How to disable WordPress comments, pingbacks, and trackbacks

There are a few ways to disable comments, pingbacks and trackbacks in WordPress:

 

  1. Go to Settings > Discussion in your WordPress dashboard.
  2. Under Other comment settings, uncheck the boxes next to Allow people to post comments on new articlesAllow link notifications from other blogs (pingbacks and trackbacks), and Allow trackbacks from other blogs.
  3. Click Save Changes.

This will disable comments, pingbacks, and trackbacks for all new posts. If you want to disable them for existing posts, you can use the Bulk Edit feature.

  1. Go to Posts > All Posts in your WordPress dashboard.
  2. Select all the posts that you want to disable comments, pingbacks, and trackbacks for.
  3. Click Bulk Actions > Edit.
  4. In the Discussion section, uncheck the boxes next to Allow commentsAllow pingbacks, and Allow trackbacks.
  5. Click Apply.

This will disable comments, pingbacks, and trackbacks for the selected posts.

Why should I disable comments, pingbacks, and trackbacks?

Comments, pingbacks, and trackbacks can be used by spammers to send unwanted notifications to your blog. They can also clutter up your comment moderation queue and make it difficult to find legitimate comments. If you're not using comments, pingbacks, or trackbacks, there's no reason to keep them enabled.

 

Additional tips for managing comments, pingbacks, and trackbacks in WordPress:

  • Use a spam filter plugin like Akismet to help reduce the number of spam comments, pingbacks, and trackbacks.
  • Monitor your comment moderation queue regularly and delete any unwanted comments, pingbacks, or trackbacks.
  • If you do want to allow comments, pingbacks, or trackbacks, you can limit them to specific blogs or authors.

 

Another method is to first backup your database. Afterward open phpmyadmin in your control panel with Ultra. Once inside, select the database, click SQL and run the following commands:


UPDATE wp_posts SET ping_status='closed' WHERE post_status = 'publish' AND post_type = 'post';
UPDATE wp_posts SET ping_status='closed' WHERE post_status = 'publish' AND post_type = 'page';


Afterward go into your settings area, select discussion and disable these features.


If you are having a problem with comment SPAM and would rather remove and disable comments you can use a plugin like WP-Cleanup and use the following in phpmyadmin:


UPDATE wp_posts SET comment_status='closed' WHERE post_status = 'publish' AND post_type = 'post';
UPDATE wp_posts SET comment_status='closed' WHERE post_status = 'publish' AND post_type = 'page';




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