Technical
UI/UX, WordPress

Clean up WordPress admin clutter by removing dashboard widgets

Craig Marolf
Web Developer and Marketing Strategist
Published on October 22, 2024
By Craig Marolf in Technical

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Cleaning up the WordPress dashboard can give the backend a more professional appearance. Removing the dashboard widgets can make a big difference. Use the remove_dashboard_meta function to rid the dashboard of what can only be described as a mess. WordPress is used by many businesses and organizations, many of who have no need to see things like “Upcoming WordPress Events”.

This snippet placed in your theme’s functions.php will do the trick.

// Disable Dashboard Widgets
function remove_dashboard_meta() {
    remove_meta_box('dashboard_incoming_links', 'dashboard', 'normal'); 'incoming links'
    remove_meta_box('dashboard_plugins', 'dashboard', 'normal'); //Remove 'plugins'
    remove_meta_box('dashboard_primary', 'dashboard', 'normal'); //Remove 'WordPress News'
    remove_meta_box('dashboard_secondary', 'dashboard', 'normal'); //Remove secondary
    remove_meta_box('dashboard_quick_press', 'dashboard', 'side'); //Remove 'Quick Draft'
    remove_meta_box('dashboard_recent_drafts', 'dashboard', 'side'); //Remove 'Recent Drafts'
    remove_meta_box('dashboard_recent_comments', 'dashboard', 'normal'); //Remove 'Comments'
    remove_meta_box('dashboard_right_now', 'dashboard', 'normal'); //Remove 'At a Glance'
    remove_meta_box('dashboard_activity', 'dashboard', 'normal'); //Remove 'Activity'
}
 	add_action('admin_init', 'remove_dashboard_meta');