Bulk Delete Your Posts With and Without WordPress Plugins
Even though you’re probably an expert in creating awesome WordPress posts, there comes a time when you might feel like deleting a lot of them. Whatever the reason might be, you just don’t want them on our website any longer. You’re dunzo with them and need them gone asap. Now, imagine how tiring and time consuming it’d be if you were to select each post and delete it afterwards! You can lay your worries to rest though, as this can be achieved in a much quicker and efficient way. In this article we’ll show you how to bulk delete WordPress posts with utmost ease.
Bulk Delete WordPress Posts Manually
Let’s kick things off by heading over to the Post section of your dashboard. Click on All Posts and then tick the box next to Title. By doing this you will select all posts that are displayed on that page.
If you don’t want to delete all the posts, don’t forget to uncheck them! Once you’re sure which ones should go, from the Bulk Actions dropdown menu select Move to Trash and click Apply.
If you wish to change the number of posts that are displayed per page, you can do it from the Screen Options panel at the top right corner of the screen. The default number is 20, but you can set a significantly higher one. Our advice, however, is to be careful not to go to far here. The thing is, if the number is higher than 99, it’s possible that’ll cause an infinite page load. This, of course, depends on how powerful your host is. It’d be for the best to test how high the number can go without you encountering any issues.
Bulk Delete WordPress posts by Category / Author / Tag
It’s also good to know that posts can be deleted by choosing a specific author, category or a tag. For instance, when you select a certain tag, then the posts containing that tag will be shown in the post list. Select them all and then remove them from the list with the Bulk Options Menu.
The posts you deleted will stay in the Trash for 30 days and then they will be permanently removed. If you wish to delete them immediately, go to Trash and click Empty Trash.
Bulk Delete WordPress Posts with a Plugin
1. Bulk Delete plugin
For most users deleting post manually works just fine, but some prefer to go about it in another way. That’s exactly when the Bulk Delete plugin comes into play. It’s a great little thing this powerful fella because it lets you use various filters when choosing which posts to delete.
It can be downloaded for free and it can delete posts, pages, attachments, users, etc. We need it this time round solely for the purpose of deleting posts in bulk.
Once you’ve installed it, go ahead and activate it. When you’re done with the activation, go to Bulk WP and choose the Bulk Delete Posts option. Bottom line, this plugin is pretty easy to use. It comes with many filters that can be applied to select posts you’d like to remove. You’ll find them all under the By Post Status. Delete posts based on tag, category, status (Published, Scheduled, Draft, Pending, Private, etc.), age of post, by custom taxonomy, custom post type, url and by post revision.
Some additional options are available as well, but in order to use them, you’d have to pay first. For instance, in order to schedule an action, such as deleting posts by category, or by duplicate title, you’d need to purchase addons.
2. WP Bulk Delete plugin
There’s another plugin you can use to eliminate multiple posts. It’s not been downloaded as many times as the aforementioned Bulk Delete plugin, but it’s equally good. This one’s called WP Bulk Delete.
Again, this plugin lets you delete in bulk comments, users, taxonomies, and of course posts.
Download the plugin for free, activate it and then, from your admin dashboard go to WP Bulk Delete > Delete Posts.
You have the option to delete posts by using a myriad of filters, just like with the Bulk Delete plugin. Again, in order to obtain some additional filters, you’d need to get the premium version of the plugin. Depending on the number of websites you’d use it on, the cost varies from $29 – $69.
Bottom Line
Regardless of the method you choose, deleting posts in bulk will no longer be an issue for you. If you deem something unnecessary, don’t let it pile up! Keep your website well organized and publish quality content only. WordPress lets you create gorgeous posts (either in WordPress Gutenberg or in Classic Editor) that you can use to spread your knowledge, ideas, and much more.
We hope this article was helpful. If you liked it, feel free to check out some of these articles as well!
