with a plugin called “Disable Comments”, which is a free download from wordpress.org.

disable-comments

After enabling the plugin, you can choose to disable comments everywhere or only for specific post types. If you want the changes to be permanent, choose the “persistent mode” option before saving.

If you have chosen to make the changes permanent, the plugin can be deleted after you save the settings.

Deleting Comments

If a site was abandoned for a while or suddenly got hit by a lot of comment spam, you might want to delete all the pending comments or spam comments. For both of those scenarios, you can use a plugin called Delete Comments By Status.

Delete Comments By Status also allows you to delete “trash” comments and “approved” comments in bulk.

After enabling the plugin, go to “Settings > Delete Comments”.

About Devin

I am a developer based in Austin, Texas. I run a little theme shop called DevPress and help manage a WooCommerce shop with Universal Yums. Find me on twitter @devinsays.

3 Responses

  1. A correction on this. The plugin CANNOT be disabled after you’ve shut down comments. I just did that, used persistent mode as I wanted comments gone completely, and then deleted the plugin. Immediately, the ability to leave comments on every post came right back.

    It’s a good plugin, but it has to remain on your site for it to actually work.

  2. You can also disable commenting by using Settings–>Discussion tab–>Default article settings–>Allow people to post comments on new articles

    and then click “Save Settings.”

    you can also set Automatically Closing Comments

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