Do you wish to remove all comments on your WordPress website?
In this post we will demonstrate how you can easily delete the entirety of WordPress comments.
Table of Contents
Before you Delete All WordPress Comments
There are numerous legitimate situations where a user has to erase all WordPress comments with no hesitation.
For instance, you have filled WordPress with fake comments on a site that was being developed to test what they would look like. You’d want to remove the comments prior to moving them to a live website.
There are many other situations too, in which the owner of a website would like to remove the comments on their WordPress website.
If you simply need to remove the spam comments, check out our tutorial on how to remove spam comments in WordPress. If you’re unhappy about comments that are spamming your WordPress site, make sure you go through these suggestions and tools for battling spam comments in WordPress.
If you see comments popping on your page and you want to remove them, examine the steps to turn off comments on pages within WordPress.
If none of the scenarios above are true, continue reading.
The first step is to make a full WordPress copy of the website.
The deletion of all comments on WordPress is a permanent step. It is impossible to reverse the process once you’ve deleted the comments. This is why it’s essential to have backups.
Method 1: Deleting All WordPress Comments Using Plugin
Using a plugin is the most efficient method to remove all WordPress comments in one go.
Be aware that this action is irreversible , and you must create a full WordPress backup before moving forward. This will enable you to make comments available if you decide to change your decision.
The first thing you have be able to install is the delete all comments of WordPress plugin. For more information, refer to our step-by-step guide for installing the WordPress plugin.
After activation, you will must go to Tools >> delete comments page. Here you’ll be able to view the total number of comments on your site and the options to remove comments.
You have the option of deleting all WordPress comments or in-process comments, spam comments or comments that are already trashed.
If you wish to erase the entirety of WordPress comments, select the “All Comments option, and then click the delete now button.
The plugin will now permanently remove all comments from your WordPress website. This includes trash and spam.
You are now able to go to the comments page and you’ll be able to see the comments that have been safely removed from your WordPress website.
Method 2: Delete All WordPress Comments Using phpMyAdmin
You can also delete all WordPress comments by using MySQL or PHPMyAdmin. This is only suggested for advanced users.
Be aware that this action is irreversible as well. It is essential to create an entire WordPress backup or at the very least create an initial WordPress database backup prior to proceeding.
Log in to the cPanel dashboard for your WordPress hosting account dashboard. In the database section, select phpMyAdmin.
Within phpMyAdmin, it is necessary to find the WordPress database. There will be an overview of all the tables in your WordPress databases tables.
Make sure to check the box beside the wp_comments and wp_commentmeta tables. The names of your comments tables could differ based on the table prefix that you select at the time of the WordPress installation.
After you have selected the table for comments After selecting the table, look for the ‘With selected: drop-down menu beneath the table’s list, and choose “Empty” from the drop-down menu.
PhpMyAdmin will then display an alert asking you if you really wish to clear the tables.
Click the “yes” button to proceed. This will remove any WordPress comment entries from the database.
You can also remove all WordPress comments by using the MySQL console (command line). Log to your MySQL console and execute this command:
TRUNCATE `wp_commentmeta`;
TRUNCATE `wp_comments`;
We hope that this article has helped you to learn how to remove all comments from WordPress. It is also possible to check out our list of the most important WordPress plugins for businesses.