Source evidence

Cannot uninstall WordFence

Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security · support · 2026-05-28T09:05:00+00:00

Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security plugin evidence original source source API

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highseverity

1.0relevance

3replies

Evidence linked to opportunitycommercial context

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Conversation

support

axiom28 unresolved

I wanted to run a scan with WordPress, it brought up and unspecific error, I changed to a lower rate scan, same error, tried to uninstall with intention of reinstall, same error again and cannot uninstall, added the WordFence Assistant plugin and executed all options. still same error when trying to uninstall. Please can I get some help to do this, so I can get WordFence operational again Ian Hi @axiom28 , thanks for getting in touch. When a plugin can’t be installed from WordPress using the Deactivate and Delete links on the Plugins > Installed Plugins page, there may be a file permissions issue or a PHP fatal error being thrown. If you see a message like “Deletion failed” or “There has been a critical error”, enable logging (if it isn’t already), retry the delete on Wordfence, then inspect your debug.log file immediately. We may be able to help with the specific error message, unless it’s related to permissions or a setting that you or your host may need to rectify. Many thanks, Peter. Hello Peter, thank you for your answer, I was trying to remove WordFence so that I could start with a fresh installation, I did manage to delete WordFence the way you explained, then I used WordFence assistant to cleanup. I did manage to install what appeared to be a fresh installation, but the same error comes up as shown in the image that too brought up the same error. Anyway after several attempts backwards and forwards deleting and reinstalling I somehow got a working version. Hi @axiom28 , Thanks for letting me know and I’m glad to hear you have a working version now. It does sound like there might have been an intermittent issue, although I can’t recall a recent comparable case that might help explain it. By all means let us know if issues start to return and errors are being logged that may help us assist you in finding a long-term solution. Thanks again, Peter.

Commercial Context

Opportunity

trust and abuse-prevention operations

Security abuse-prevention assurance for keeping sites trusted, protected, and recoverable

Buyer: site owners, agencies, and maintenance teams

Wedge: test security lockouts, bot/spam defenses, risky access changes, and incident alerts

Proof Blocked card complete market

Analysis

heuristic-v1

Summary: Cannot uninstall WordFence: users show bugs, compatibility, missing feature pain that may indicate a product gap.

Evidence quote: Cannot uninstall WordFence I wanted to run a scan with WordPress, it brought up and unspecific error, I changed to a lower rate scan, same error, tried to uninstall with intention of reinstall, same error again and cannot uninstall, added the WordFence Assistant plugin and executed all options.

Affected feature: bugs

bugs compatibility missing feature support

Plugin

API

Wordfence Security – Firewall, Malware Scan, and Login Security

5.0M active installs · 417.8M downloads · rating 94.0

2fa firewall malware scanner security

Comments

3 shown

wfpeter 2026-05-28T10:00:00+00:00

Hi @axiom28 , thanks for getting in touch. When a plugin can’t be installed from WordPress using the Deactivate and Delete links on the Plugins > Installed Plugins page, there may be a file permissions issue or a PHP fatal error being thrown. If you see a message like “Deletion failed” or “There has been a critical error”, enable logging (if it isn’t already), retry the delete on Wordfence, then inspect your debug.log file immediately. We may be able to help with the specific error message, unless it’s related to permissions or a setting that you or your host may need to rectify. Many thanks, Peter.

axiom28 2026-05-28T12:32:00+00:00

Hello Peter, thank you for your answer, I was trying to remove WordFence so that I could start with a fresh installation, I did manage to delete WordFence the way you explained, then I used WordFence assistant to cleanup. I did manage to install what appeared to be a fresh installation, but the same error comes up as shown in the image that too brought up the same error. Anyway after several attempts backwards and forwards deleting and reinstalling I somehow got a working version.

wfpeter 2026-05-28T13:30:00+00:00

Hi @axiom28 , Thanks for letting me know and I’m glad to hear you have a working version now. It does sound like there might have been an intermittent issue, although I can’t recall a recent comparable case that might help explain it. By all means let us know if issues start to return and errors are being logged that may help us assist you in finding a long-term solution. Thanks again, Peter.