Having a large number of comments on your website is a great way to enhance your website’s performance. But there are several situations when you decide to get rid of these comments. It might be a very difficult situation for WordPress users. However, several reasons might be there to delete comments on your website. You might be thinking that it is easier to get rid of them. But the simple method takes too much time, especially when your website contains hundreds and thousands of comments. So here we are with the top methods to delete bulk comments from your WordPress website. Let’s have a look at them.
Why Do You Need Delete Bulk Comments?
Although comments help build a good impact on your audience, there are times when you need to remove them from your website for better performance. There can be several reasons to delete comments from your website such as:
- You might want to get started from scratch. Thus you need to remove all the previous data from your website.
- Your website contains dummy comments and you need to get rid of them before it goes live.
- The website is filled with spam comments that increase the chances of hacking.
- The anti-spam plugin isn’t working properly due to the presence of many spam comments.
- Someone is trying to target your website with negative comments and is full of hundreds and thousands of hate comments.
4 Effective Methods to Delete Comments in Bulk
Removing all comments for your WordPress website may sound like a pretty daunting task. However, with the help of the methods given below, you can save your time and effort simultaneously. Let’s have a look at the top ways to delete bulk comments.
1- Deleting via Admin Dashboard
One of the simplest and default ways to delete comments is through the admin dashboard. You don’t always have to depend on a plugin or other ways to get rid of them. However, it can be a bit of time to take on the task, especially when you have hundreds or thousands of comments waiting to get deleted. The process works just like bulk editing posts or pages on your WordPress website
- First, you need to log in to your WordPress admin dashboard and comments section. You can simply tick on the checkboxes to select all of them.
- Next, you need to click on the bulk actions drop-down where you can click on ‘move to trash’.
- After this, you have to click on the apply button to delete comments in bulk.
As you can see, you need to manually click on the checkboxes to delete bulk comments through this method. Also, you can only delete 20 comments at once. It can be a very time-consuming task when you have a wide number of comments in the list.
2- Deleting Via Plugin
Plugins work as a blessing for WordPress users when it comes to ease and enhanced functionality. Similarly, it is an ideal way to delete bulk comments when you want advanced options during the deletion process. Moreover, it is an excellent way to delete comments for those who wish to start from scratch. Several plugins are available to make your process more convenient. One of the plugins includes WP Bulk Delete. The plugin allows you to delete bulk comments as required. Let us show you how.
Open your WordPress dashboard > Plugins > Add New> Install WP Bulk Delete. After installing and activating the plugin, you can find it in the dashboard sidebar. There you can tick the checkboxes of the Comments Status, especially approved ones. Moreover, it also offers an option to delete comments based on dates so you can get rid of them from a specific date. That way you can save your older and precious comments. Otherwise, you can just stick to the plugin setting to get them deleted.
3 – Deleting via phpMyAdmin
Another way to delete comments in bulk is via phpMyAdmin. It might be possible that you won’t get the required results as expected from the default options and plugins. For example, the plugins may not work properly if you have a huge list of comments to be deleted. The next best option you can have is through accessing direct databases. For this, you need to first have a look at your web host to check whether they provide access to the login credentials. Some web hosting servers don’t provide database access to their users. Thus, you have to use the other options for deleting bulk comments in case of no access to the direct database.
Most hosting providers provide cPanel to their users where they can access phpMyAdmin. After login into your phpMyAdmin account, you will find the entire database tables where you can look for wp_comments and wp_commentmeta. There you can tick all the checkboxes and select the “With Selected” dropdown at the bottom of the webpage and click on the “Empty” option. It will help you delete all the comments from the database permanently.
4 – Deleting via MySQL Queries
The last method on our list is MySQL queries. It is the perfect and simplest option for those who prefer coding and are unable to delete comments with the phpMYAdmin option. However, the user needs to first check whether their hosting provider allows access to the MySQL database. You can ask your hosting providers about the options. They are most likely to provide a password, username, and a connection port for better access. Both macOS and Linux users can get access to the terminal.
Also, some Windows users are allowed to access the Windows Terminal. Otherwise, they can go for other third-party tools. As you fill the connection request using the terminal or other tools, you need to run these two commands TRUNCATE `wp_commentmeta`;, TRUNCATE `wp_comments`;. As you run these commands, you will get access to all the comments where you can delete them permanently.
Final Verdict
Deleting bulk comments on the WordPress website can be a quite daunting task, especially for websites with hundreds and thousands of comments. WordPress website owners can’t delete comments using the default methods. We have given all the possible ways to help you remove comments permanently from your website and protect the site from hackers and spammers. You can use the most suitable methods based on your skills and website. Keep reading Wbcom Design’s blogs for more WordPress tips and tricks.
