WordPress deactivate a plugin via database?

Question

I have a wordpress script, wp-supercache, that I need to disable (as its cached on a nasty error), however, the error is causing the wp-admin redirect to fail, which means I can't get into the site to disable the plugin.

Any advice? I can access the database via cpanel.

Answer 1

Try re-naming the folder of the plugin and then see if error is gone (make backup first of course.). If that does not help, here is the solution then.

Answer 2

To disable a specific plugin, you have to remove it from the serialized string that stores the list of all plugins - that's set in the option_value column of the wp_options table as discussed by @TimDurden. The specific format change you have to make is, taken shamelessly from teh Internet:

a:4:{
    i:0;s:19:"akismet/akismet.php";
    i:1;s:36:"google-sitemap-generator/sitemap.php";
    i:2;s:55:"google-syntax-highlighter/google_syntax_highlighter.php";
    i:3;s:29:"wp-swfobject/wp-swfobject.php";
}

That first set of characters - a:4 - designates an array and its length. Note also that each line in the list of plugins has an index. So:

1. Decrement the index (from 4 to 3 in this case)
2. In each line, decrement the number after the i:
3. Remove the specific plugin you want to disable.

Update the value in the db using the new string you constructed from these steps:

update wp_options set option_value=<new value> where option_id=<id of this option>

Note that your table name might not be wp_options - you might have a prefix to add.