Logout Clear Cookies

Description

This is an extremely simple plugin (one line of code!) that deletes all domain cookies whenever a user logs out of your WordPress site, and then redirects the user to the site homepage.

Why? Because by default, WordPress sets a number of cookies that it doesn’t remove on its own when you log out.

There are security and privacy benefits, because if there are vulnerabilities in WordPress or in your browser, or if someone has access to your computer or device, they may be able to access these cookies. (That goes for you or for anyone who logs into your site to add a post or comment.)

Likewise, when a user logs out of your site using a public or shared computer, there won’t be any domain cookies left behind.

The plugin also gives you back the “regular user view” of your site, because after you log out you can browse your site as an anonymous user, without having to manually clear cookies in your browser. (There are many plugins that will display different content or show cached or uncached versions of pages if they see that WordPress cookies have been set.)

Installation

1. Install and activate. That’s it!

The plugin does not modify your files or database in any way, and does not actually contain any activation or deactivation code.

To uninstall, simply delete the plugin. You can deactivate it first, but it is also perfectly safe to delete the plugin without deactivating.

FAQ

The plugin didn’t clear all the cookies in my browser, why not? I want a plugin that can delete *all* cookies, not just those set for my site’s domain name.

This plugin clears cookies set on your site’s domain or subdomain (whatever WordPress has set the value of COOKIE_DOMAIN to be).

It is not possible for a web application to set or clear any cookies except for those that it has previously set on its own domain. This is a standard part of every browser’s security model! It would be a huge security flaw if your browser allowed a website to view, set or clear the cookies used by another website.

Why redirect to the site homepage after logout instead of back to the admin console login page (`wp-login.php`)?

Because the admin console login page actually sets a new cookie when your browser loads it.

Reviews

Perfect!

sveronik December 29, 2021

Thank you so much ! I was looking for a solution for a long long time and you really saved me. My website changes were not reflected for customers and now the issue resolved.

Thanks!

metalhead505 August 27, 2020

I tried deleting cookies with my own code but I failed miserably. Thanks for this plugin and thanks for making it light.

This plugin saved me!

CC05 May 31, 2020

I’ve been looking for a solution for problems I had with Favorites plugin for 2 days now. When I logout, the favorite buttons should be unpressed and I shouldn’t be able to see favorite lists, but I was still seeing them and buttons still remained pressed. I cleared cache, disabled all plugins and reactivated one by one, changed theme, tried different browser, different computer, etc, etc, but could solve it. Then I found out if I manually remove cookies after logout, it solves the problem. But I cannot ask users to remove cookies after logging out. So I was wishing there would be a plugin to clear cookies after users logout. And there it is! This plugin solved all issues at once. Thanks so much!!

Good

khalka May 15, 2018

It’s, work!

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

0.2

• Changed redirect url from WP_HOME to get_option(‘siteurl’).

0.1

• Initial public release.
• Tested over two years using WordPress 3.7 through 4.7.3.