Delete & Disable Comments

Delete & Disable Comments gives WordPress administrators a focused screen for comment cleanup and comment shutdown tasks. Open it under Tools → Delete & Disable Comments. Many older sites collect spam comments, unused discussion threads, or imported comment data that no longer belongs on the site. This plugin keeps those maintenance actions in one place without asking you to edit the database manually. Why use it?

• See counts before deleting and select the comment types to remove.
• Clean ordinary spam or selected comments in small, resumable requests.
• Keep WordPress editor Notes, product reviews and other custom comment types by default.
• Export all comment rows to CSV for inspection or a manual import workflow. The CSV is not a restorable database backup and omits comment metadata.
• Open CSV exports in spreadsheet applications without executing formula-like comment values.
• Disable public comments site-wide with a toggle while keeping editor Notes available through REST.
• Restore previously recorded Discussion defaults when switching the toggle off. Existing posts closed by the separate maintenance action stay closed.
• Use a standard WordPress admin screen available only to administrators.

Common use cases

• Remove accumulated spam comments from a site.
• Prepare a site that no longer accepts discussion.
• Clean comments before a redesign, migration, or client handover.
• Export a CSV copy of comment data before permanent deletion, and make a database backup with your host.
• Close open comment status on existing posts without triggering save_post hooks.

What Disable Comments does The Disable Comments toggle changes the site's comment behavior. When enabled, it sets WordPress defaults for new content to closed, prevents new public comment and ping submissions, hides front-end comment output, removes comment-related UI, unregisters comment-related blocks, and removes the recent comments widget. Product reviews are also closed. The comment REST route remains available for internal editor Notes. It does not delete existing comments. It also does not run a scheduled cleanup. If existing posts still have open comment or ping status, the admin screen shows a maintenance notice with a Close all comments now button. This separate, confirmed action permanently changes those fields and avoids per-post save_post hooks. Switching the toggle off does not reopen those posts. On sites disabled by an older version, the earlier Discussion defaults were not recorded and cannot be restored automatically. Before deleting The default selection covers ordinary comments, pingbacks and trackbacks on non-product content, regardless of status. Product reviews, editor Notes and other custom types require explicit selection. The spam button only deletes ordinary public spam. The CSV export includes all comment types and personal data; keep it private. For a recoverable copy, make a full database backup with your host before deleting. Deletion is permanent. For a step-by-step guide or help with complex cleanups and migration work, see Ostheimer's Delete & Disable Comments guide. Translations The current admin interface is translated into German. Other included locale files may use English for newer messages until their translations are updated. WordPress loads the matching .mo file based on the site language. Text domain: delete-disable-comments.

1.1.0

• Protect editor Notes, product reviews and custom comment types from default cleanup.
• Delete selected types in resumable batches with exact progress and failure reporting.
• Keep editor Notes available through REST while public comments are disabled.
• Restore saved Discussion defaults when re-enabling comments; clarify permanent post-status changes and legacy settings.
• Rename the CSV download as an export and clarify that it is not a restorable backup.
• Show cleanup counts and add contextual help for complex migrations.

1.0.7

• Export and delete comments with every status, including spam, trash, and custom statuses.
• Verify complete deletion and report the number of comments actually removed.
• Preserve the site-wide disable setting across plugin deactivation and reactivation.
• Neutralize formula-like values in CSV backups before they reach spreadsheet applications.
• Verify compatibility with WordPress 7.1 and add Plugin Check to continuous integration.

1.0.6

• Changed CSV backups to stream through an authenticated administrator download instead of writing public files under wp-content/uploads/.
• Removed stale backup object caching so downloads reflect the current comments table.

1.0.5

• Added complete EU locale translation files and compiled .mo files for the admin UI.
• Kept complete German translations (de_AT, de_DE) for admin UI, AJAX messages, and maintenance notices.
• Updated the translation template (.pot) and fixed the hardcoded “Error loading status” JavaScript message.

1.0.4

• Plugin Check compliance: Tested up to 7.0, sanitized toggle AJAX input, documented intentional bulk SQL queries.
• Version bump for WordPress.org submission readiness.

1.0.3

• Fixed the disable-comments toggle so it no longer runs a synchronous bulk update on wp_posts during AJAX.
• Bulk-closing existing posts is now performed only through Close all comments now or on plugin activation when disable mode is already enabled.
• Hardened toggle AJAX input handling and admin JavaScript error recovery.
• Removed Cypress E2E tests from the repository; PHP smoke tests remain under tests/php/.

1.0.2

• Fixed ddwpc_init() so it no longer iterates over every post on every page request.
• Bulk close-comments now runs only when the administrator clicks Close all comments now.
• Bulk close operation uses a single $wpdb update without triggering save_post, transition_post_status, or wp_after_insert_post.
• Settings screen shows the count of posts with open comments or pings and provides a one-click close button.
• Added helpers: ddwpc_is_disable_comments_enabled(), ddwpc_apply_disable_comments_defaults(), ddwpc_close_all_post_comments_in_db(), and ddwpc_count_posts_with_open_comments().

1.0.1

• Renamed plugin prefixes from ddc_ to ddwpc_ across PHP and JavaScript.
• Removed the manual load_plugin_textdomain() call because WordPress 4.6+ auto-loads plugin translations.
• Removed direct core file loads.
• Moved CSV backups under wp-content/uploads/delete-disable-comments/.

1.0.0

• Initial release with spam deletion, delete-all with backup, and site-wide comment disable.