January 30, 2024

Remove Dashboard Access Plugin

Disable Dashboard access for users of a specific role or capability. Disallowed users are redirected to a chosen URL. Get set up in seconds.

The easiest and safest way to restrict access to your WordPress site’s Dashboard and administrative menus. Remove Dashboard Access is a lightweight plugin that automatically redirects users who shouldn’t have access to the Dashboard to a custom URL of your choosing. Redirects can also be configured on a per-role/per-capability basis, allowing you to keep certain users out of the Dashboard, while retaining access for others.

Limit Dashboard access to user roles:
- Admins only
- Admins + editors
- Admins, editors, and authors
- or restrict by specific user capability
Choose your own redirect URL
Optionally allow users to edit their profiles
Display a message on the login screen so users know why they’re being redirected

Blocking access to the Dashboard is a great way to prevent clients from breaking their sites, prevent users from seeing things they shouldn’t, and to keep your site’s backend more secure.

Allow only users with roles or capabilities:

You can restrict Dashboard access to Admins only, Editors or above, Authors or above, or by selecting a specific user capability.

Grant access to user profiles:

Optionally allow all users the ability to edit their profiles in the Dashboard. Users lacking the chosen capability won’t be able to access any other sections of the Dashboard.

Show a custom login message:

Supply a message to display on the login screen. Leaving this blank disables the message.

Installation

Search ‘Remove Dashboard Access’ from the Install Plugins screen.
Install plugin, click Activate.

Screenshots

The Dashboard Access Controls settings in the Settings > Dashboard Access screen.
Allow users to access their profile settings (only).
Optional login message.

FAQ

What happens to disallowed users who try to access to the Dashboard?

Users lacking the chosen capability or role(s) will be redirected to the URL set in Settings > Dashboard Access.

Why haven’t you added an option to disable the WordPress Toolbar?

The Toolbar contains certain important links (even for disallowed users) such as for accessing to the profile editor and/or logging out. Plus, there are many plugins out there for disabling the Toolbar if you really want to.

Can I disable the redirection/profile-editing controls without disabling the plugin?

No. Disable the plugin if you don’t wish to leverage the functionality.

How do I hide other plugins/themes’ Toolbar menus?

Remove Dashboard Access removes some built-in WordPress Toolbar menus by default, but can be extended to hide menus from other plugins or themes via two filters: rda_toolbar_nodes (viewing from the admin), and rda_frontend_toolbar_nodes (viewing from the front-end).

How do I find the menu (node) id?

In the HTML page source, look for the <li> container for the menu node you’re targeting. It should take the form of <li id="wp-admin-bar-SOMETHING">
In <li id="wp-admin-bar-SOMETHING">, you want the “SOMETHING” part.

How can I allow access to specific pages of the Dashboard?

The function returns an associative array with $pagenow as the key and a nested array of key => value pairs where the key is the $_GET parameter and the value is the allowed value.

Example: If you want to allow a URL of tools.php?page=EXAMPLE, there are three parts to know:

The $pagenow global value (tools.php in this case)
The $_GET key (page in this case)
The $_GET value (EXAMPLE in this case)

Here is how we would add that URL to the allowlist:

 /** * Allow users to access a page with a URL of tools.php?page=EXAMPLE * * @param array $pages Allowed Dashboard pages. * @return array Filtered allowed Dashboard pages. */ function wpdocs_allow_example_dashboard_page( $pages ) { // If the $pages array doesn't contain the 'tools.php' key, add it. if ( ! isset( $pages['tools.php'] ) ) { $pages['tools.php'] = array(); } // Now add `?page=EXAMPLE` combination to the allowed parameter set for that page. $pages['tools.php'][] = array( 'page' => 'EXAMPLE' ); return $pages; } add_filter( 'rda_allowlist', 'wpdocs_allow_example_dashboard_page' );

How can I filter the disallowed Toolbar nodes on the front-end?

 /** * Filter hidden Toolbar menus on the front-end. * * @param array $ids Toolbar menu IDs. * @return array Filtered front-end Toolbar menu IDs. */ function wpdocs_hide_some_toolbar_menu( $ids ) { $ids[] = 'SOMETHING'; return $ids; } add_filter( 'rda_frontend_toolbar_nodes', 'wpdocs_hide_some_toolbar_menu' );

Common plugin Toolbar menus and their ids:

Jetpack by WordPress.com (notifications) – ‘notes’
WordPress SEO by Yoast – ‘wpseo-menu’
W3 Total Cache – ‘w3tc’

How do I enable Debug Mode?

To view debugging information on the Settings > Reading screen, visit:

example.com/options-general.php?page=dashboard-access&rda_debug=1

Can I contribute to the plugin?

Yes! This plugin is in active development on GitHub. Pull requests are welcome!

Is the plugin GDPR compliant?

Yes. The plugin does not collect any personal data, nor does it set any cookies.

Changelog

1.2 on January 29, 2024

Confirmed compatibility with WordPress 6.4.2
New: Added a new filter, rda_allowlist, to configure pages that should be accessible to all users, regardless of their capabilities or roles (see FAQ for usage)
Improved: Added a description that clarifies that the Login Message is only displayed on the WordPress “Log In” screen
Improved: The User Profile Access text is now a proper label for the checkbox
Fixed: Allow access to the Wordfence 2FA configuration page (#33)
Fixed: Text domain not properly set for translations (thanks @fierevere)
Tweak: Prevent directly accessing PHP files by checking for ABSPATH (#26)
Tweak: Prevent browsing directories on poorly-configured servers by adding index.php files in plugin directories

1.1.4 & 1.1.5 on April 18, 2022

Remove Dashboard Access is now being maintained by TrustedLogin! Remove Dashboard Access aligns with what we do at TrustedLogin: simply making WordPress more secure. Email any questions to [email protected].

Fixed: Deactivating and activating the plugin will no longer overwrite plugin settings
Fixed: Deprecated function screen_icon() warning
Fixed: Issue when front-end editing of profiles when the $pagenow global is not defined (#24)
Fixed: Potential Invalid argument supplied for foreach() PHP warning (#22)

1.1.3

Fixed a compatibility issue with bbPress and the media grid view.

1.1.2

Bump tested-up-to to 4.1.0
Miscellaneous readme changes.

1.1.1

Bug Fix:

Move options back to Settings > Dashboard Access screen to resolve conflict with page_on_front UI.

1.1

Enhancements:

Instantiate as a static instance for better modularity
Move Dashboard Access Controls settings to Settings > Dashboard Access
Add optional login message option
Add better settings sanitization
New Filter: rda_default_caps_for_role – Filter default roles for Admins, Editors, and Authors
New Debug Mode

Bug Fixes:

Remove unnecessarily stringent URL mask on the redirect URL option

1.0

Complete rewrite!
New: Limit dashboard access for Admins only or by capability
New: Allow/disallow edit-profile access
New: Choose your own redirect URL
New Filter: rda_default_access_cap – Change default access capability
New Filter: rda_toolbar_nodes – Filter which back-end Toolbar nodes are hidden
New Filter: rda_frontend_toolbar_nodes – Filter which front-end Toolbar nodes are hidden

0.4

Refined DOING_AJAX check for logged-out users, props @nacin and @BoiteAWeb

0.3

Changed cap to manage_options, replaced PHP_SELF with DOING_AJAX

0.2

Replaced preg_match with admin-ajax test. Added compatibility with rewritten dashboard URLs.

0.1

Submitted to repository