Want to disable WordPress comments but not sure how? This article is just right for you! In the next 5 minutes (or less), I’m going to show you exactly, how to turn off WordPress comments without any coding skills required.
WordPress is an awesome solution for building websites. If you are creating a website for business on WordPress, you might be finding the best way to disable WordPress comments.
Seriously, the number of spam comments you can get through the comment section is enough to drive many of us nuts.
In this article, I’m going to share with you 5 easy ways to disable comments in WordPress:
- How to disable comments on future posts
- How to disable comments on a single post or page
- How to disable comments on multiple posts or pages (in bulk)
- How to disable comments on media
- How to disable comments using a plugin
Do you know that pingbacks, trackbacks and spam comments are the most time consuming, tedious and annoying thing to monitor? Simply by disabling the comments, you will easily cut down the amount of maintenance you need to do on your website.
Use the table of content below to dive straight into the answers you are looking for.
Tutorial: How to disable WordPress comments for future posts?
If you are just starting a WordPress site, this is an important step to help you disable comments on new posts/pages sitewide.
This is how you disable WordPress comments for future posts:
- Head over to Settings > Discussion
- Uncheck the option that says “Allow people to post comments on new articles” and click on the “Save Changes” button to store your settings.
By going doing this step, you can successfully disable comments (effectively) on all future posts. If you are looking to disable or remove WordPress comments on an existing post, carry on reading the next section.
Tutorial: How to disable WordPress comments on a single post or page
Do you want to have more control on the WordPress comments, such as having the ability to disable comments on posts or pages on a case-by-by basis?
Follow these simple steps to disable comments on WordPress pages:
- Head over to Pages > All Pages
- Hover over the page you want to disable the comment and select Edit
- On the right-hand side of the settings, look for Discussion and unselect Allow comments
- Finally, hit save and now, the comment section on the page is hidden
If you are looking to disable comments on a single post, head to Posts > All Posts on the left sidebar and follow the similar steps as above.
Do you know why these are the top 10 drag and drop WordPress builders in 2019?
Tutorial: How to disable WordPress comments on multiple posts and pages?
Do you know that WordPress allows you to disable comments in bulk?
Here’s how it is done.
- Go to Posts > All posts
- Select the checkbox for the posts you want to disable comments on.
- In the Bulk Actions dropdown at the top of the page, choose Edit and click on Apply.
- Select Do not allow from the Comments dropdown and click Update. This will disable comments for all selected posts, meaning no new comments can be made and any existing comments will be hidden.
“Pro-tip: With this method, you can perform several actions in bulk, such as changing an author, the post status, format, etc.”
Want to disable comments on pages (in bulk)? Follow the same steps above and you are golden!
Next, select Do not allow from the Comments dropdown and click Update. By doing this, no new comments can be made and any existing comments will be hidden from viewing.
The same process applies for disabling comments on Pages.
How to disable comments on media in WordPress?
Do you want to control and disable comments on media instead? There are two ways to go around.
The first option is you can add a code snippet to your site and the second one is to use a WordPress plugin.
Disable comments on media by adding a code snippet
If you want to go the code route, simply paste the following snippet in your theme’s functions.php file.
| functionfilter_media_comment_status( $open, $post_id) {
$post= get_post( $post_id); if( $post->post_type == ‘attachment’) { returnfalse; } return$open; } add_filter( ‘comments_open’, ‘filter_media_comment_status’, 10 , 2 ); |
That will globally disable comments on all media files you upload to your WordPress site. Then, you’ll never have to worry about it again!
If you want to use a WordPress plugin, see the next section for my recommendations.
How to disable comments using a plugin?
By now, you probably know that WordPress allows you to do most things manually or you can always install a plugin for more functionality.
Disable Comments is a WordPress plugin that gives you the ability to disable all comments, including any on past posts. Once you install Disable Comments, you’ll see a new option in your Settings dropdown.
Go to Settings > Disable Comments.
Now you can quickly disable all comments on posts, pages, and media, including any past comments. If you’re dealing with a large site with lots of posts and pages, this is a great solution to avoid manually editing every single page.
A couple other plugin options for disabling comments in WordPress include:
Conclusion
Disabling comments can seem like a hassle, but WordPress makes it super easy to disable comments in different ways. No matter if you’re disabling comments for your client’s website or your own blog post, I certainly hope this WordPress tutorial helps you in your WordPress journey!
