What to do if you install a 'bad' plugin and break your WordPress blog

Most WordPress bloggers will install a new plugin or update an existing one that "breaks" their blog at some point.

Trust me, it happens to almost every blogger at one time or another.

I remember the first time it happened to me…

The screen turned solid white and displayed an error message as soon as I installed a new plugin. My browser wasn't even able to load previously viewed pages when I clicked the "Back" button!

In addition, I was unable to uninstall the bad plugin from the WordPress Dashboard since the Dashboard would not load either!

My heart sank, knowing that I had permanently damaged my blog.

My only option as a complete newbie was to contact my web hosting provider and ask them to restore my blog from a backup. My blog was up and running in less than an hour.

I learned something that day. There are a lot of things that can go wrong with WordPress, and the least little thing can give you the dreaded white screen of doom.

As I learned more about how WordPress works, I realized that most of the issues that arise are actually minor and easily fixed. That usually applies when a bad plugin takes down your blog.

In most instances, you can quickly get a broken blog back up?and?running by simply deleting the bad plugin from the Plugins section of the Dashboard.

There will be times however when you won’t be able to delete the offending plugin from within the Dashboard because the Dashboard itself refuses to load in your web browser. That’s where a good FTP program comes into play.

Issues that arise with your WordPress installation shouldn’t affect your ability to FTP in to the server, so all you need to do is log in with your FTP program and use it to delete the bad plugin.

There are several good free FTP programs to choose from, but I use and recommend?FileZilla?because it’s so easy to configure and use.

Simply use your FTP program to navigate to the wp-content/plugins directory of your WordPress installation, then delete the offending plugin by deleting its entire directory. The blog will be back up and running in probably 98% of the cases.

Note: An alternative to using an FTP program is to use the File Manager tool in your server’s Control Panel.

Now all of the above beings said, there are rare instances where simply removing the bad plugin won’t repair a blog that was broken by installing a bad plugin.

If the plugin made changes to your blog’s?.htaccess?file or the?WordPress database, you might have to restore the .htaccess file and/or the database from a backup. That’s why it’s important to always have a recent backup of your blog on hand!

There are several ways to back up your WordPress blog. You could always use a plugin like?Backup Buddy?or?BackWPup, but I use and recommend the awesome?VaultPress?backup service.

With VaultPress, backups are created automatically in the background so you’ll never have?

You might wonder if you have a current backup. In addition, restoring your blog from a backup takes only a few mouse clicks in the VaultPress control panel!

VaultPress isn't free, but plans start at just a few bucks per month, and it's a great deal for creating bullet-proof backups of your WordPress blog every day.

I use VaultPress to back up all of my blogs, and I highly recommend it (especially if you make money from your blog!).

Bottom line: You can usually get a blog that’s broken by a bad plugin back up and running in a jiffy by using an FTP program to simply delete the problem plugin.

If that fails, however (and on rare occasions it might), you can always restore the blog from a backup so make sure you always have one at the ready.

Bonus tip:?This post?explains how to protect your WordPress blog from hackers by enabling Two-Factor Authentication on it.

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