How to Mass Delete Pending Comments in WordPress

I own over 100 domains. When I get a bright idea, I buy a domain. Then I install WordPress and set it up. Unfortunately, sometimes life gets in the way and bright ideas are left for days, months, or even years without doing anything with them. If you have left the ability to comment on pages active, these domains may find their way onto a comment spam database. If this happens, your wordpress site may be inundated with comment spam in a short time.

You’ll see on the screenshot below that this one domain that I hadn’t worked on for several months had accumulated over 18,000 spam comments. Deleting a few comments in WordPress is rather straightforward and easy, but how time consuming would it be to delete thousands of comments?

Luckily there is a solution in the form of a WordPress plugin that can be used to delete mass amounts of comment spam in one click. The plugin is called Delete Pending Comments. Its a simple plugin that does exactly what it says. This wordpress tip will save you hours in manual deletions. 

Here’s how to install it.

1) Log into your WordPress Admin screen

2) Click on Plugins

3) Click on Add New

4) In the Search box, type Delete Pending Comments and click Search Plugins

5) Delete Pending Comments should be at the very top of the list, click Install Now

6) Once its installed, click on Activate

 

7) Now, click on the Comments option in the left sidebar and you should find a new option called Delete Pending Comments. Click on it.

8) Type in the sentence in the box to confirm you really want to delete ALL the pending comments in your WordPress blog.

9) Click the Delete Pending Comments dialog box and in a few seconds all those spammy comments are gone.

Now, after the tons of comments have been deleted. Go back into plugins and follow the directions to activate the AKISMET spam plugin to help filter out the comment spam.

 

 

Tagged with: Add New • AKISMET • Delete Pending Comments • Search Plugins

Filed under: Tutorials

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