Remove Orphan Shortcodes
Quickly remove unused (orphan) shortcode tags from your content.
3.9(14 reviews)
·1.0K+ active installs·Updated 1 year agoAs of April 2026, Remove Orphan Shortcodes is a WordPress php plugin with 1.0K+ active installations and a 3.9/5 rating from 14 reviews. It has been downloaded 22K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 3.0+ and PHP false+. Available on WordPress.org since 2013. Last updated 1 year ago — may have compatibility concerns. Downloads are up 22% this week. Top alternative: WPCode – Insert Headers and Footers +….
3.9/514 reviews
1.0K+active installs
22K+total downloads
13 yearssince 2013
Overview
This is a simple plugin which automatically hides inactive (orphan) shortcode tags you have used for previous themes and/or plugins. It uses the_content filter to search for shortcode tags which are not active and simply removes them from your post/page content (note the shortode tags won’t be deleted form your content, they will just be removed temporarily on your website frontend). It is a great solution if you want to avoid manual removal of old shortcode tags from your entire content.
Remove Orphan Shortcodes plugin is created by Meks
Ratings & Reviews
3.914 reviews
5 ★
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Recent Reviews
Love it
by syzygist·1 year ago
This is one of those great little plugins that does only one thing, but by doing it, can save hours of frustration and hair-tearing. THANK you for this simple solution to a very common problem!
Why?
by lilunai·3 years ago
I needed to temporarily hide some shortscodes and this plugin works great but… it has also hidden the Rank Math FAQ blocks which are not orphaned, obviously.
I hope that in the next update it will be corrected. Fingers crossed.
Fails with Gutenberg Block array attributes
by brumack·3 years ago
Any gutenberg block storing an array in block attributes JSON is flagged as a shortcode. As most blocks using JSON attributes also use render_callback and server-side rendering, this causes the block to disappear entirely – broken JSON is hard to parse.
Ergo, don’t use this if you also use ACF, because any repeater or relationship field in a block can cause the entire thing to disappear.
Did nothing…
by leroy·3 years ago
of the sort
You’re Kidding Right?
by Stef·4 years ago
Why would anyone want to leave a useless plugin after the cleaning? Make it so it cleans and can be deleted. Otherwise what’s the point? SMH
Download Trends
Today: 5Yesterday: 12This week: 55Period total: 6K
Compatibility
| WordPress | 3.0+ requiredTested up to 6.6.5 |
| PHP | false+ required |
Version Adoption
v1.2
94.2%
v1.1
5.8%
Top Alternatives to Remove Orphan Shortcodes
Frequently Asked Questions
Changelog
1.2
- Fixed: PHP notice thrown in specific versions
Contributors
Plugin data sourced from WordPress.org. Analysis and metrics by PluginSift.