WP Safe Mode

Description

WP Safe Mode allows you to view your site temporarily with certain plugins disabled/enabled as well as switching to another theme.

This is particularly useful if you are experiencing problems with a specific plugin or theme and need troubleshoot without it affecting the rest of your site visitors.

Additionally, a loader file can be directly installed via FTP to help you access an inaccessible site due to PHP errors (e.g. blank screens or white screen of death) to help restore it from the admin panel.

Main Features

• Enter Safe Mode for just yourself whilst logged in.
• Enable Safe Mode for the whole site.
• Admin Bar shortcuts for enabling/disabling Safe Mode.
• Restrict Safe Mode to certain IP addresses.
• Automatic installation (if file permissions allow).
• Fallback to a default WordPress theme or one of your choice in Safe Mode.
• Prevent or allow Must-Use plugins from loading in Safe-Mode.
• Handy loader file via FTP when your site is completely inaccessible.
• MultiSite Support
  • Network-wide Safe Mode (for just you, or everyone)
  • Restrict Network-wide Safe Mode to certain IP address
• MultiSite Site-Specific Safe Modes
  • Override Network-wide Safe Mode settings for an individual site
  • Network Admins can deactivate Network-Active and Must-Use plugins.
  • Allow individual site admins from enabling safe mode for their own site.

Data Privacy and GDPR Compliance

No personal data is used or stored by this plugin. For those entering user-only mode, a cookie is loaded to identify that user.

Installation

Installing

1. If installing, go to Plugins > Add New in the admin area, and search for events manager.
2. Click install, once installed, click ‘activate’.
3. The WP Safe Mode loader will attempt to install itself automatically.
   • If something goes wrong, you’ll be asked to visit the settings page for manual installation instructions.
4. Visit the WP Safe Mode menu item on your dashboard admin area.
5. Modify your Safe Mode settings as needed.
6. Enable Safe Mode by clicking one of the buttons, or via the Admin Bar within the Safe Mode menu item.

Manual Instllation (Recommended)

1. Download the WP Safe Mode plugin and unzip it, you’ll now have a wp-safe-mode folder.
2. Connect to your server (for example via FTP) and go to your website folder.
3. Add this line to your wp-config.php file:
   if( !defined('WPMU_PLUGIN_DIR') ) define( 'WPMU_PLUGIN_DIR', dirname(__FILE__).'/wp-content/wp-safe-mode' ); //WP Safe Mode
4. Create the folder named wp-safe-mode inside your wp-contents folder.
5. Uploade the file wp-safe-mode/bootstrap/wp-safe-mode-loader.php into the newly created wp-safe-mode folder.
6. Upload the entire wp-safe-mode folder to your plugins folder in wp-content/plugins.

If your site is broken and you cannot install plugins or access the dashboard, you can modify the loader file temporarily to gain access by following these additional steps:

1. Open the plugin file wp-safe-mode-loader.php and change this line:
   public $safe_mode_on = false;
   to
   public $safe_mode_on = true;
2. Upload the modified wp-safe-mode-loader.php file to the wp-contents/plugins/wp-safe-mode folder.
3. Visit your site, deactivate plugins etc.
4. Undo the changes you just made to wp-safe-mode-loader.php when you want to disable safe mode.

Further Installation Details

You can also enable and disable plugins and themes directy from the loader file code by modifying the properties of the WP_Safe_Mode class, as well as enabling safe mode in different ways such as restricting it to specific IPs.

Please see the PHP code comments within the class for more information on each property.

The loader can also be installed directly into your mu-plugins folder, but we recommend our own installation steps if you already have files in that folder (i.e. it already exists). Otherwise you can also upload it there directly.

Reviews

Makes debugging problems on complex sites a whole lot easier

colinfroggatt August 10, 2022

I run a few sites, most with 40+ plugins (eeek!). When a supplier says “disable all your plugins and retest the problem” I groan. This plugin makes it so easy to disable all plugins or just keep a couple of key ones activated. You can also just do it for your user, so it is possible to trouble shoot on a live site … not recommended but sometimes you have no choice. Thanks Marcus for your work here, it’s a great contribution to the WP community.

Absolutely helpful

Martin Sauter April 17, 2022

Resolving conflicts is never fun, but this plugin makes it as easy as possible. There is not much more to say about it – it just works. Thanks for developing this!

Works great

mkovcu March 25, 2021

Huge Thanks save my network site

blunoa March 21, 2021 1 reply

My network site crashed and couldn’t find the problem. I’ve installed the plugin managed to access the crashed network admin site disabled all plugins and themes, found the error, and all back to normal. Thank you so much

This plugin deleted all content in my wp-config file

rtc35 September 17, 2019 5 replies

As soon as I activated this plugin, I got a 500 error. I tried to disable it by renaming it via FTP and that didn’t help. Then I noticed my wp-config.php file had suddenly become 0 bytes. Luckily I had a backup. I’ve never seen anything like it. EDIT: Because the developer acted so quickly to resolve the issue, I upgraded my rating.

Had to restore my website because of this thing.

yahtzee1 July 25, 2019 1 reply

Me only mode changed the whole website!

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

1.3

• added toggle for adding all plugins in one go to activate or keep active in safe mode

1.2

• fixed fatal errors on environments where wp-config.php is not in root folder,
• added double-check that wp-config.php has content to overwrite in event there’s a symlink or something odd like that
• fixed minor php warning upon deactivation of plugin

1.1

• added failsafe check for some edge case WSOD (e.g. mu-plugins using hardcoded directory path includes) before installing loader

1.0

• First Release