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How to Remove Default Author Profile Fields in WordPress

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Do you want to remove the default author profile fields in WordPress?

If you are running a multi-author WordPress blog, then you may want to display all of your author profiles the same way for consistency. Removing the default author profile fields in WordPress can give you more control over what info your authors can use in their name or biography.

In this article, we will show you how to remove default author profile fields in WordPress.

Remove Default Author Profile Fields in WordPress

When Should You Remove Default Author Profile Fields?

When you create a new user on your WordPress website, you will need to complete the same default fields.

Editing an author profile in WordPress

These usually include First and Last Name, Display name publicly as, Contact Info (email and website), Biographical Info, and Profile Picture.

These fields remain exactly the same no matter whether you are creating a blog, WooCommerce store, membership site, or some other form of WordPress website.

Example of the author contact info in WordPress

Some non-admin WordPress user roles like Author have the ability to edit these fields. This capability can be useful in case they have to change certain information on their public author profile.

However, there are cases where you may need to remove these default fields for your Author users. Deleting unused fields helps maintain a consistent brand identity across all content, especially if articles are published under the company’s name rather than individual authors.

Simplifying the Author profile editing interface also makes it quicker and easier to add new authors to your site, focusing only on essential information.

That said, let’s see how you can remove the default author profile fields in WordPress.

How to Remove Default Author Profile Fields With WPCode

To remove default author profile fields, we have created some simple code snippets that you could add to your functions.php file.

Normally, you will need to add custom code snippets by editing your theme file manually. However, this is not the safest way to do it, as it can lead to unintentional errors.

Because of that, we will use WPCode. This code snippet plugin makes it easy to insert code into WordPress without having to work with your theme files directly. As a result, you’re less likely to break your website.

This guide will use the free version of WPCode, but feel free to upgrade to the Pro version to get more advanced features like testing mode and conditional logic.

The first step is to install the WordPress plugin in your dashboard. Once the plugin is active, go to Code Snippets » + Add Snippet.

Then, select ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ and click the ‘Use snippet’ button.

Use snippet

Now, go ahead and give your new snippet a name. It can be something simple like ‘Removing Edit User fields for Author.’

Then, make sure to change the Code Type to ‘PHP Snippet.’

Creating a new code snippet for removing edit user profile fields in WordPress with WPCode

In the Code Preview box, copy the code below and paste the snippet inside the box:

add_action('admin_footer-profile.php', 'remove_profile_fields');
function remove_profile_fields() {
    if(is_admin() && current_user_can('author')) { // Check if the current user has the 'Author' role
        ?>
         <script type="text/javascript">
            jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
                // Remove the sections titled "Name", "Contact Info", and "About Yourself"
                $('h2:contains("Name"), h2:contains("Contact Info"), h2:contains("About Yourself")').each(function() {
                    // Remove the next form-table and the h2 itself
                    $(this).next('.form-table').remove();
                    $(this).remove();
                });
            });
        </script>
        <?php
    }
}

The code uses the admin_footer-profile.php action hook to inject custom JavaScript into the admin footer of the profile editing page. This ensures that the script runs after the page has fully loaded, allowing it to target the elements that are dynamically generated by WordPress.

First, the code checks if the current user has the “Author” role using the current_user_can('author') function. This is a security measure to ensure that only users with the specified role can have these sections removed.

If the user is an Author, the code injects JavaScript into the page. This JavaScript uses jQuery to find the <h2> elements containing the text “Name”, “Contact Info”, and “About Yourself.”

Then, it removes the next .form-table element following each <h2>, which contains the form fields for those sections, and removes the <h2> elements themselves.

Once you have pasted the code, make sure the Insert Method is ‘Auto Insert’ and the Location is ‘Run Everywhere.’ Then, just click the Inactive toggle at the top to change it to Active, and click the ‘Save Snippet’ button.

Saving a new snippet in WPCode

That’s all for the code you need to add. To see if it works, try logging in to your WordPress admin area as an Author and go to Profile.

If you only see the Personal Options, Account Management, and Application Passwords settings, then the code works.

What the Profile page looks like when some of the Edit User fields are removed

For more tips about managing authors in WordPress, check out these guides:

We hope this article helped you learn how to remove default author profile fields in WordPress. You may also want to look at our expert pick of the best free user management plugins for WordPress and our complete guide on WordPress SEO.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

6 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

    Hey WPBeginner readers,
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  2. gifer says

    aah excellent post, thanks a lot :)

    I think wp should remove these by themself,
    why aim,jabber lol they should add facebook and twitter :P

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