How to Remove Inactive Widgets in WordPress (Step by Step)

Do you want to remove inactive widgets from your WordPress site?

Your inactive widgets section can become cluttered over time. By removing inactive widgets, you can make this area easier to manage.

In this article, we’ll show you how you can easily remove your inactive widgets in WordPress.

Why Remove Inactive WordPress Widgets?

Instead of deleting a widget and losing all the settings, you can simply move it to the inactive widgets section to remove it from your live site but still save the settings.

Also, sometimes when you’re changing WordPress themes, your active widgets can be moved to the inactive widget section if there’s no matching widget area in your new theme. 

That’s why over time, as you build your WordPress website and try different WordPress plugins and themes, all of those widgets can start to build up in the inactive widgets area.

Instead of letting your inactive widgets area get too cluttered, you can easily remove inactive widgets to make this section more manageable. 

With that said, let’s show you how to remove inactive widgets in WordPress, step by step.

Removing Inactive Widgets in WordPress Easily

WordPress has built-in settings that let you remove any inactive widget on your site.

Simply navigate to Appearance » Widgets and then click the ‘List View’ icon. Then, in the list that appears in the left-hand menu, click on ‘Inactive widgets’.

This brings up a list of your inactive widgets that you aren’t currently using.

After that, click on the three dots button next to the inactive widget you want to delete, and click on ‘Remove Shortcode’ at the bottom.

Then, repeat the same steps for any inactive widget you want to remove permanently. 

Although this method takes a little bit of time, it can be helpful to make sure you don’t accidentally delete an important widget.

Removing Multiple Inactive WordPress Widgets at Once

If you have a lot of inactive WordPress widgets you want to remove, then you can remove multiple widgets at the same time.

To do this, click on the ‘Inactive widgets’ drop down to make sure the widget section is expanded.

Then, hold the ‘Shift’ key as you select multiple widgets.

Next, click the three dots button and select ‘Remove blocks’ from the drop down.

This will automatically delete multiple inactive widgets and their settings.

Removing Inactive Widgets in WordPress Classic Widget Editor

If you’re using the WordPress classic widget editor, then removing inactive widgets will be similar to above.

Simply navigate to Appearance » Widgets and then go to the ‘Inactive Widgets’ section at the bottom of the page.

Next, click the ‘Clear Inactive Widgets’ button to remove your inactive widgets permanently.

To learn more, see our step by step guide on how to add and use widgets in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to remove inactive widgets in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to choose the best blogging platform and our expert picks of the best email marketing services for small businesses.

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