Descripción

Remove Empty Shortcodes helps maintain clean content by removing shortcodes that no longer work or generate output. This commonly happens when:

You’ve deactivated a plugin that provided shortcodes
You’re trying different plugins and some left behind inactive shortcodes
You have shortcodes from plugins that weren’t properly uninstalled

Key Features

Automatically removes inactive shortcodes from displayed content
Preserves your original content in the database
Works with all public post types
Handles both self-closing and wrapped shortcodes
Admin scanner to find and review unregistered shortcodes
On-demand scanning with cached results
Ignore specific shortcodes you want to keep
Zero configuration required for automatic removal

How It Works

The plugin checks your content for shortcodes when pages are displayed. If it finds shortcodes that:

Don’t produce any output
Aren’t registered with WordPress
Are empty or inactive

It removes them from the displayed content while keeping your original content intact in the database.

Use Cases

Clean up content after removing plugins that used shortcodes
Remove inactive shortcodes without editing posts manually
Maintain clean content for readers and search engines
Preserve original content in case you reinstall removed plugins

Capturas

Scanner ready to scan your content for unregistered shortcodes

Scan results showing unregistered shortcodes found across your site — Scanner ready to scan your content for unregistered shortcodes

Instalación

Upload remove-empty-shortcodes to your /wp-content/plugins/ directory
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
That’s it! No configuration needed

FAQ

Will this modify my database content?: No. The plugin only filters content when it’s displayed. Your original content remains unchanged in the database.
What happens if I reinstall a plugin that uses the removed shortcodes?: Since your original content is preserved, the shortcodes will start working again automatically when you reinstall the plugin that handles them.
Does this work with all shortcodes?: Yes, the plugin works with any WordPress shortcode, whether from themes or plugins.
Will this affect shortcodes that are working correctly?: No. The plugin only removes shortcodes that are either unregistered or produce no output.
Is there any configuration needed?: No. The plugin works automatically once activated.
How do I find unregistered shortcodes on my site?: Go to Tools > Empty Shortcodes in your WordPress admin. Click «Run Scan» to search all your content for shortcodes that are no longer registered with WordPress.
What does «Ignore» do in the scanner?: Ignoring a shortcode adds it to a global ignore list. The scanner will no longer flag that shortcode, and the automatic removal feature will leave it untouched. Use this for shortcodes you intentionally want to keep.
Does this work with custom post types?: By default the front-end removal covers standard posts and pages. The admin scanner (Tools > Empty Shortcodes) finds shortcodes in all post types. To also clean custom post types automatically on the front end, developers can use the resc_supported_post_types filter to add their post type slugs.

Reseñas

Scott Anderson 29 de junio de 2026

There are a few things WordPress does by default that are a bit of a mystery to me, and one of them is how it will just print unregistered shortcodes directly in the page. I get that it's not always right to assume that text in square brackets is a shortcode, but it seems like there should be some kind of built-in way to deal with this. Enter Remove Empty Shortcodes. I've built a few plugins like this myself, and I was about to once again, until I came across this plugin. My specific situation is that I'm helping a client migrate away from a site that was built using a certain page builder plugin. Their post content is filled with layout shortcodes from that plugin. Ultimately we are going to need to edit them out, but it's nice to just have a way to display the posts in the meantime that doesn't look like absolute garbage, so we can move forward with the migration. As it happens, this plugin did not initially handle shortcodes that wrapped content, so I submitted a support request, and within a couple of days, the developer had added the feature. So, great plugin, and great support!

CMG 27 de marzo de 2025 1 respuesta

Would be great to have an option to delete them from the database , too Of course with a backup before. This will make an export to Markdownblog much easier

Leer todas las 2 reseñas

Colaboradores y desarrolladores

«Remove Empty Shortcodes» es un software de código abierto. Las siguientes personas han colaborado con este plugin.

Tom McFarlin

Traduce «Remove Empty Shortcodes» a tu idioma.

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Registro de cambios

1.2.0

Added: WordPress Coding Standards + PHPCompatibility gate (.phpcs.xml.dist, testVersion 7.4-) enforced in CI
Added: resc_supported_post_types filter to extend automatic front-end removal to custom post types
Added: cleanup of plugin options, transients, and user meta when the plugin is deleted (uninstall.php)
Changed: the admin scanner now queries posts in batches instead of all at once, reducing memory use on large sites (filterable via resc_scan_batch_size)
Fixed: dead and unregistered shortcodes are now removed wherever post and page content appears on the front end — single views, archives, search, and the blog home — not only on singular views
Fixed: unregistered shortcodes are stripped from excerpts as well (manual and auto-generated)
Fixed: the «How It Works» bullet list now renders correctly on the WordPress.org listing

1.1.0

Fixed: inactive/unregistered shortcodes (for example, layout shortcodes left behind by a deactivated page builder such as WP Bakery) are now removed on the front end, keeping the surrounding text.
Fixed: the scanner now finds shortcodes in content imported under post types that are no longer registered.
Fixed: front-end removal now honors the scanner’s Ignore list.
Fixed: the Run Scan button icon now displays correctly on WordPress 7.0.
New: choose whether to strip just the shortcode tags (default) or remove the whole block, via the resc_removal_mode filter.
Maintenance: added an automated unit and integration test suite plus developer tooling.
Updated WordPress compatibility: requires 6.9, tested up to 7.0.

1.0.0

Admin page under Tools menu for scanning and managing unregistered shortcodes
On-demand scanning with progress indicator and cached results
Two view modes: By Shortcode and By Post
Context preview showing surrounding text for each shortcode
Global ignore list for shortcodes you want to keep
Support for all public post types
Fixed false positive shortcode detection
New abstract blue branding
Restructured plugin with class-based architecture

0.7.0

Update support for WordPress 6.8

0.6.0

Added support for multi-line shortcode detection
Added a banner and icon for the WP plugin repository
Improved handling of unregistered shortcodes
Updated shortcode pattern matching
Removed Composer dependencies
Enhanced performance and reliability

0.5.0

Added latest version of PHPStan
Fixed page content processing
Updated namespace structure

0.4.0

Added page post type support
Fixed subscriber content handling

0.3.0

Initial public release
Added standard post type support
Improved shortcode detection

A great plugin for something that seems like it should be default behavior!

Seems to work

Descripción

Key Features

How It Works

Use Cases

Capturas

Instalación

FAQ

Will this modify my database content?

What happens if I reinstall a plugin that uses the removed shortcodes?

Does this work with all shortcodes?

Will this affect shortcodes that are working correctly?

Is there any configuration needed?

How do I find unregistered shortcodes on my site?

What does «Ignore» do in the scanner?

Does this work with custom post types?