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WPBeginner» Blog» Plugins» How to Block a WordPress User Without Deleting Their Account

How to Block a WordPress User Without Deleting Their Account

Last updated on June 20th, 2018 by Editorial Staff
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How to Block a WordPress User Without Deleting Their Account

Do you want to block a WordPress user from your blog? The simplest way to achieve this is to delete their user profile, but it will remove them completely from your site. In this article, we will show you how to block a WordPress user without deleting their account.

Blocking a WordPress user without deleting their account

Why You Shouldn’t Delete a User Account?

The easiest way to block a WordPress user is by simply deleting their user account. However, deleting a user account in WordPress requires you to assign all their content to another user. This will change the author information for those articles.

One way to deal with this issue is to change the user’s password and email address by editing their user profile. This will block their access, and they will not be able to login. However, this will also change their Gravatar image.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could block a user without actually deleting their user account? This way, no content will be moved, and you wouldn’t have to delete any user profile information.

The blocking feature can be really helpful for multi-author blogs, forums, as well as community sites.

Let’s take a look at how you can easily block a WordPress user without actually deleting their user account.

Blocking a WordPress User Without Deleting Their Account

First thing you need to do is to install and activate the User Blocker plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled ‘User Blocker’ to your WordPress admin menu. Clicking on it will take you to the plugin’s settings page which is divided into three tabs.

User blocker settings

Block User By Time

Under Block User By Time tab, you’ll see the list of all registered users. You can select a user and add the time range when you want this user to be blocked.

Block user by time

You can also block all users at once for a time range. Scroll down to block time option, add the time for each day separately, and click on the Apply to all button.

Add block time for users

Once added, you need to click on the Block User button below to save your changes.

Block User by Date

If you want to block the users by date, then you can go to Block User By Date tab. You can select users from the list and add a date range to block them for these dates.

Block users by date

You can also select all users at once and block them for a similar date range.

Block User Permanently

To permanently block a user, you need to visit Block User Permanent tab. From here you need to select the user and click on Block User button below.

Block user permanent

You’ll see their status changed to red.

Block User By Role

If your website has many user accounts, and you want to block users with a specific user role, then click on the Select User / Category drop-down and then select Role. This will now show a list of WordPress user roles. You need to select a role and click on the Block User button below to block all users with this user role.

Block user by role

Note: You can’t block the users with administrator user role and permissions.

In all these actions, you can add a generic message for the blocked users. You can also add a custom message for each user. If you leave the field blank, then it will display the default message to blocked users when they try to login to their account on your blog.

Custom message for blocked users

Once blocked, they will see an error message on the WordPress login page saying their account is temporarily or permanently blocked.

Login screen for blocked user

Note: You will need to keep the plugin installed and activated. Deactivating or deleting the plugin will automatically unblock all blocked users, and they will be able to login again.

How to Unblock a User Account?

To unblock a user, you need to visit User Blocker » Blocked User List page in your WordPress admin area. You’ll see the same 3 tabs as above with the list of blocked users categorized accordingly. There’s an additional Blocked User List tab that shows the list of blocked users from all 3 categories.

Blocked user list

You can go to Blocked User List tab and click on Reset option below each user to unblock them.

Reset blocked users

Once reset, the user can login to their account normally.

We hope this article helped you learn how to block a WordPress user without deleting their account. You may also want to see our complete guide on how to instantly switch between user accounts in WordPress to test new features on your blog.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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18 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Richie Conn says:
    Dec 10, 2020 at 12:15 pm

    Is there a way to block a user depending on wether or not they have an active subscription to woocommerce subscriptions on my site?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 11, 2020 at 9:25 am

      For blocking based on a subscription to a different plugin, you would want to reach out to that different plugin’s support for what integrations they have available.

      Reply
  2. amira barakat says:
    Aug 7, 2020 at 6:42 pm

    it’s very good plugin how can I unblock multiple users at the same time

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 10, 2020 at 11:54 am

      You would want to reach out to the plugin’s support and they would let you know if there is the option to bulk unblock users or if it is a planned addition in the future.

      Reply
  3. Jayapramod says:
    Jul 1, 2020 at 3:27 am

    Useful plugin. Is it possible to block a user with a login count? i.e. username1 and username2. username1 should be blocked once he reached the login count 50. And username2 should be blocked once he reached the login count 30. Login count is also like date and time – it should be defined by admin. Pls, help.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 1, 2020 at 9:03 am

      We do not have a recommended method for that at the moment. For a starting point, you may want to reach out to the plugin’s support to see if they have a plan for adding that at the moment.

      Reply
  4. Gemini says:
    Feb 6, 2020 at 4:51 am

    Does User Blocker plugin compatible with Ultimate Members?

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Feb 6, 2020 at 9:00 am

      It should be, but if you are concerned you can reach out to the plugin’s support to see if there are any known issues.

      Reply
  5. Efe Obasuyi says:
    Nov 9, 2019 at 5:17 pm

    Will it display the block message to blocked users when using custom login page?

    Thanks

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Nov 11, 2019 at 10:49 am

      As long as your custom login page displays errors it should show the message but you would want to reach out to the plugin’s support for confirmation on if it works with your setup

      Reply
  6. Virgilio Alves says:
    Sep 19, 2019 at 12:46 pm

    Thanks, i was looking for something like this.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Sep 20, 2019 at 9:27 am

      Glad our article was helpful :)

      Reply
  7. Juan Pablo says:
    Jan 10, 2019 at 6:29 am

    Excellent!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 10, 2019 at 11:32 am

      Thank you :)

      Reply
  8. Sanjay says:
    Dec 4, 2018 at 11:35 pm

    Glad to see our WordPress plugin here. Hope it is helpful to your website users.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Dec 9, 2018 at 2:43 pm

      Hi Sanjay,

      Yes it is. Thanks for sharing this useful plugin with the community.

      Reply
    • Michael says:
      Mar 12, 2019 at 5:38 am

      Please, can the plugin block specific user role in specify time or date?

      Reply
  9. Joshua ayoade says:
    Jun 22, 2018 at 10:24 pm

    Please i want to create a site whereby people will post on my site and they will earn through the post they’ve posted on my site

    Please what’s type of site is that and what plugins and themes is more suitable for that site

    And Please I am using WordPress to create this type of site

    I am sorry that I didn’t comment and post on the right page

    Reply

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