remove_menu_page( string $menu_slug ): array|false

Removes a top-level admin menu.

Description

Example usage:

  • remove_menu_page( 'tools.php' )
  • remove_menu_page( 'plugin_menu_slug' )

Parameters

$menu_slugstringrequired
The slug of the menu.

Return

array|false The removed menu on success, false if not found.

More Information

Parameter $menu_slug is the slug of the menu, typically the name of the PHP script for the built in menu items; example: edit-comments.php.

This function should be called on the admin_menu action hook. Calling it elsewhere might cause issues: either the function is not defined or the global $menu variable used by this function is not yet declared.

To remove submenu items in the admin, use remove_submenu_page() . Using remove_menu_page() will not work for submenu items.

Source

function remove_menu_page( $menu_slug ) {
	global $menu;

	foreach ( $menu as $i => $item ) {
		if ( $menu_slug === $item[2] ) {
			unset( $menu[ $i ] );
			return $item;
		}
	}

	return false;
}

Changelog

VersionDescription
3.1.0Introduced.

User Contributed Notes

  1. Skip to note 7 content

    You need to use the right hooks (which are not always the same as the URLs/slugs), and it doesn’t hurt to use a hook that runs later (e.g., admin_init):

    add_action( 'admin_init', function () {
        remove_menu_page( 'edit.php?post_type=participants-database' );
        remove_menu_page( 'wpcf7' );
    });

    You can use the following to debug:

    add_action( 'admin_init', function () {
        echo '<pre>' . print_r( $GLOBALS[ 'menu' ], true) . '</pre>';
    } );

    This gives you array of the menu positions and inside positions the array of the active menu items and you just need to pickup the right hook (key [2]) and under that is your target hook or URI.

    Here is one helper for this:

    if(!function_exists('remove_admin_page')) {
        function remove_admin_page($needle) {
            if(isset($GLOBALS[ 'menu' ]) && !empty($GLOBALS[ 'menu' ]) && !empty($needle)) {
    
                $needle = strtolower($needle);
                $needle = trim($needle);
    
                foreach($GLOBALS[ 'menu' ] as $position => $items) {
                    foreach($items as $key => $item) {					
                        if(strtolower($item) == $needle) {
                            remove_menu_page( $items[2] );
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    Just use it like this:

    remove_admin_page( 'Participants Database' );

    This helper search by name, slug, uri and remove proper menu page.

  2. Skip to note 8 content

    Example

    Removes every menu for all users. To remove only certain menu items include only those you want to hide within the function. To remove menus for only certain users you may want to utilize current_user_can() .

    /**
     * Removes some menus by page.
     */
    function wpdocs_remove_menus(){
      
      remove_menu_page( 'index.php' );                  //Dashboard
      remove_menu_page( 'jetpack' );                    //Jetpack* 
      remove_menu_page( 'edit.php' );                   //Posts
      remove_menu_page( 'upload.php' );                 //Media
      remove_menu_page( 'edit.php?post_type=page' );    //Pages
      remove_menu_page( 'edit-comments.php' );          //Comments
      remove_menu_page( 'themes.php' );                 //Appearance
      remove_menu_page( 'plugins.php' );                //Plugins
      remove_menu_page( 'users.php' );                  //Users
      remove_menu_page( 'tools.php' );                  //Tools
      remove_menu_page( 'options-general.php' );        //Settings
      
    }
    add_action( 'admin_menu', 'wpdocs_remove_menus' );
    ?>

    (*) Better to add this priority if dealing with jetpack menu: add_action( ‘admin_menu’, ‘remove_menus’, 999 );

  3. Skip to note 9 content

    Based on the great previous contributions I have developed a script to create the hook functions that will remove all menus. Then I can choose which pages to show, commenting or removing the lines.

    You need to place it in functions.php and load wp-admin. Then copy the output to functions.php and remove the script.

    add_action( 'admin_init', function () {
    	echo "add_action( 'admin_init', function () {<br>";
    
    	foreach ( $GLOBALS['menu'] as $menu ) {
    		echo "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;remove_menu_page( '$menu[2]' );<br>";
    	}
    
    	echo "}, PHP_INT_MAX );";
    	exit();
    } );
  4. Skip to note 10 content

    Most examples on this Documentation are wrong.
    The Hook clearly expects:
    This function should be called on the admin_menu action hook. Calling it elsewhere might cause issues: either the function is not defined or the global $menu variable used but this function is not yet declared.

    So calling it at admin_init like most of these examples here do, will throw:
    Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /wp-admin/includes/plugin.php on line 1754

    If hooking into admin_init is necessary for some plugins like one of the examples states, that plugin is doing it wrong and should be contacted, not the code hacked to match its wrongdoings.

  5. Skip to note 12 content

    Reference: Administration Menus

    MENU.................KEY...LINK URL
    Dashboard.............2.....index.php
    -Home.................0.....index.php
    Separator (first).....4.....separator1
    Posts.................5.....edit.php
    -All Posts............5.....edit.php
    -Add New..............10....post-new.php
    -Categories...........15....edit-tags.php?taxonomy=category
    -Tags.................16....edit-tags.php?taxonomy=post_tag
    Media.................10....upload.php
    -Library..............5.....upload.php
    -Add New..............10....media-new
    Links.................15....link-manager.php
    -All Links............5.....link-manager.php
    -Add New..............10....link-add.php
    -Link Categories......15....edit-tags.php?taxonomy=link_category
    Pages.................20....edit.php?post_type=page
    -All Pages............5.....edit.php?post_type=page
    -Add New..............10....post-new.php?post_type=page
    Comments..............25....edit-comments.php
    -All Comments.........0.....edit-comments.php
    Separator (Second)....59....separator2
    Appearance............60....themes.php
    -Themes...............5.....themes.php
    -Widgets..............7.....widgets.php
    -Menus................10....nav-menus.php
    Plugins...............65....plugins.php
    -Installed Plugins....5.....plugins.php
    -Add New..............10....plugin-install.php
    -Editor...............15....plugin-editor.php
    Users.................70....users.php
    -All Users............5.....users.php
    -Add New..............10....user-new.php
    -Your Profile.........15....profile.php
    Tools.................75....tools.php
    -Available Tools......5.....tools.php
    -Import...............10....import.php
    -Exports..............15....export.php
    Settings..............80....options-general.php
    -General..............10....options-general.php
    -Writing..............15....options-writing.php
    -Reading..............20....options-reading.php
    -Discussion...........25....options-discussion.php
    -Media................30....options-media.php
    -Privacy..............35....options-privacy.php
    -Permalinks...........40....options-permalink.php
    Separator (last)......99....separator-last

    Source: Matt Whiteley

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