Interesting Reads:
Best Ways To Restore WordPress Site From Backup
Twelve Best GIF Optimization Tools To Compress Your GIF Images In 2022
Seven Ultimate PHP Testing Tools for Easy Testing Process
Four Methods to Delete All Comments From WordPress
Having a large number of comments on your website is a great way to enhance your website’s performance. But there are several situations when you decide to get rid of these comments. It might be a very difficult situation for WordPress users. However, several reasons might be there to delete comments on your website. You might be thinking that it is easier to get rid of them. But the simple method takes too much time, especially when your website contains hundreds and thousands of comments. So here we are with the top methods to delete bulk comments from your WordPress website. Let’s have a look at them.
Table of Contents
Why Do You Need Delete Bulk Comments?
Although comments help build a good impact on your audience, there are times when you need to remove them from your website for better performance. There can be several reasons to delete comments from your website such as:
4 Effective Methods to Delete Comments in Bulk
Removing all comments for your WordPress website may sound like a pretty daunting task. However, with the help of the methods given below, you can save your time and effort simultaneously. Let’s have a look at the top ways to delete bulk comments.
1- Deleting via Admin Dashboard
One of the simplest and default ways to delete comments is through the admin dashboard. You don’t always have to depend on a plugin or other ways to get rid of them. However, it can be a bit of time to take on the task, especially when you have hundreds or thousands of comments waiting to get deleted. The process works just like bulk editing posts or pages on your WordPress website
As you can see, you need to manually click on the checkboxes to delete bulk comments through this method. Also, you can only delete 20 comments at once. It can be a very time-consuming task when you have a wide number of comments in the list.
2- Deleting Via Plugin
Plugins work as a blessing for WordPress users when it comes to ease and enhanced functionality. Similarly, it is an ideal way to delete bulk comments when you want advanced options during the deletion process. Moreover, it is an excellent way to delete comments for those who wish to start from scratch. Several plugins are available to make your process more convenient. One of the plugins includes WP Bulk Delete. The plugin allows you to delete bulk comments as required. Let us show you how.
Open your WordPress dashboard > Plugins > Add New> Install WP Bulk Delete. After installing and activating the plugin, you can find it in the dashboard sidebar. There you can tick the checkboxes of the Comments Status, especially approved ones. Moreover, it also offers an option to delete comments based on dates so you can get rid of them from a specific date. That way you can save your older and precious comments. Otherwise, you can just stick to the plugin setting to get them deleted.
3 – Deleting via phpMyAdmin
Another way to delete comments in bulk is via phpMyAdmin. It might be possible that you won’t get the required results as expected from the default options and plugins. For example, the plugins may not work properly if you have a huge list of comments to be deleted. The next best option you can have is through accessing direct databases. For this, you need to first have a look at your web host to check whether they provide access to the login credentials. Some web hosting servers don’t provide database access to their users. Thus, you have to use the other options for deleting bulk comments in case of no access to the direct database.
Most hosting providers provide cPanel to their users where they can access phpMyAdmin. After login into your phpMyAdmin account, you will find the entire database tables where you can look for wp_comments and wp_commentmeta. There you can tick all the checkboxes and select the “With Selected” dropdown at the bottom of the webpage and click on the “Empty” option. It will help you delete all the comments from the database permanently.
4 – Deleting via MySQL Queries
The last method on our list is MySQL queries. It is the perfect and simplest option for those who prefer coding and are unable to delete comments with the phpMYAdmin option. However, the user needs to first check whether their hosting provider allows access to the MySQL database. You can ask your hosting providers about the options. They are most likely to provide a password, username, and a connection port for better access. Both macOS and Linux users can get access to the terminal.
Also, some Windows users are allowed to access the Windows Terminal. Otherwise, they can go for other third-party tools. As you fill the connection request using the terminal or other tools, you need to run these two commands TRUNCATE `wp_commentmeta`;, TRUNCATE `wp_comments`;. As you run these commands, you will get access to all the comments where you can delete them permanently.
Final Verdict
Deleting bulk comments on the WordPress website can be a quite daunting task, especially for websites with hundreds and thousands of comments. WordPress website owners can’t delete comments using the default methods. We have given all the possible ways to help you remove comments permanently from your website and protect the site from hackers and spammers. You can use the most suitable methods based on your skills and website. Keep reading Wbcom Design’s blogs for more WordPress tips and tricks.
Interesting Reads:
Best Ways To Restore WordPress Site From Backup
Twelve Best GIF Optimization Tools To Compress Your GIF Images In 2022
Seven Ultimate PHP Testing Tools for Easy Testing Process
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