How to Put WordPress in Safe Mode For Quick Troubleshooting (for free!)

Troubleshooting WordPress themes and plugins can be a frustrating experience if you don’t have any tools at your disposal. It’s especially difficult if you’re already locked out of your WordPress site. Don’t panic. You’ve still got some options. Here’s one you may not have heard about yet.

Turn on Safe Mode

Perhaps in the past, you may have been advised to start deactivating plugins in hopes of finding the offending plugin or switching to the default theme in order to see if your custom theme is causing a problem.

WP Safe Mode is a very useful plugin for troubleshooting these kinds of WordPress situations. It allows you to temporarily see your site without the influence of plugins and themes. Also — it’s free!

Here’s what happens in safe mode:

No plugins will be loaded.
A default theme will be temporarily activated (if it is installed).

After activating the plugin you can enable safe mode while you’re logged in. You can also enable safe mode for the whole site.

Where you enable safe mode. — You choose whether to enable it for yourself or the site.

If Themes is checked, you can select what theme will be used in Safe Mode.

The safe mode theme option. — The dropdown will bring up all installed themes.

Plus, you pick whether to enable plugins to be activated when in Safe Mode — even if they’re deactivated. Additionally, you can choose to select what plugins to keep active in Safe Mode.

The plugins area in Safe Mode. — Choose as many plugins as you’d like.

Once you have your settings adjusted, click Save Settings — and you’re all set!

Better Safe than Sorry

WP Safe Mode is a great free way to troubleshoot your WordPress site without affecting the site visitors’ experience. Give it a try today!

Have you tried WP Safe Mode yet? What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments!

Sarah Gooding Sarah is a designer and developer who specializes in WordPress. She and her husband operate Untame, where they build business websites, online stores, and social networks using open-source technologies. She is a former author for WPMU DEV on all things WordPress, Multisite, and BuddyPress.