Title: Plugins: Activate vs. Network Activate Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # Plugins: Activate vs. Network Activate * [justbishop](https://wordpress.org/support/users/justbishop/) * (@justbishop) * [16 years ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugins-activate-vs-network-activate/) * I’m still a 3.0/multisite n00b, and am a bit confused on how I should activate plugins. I thought that “network activate” meant “make this plugin available to all sites in the network” and “activate” meant “use this plugin on the main blog, but don’t offer it to user blogs.” Am I wrong? * I have a few plugins set to just “activate” (rather than “network activate”) because I need them on my main site, but DO NOT want them to be available for user sites (i.e. Buddypress). I’ve logged in as my test user, and these plugins are listed on the user’s blog as available for activation there as well. * I vaguely remember hearing about having 2 different plugin folders for MU (one for main blog plugins, one for user blog plugins), but I’m not seeing anything but the normal wp-content/plugins folder on my install of 3.0. Is this something I need to create myself, and can someone walk me through that? Viewing 4 replies - 16 through 19 (of 19 total) [←](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugins-activate-vs-network-activate/?output_format=md) [1](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugins-activate-vs-network-activate/?output_format=md) 2 * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [15 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugins-activate-vs-network-activate/page/2/#post-1514382) * **Activate: **running ONLY on the site on which you activate it * **Must Use:** running on ALL SITES in your network, and no one can turn them off (best for plugins that need little or no interface, like Akismet) * **Network Activated:** running on all sites, but individual sites can chose to turn them off * [cdvrooman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cdvrooman/) * (@cdvrooman) * [15 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugins-activate-vs-network-activate/page/2/#post-1514399) * Hello, I’m using WPMU 3.0.3, BP 1.2.7 & s2Member in multi-blog mode with open registration & blog creation. Ok… I disabled Akismet, and then moved it to the wp-content/mu-plugins directory and now it’s not appearing in my plugin list. * Seven questions: * 1. In my case, I had already configured Akismet with my “Akismet API Key”, but if I had installed it directly into /mu-plugins and then not have seen it on the plugins page, how would I have entered the API Key? * 2. Now is everybody using *my* Akismet installation based on my API Key?? Previously I had “Network Activated” Akismet. then I added a new test account (with blog) as a sub-domain. When I logged in as the account owner and went to the Plugins page of the Admin, Akismet was asking me to enter an API Key (which is actually something I don’t want to make each new account owner go through; transparency is important). * 3. Let’s say in general I’m using Plugin X which has a couple of configuration settings. If the plugin is in mu-plugins and I need to upgrade the plugin and tweak its configuration, what is the best procedure for going about that? For example: a. move/rename plugin in /mu-plugins b. install latest version in /plugins c. activate d. configure settings e. deactivate f. move to /mu-plugins * 4. What happens when I have the same plugin installed in *both* /plugins and/ mu-plugins? Which takes precedence? What if one version is newer than the other? * 5. If a plugin in mu-plugins/ doesn’t show up even in the master site’s plugins list, how do I know it is actually working (for example, Akismet shows a list of working servers on their site under Settings). * 6. When upgrading WordPress, one step is to deactivate all plugins. What about mu-plugins… how are they deactivated. * 7. I found this link, [http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/4163/how-is-network-activate-different-from-activate-by-implementation](http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/4163/how-is-network-activate-different-from-activate-by-implementation) * Where the accepted answer is this: “Network activation will activate a plug- in for every site in a network whereas regular activation will only activate a plug-in for the site you’re currently on. As far as implementation goes, there is one other important difference: * If your plug-in is built to do something when it’s activated (via register_activation_hook()), this will fire automatically when you activate a plug-in normally, but it will not fire for a network-activated plug-in until you visit the admin screen for each blog. * So if major database updates are tied in to register_activation_hook() they won’t occur until you log in to the other sites.” * What about mu-plugins? How do they relate to the firing of register_activation_hook()? * Thanks, Christopher. * [amandafrench](https://wordpress.org/support/users/amandafrench/) * (@amandafrench) * [15 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugins-activate-vs-network-activate/page/2/#post-1514400) * Ipstenu, my child site admins *can’t* choose to turn off Network Activated plugins, as far as I can tell, because they can’t see them anywhere in their plugins list. See the screenshot in my earlier post if you don’t believe me. Sounds like other people have that problem too, though I don’t know if everyone does. Can I see a screenshot of a plugin that’s “Network Activated” where the plugin *does* show up in a child admin’s Plugins list? * My settings are “User accounts may be registered” and I’ve enabled the Plugins admin menu for child site admins. * cdvrooman, I can help a little with the Akismet, at least. Here’s what you should do: * 1) Get an Akismet API key for multiple sites at [https://akismet.com/signup/](https://akismet.com/signup/)— unfortunately, this costs money, at least $5 per month depending on your site’s purpose. * 2) Make sure Akismet is in the regular “plugins” folder and not in “mu-plugins.” * 3) “Network Activate” Akismet and enter your multi-site API key. That’ll turn it on for all child sites as well as for your site. * Basically I’m almost never using mu-plugins at all, even when I want all the child sites to use the plugin. * Moderator [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * (@ipstenu) * 🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist * [15 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugins-activate-vs-network-activate/page/2/#post-1514401) * Network Activate can only be turned off by super admins, you are correct. I rarely log in as not SA 😉 * But. Please post this in the multisite section. We can start a new topic for 3.1 issues, since Multisite is up and well in 3.0.x 🙂 Viewing 4 replies - 16 through 19 (of 19 total) [←](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugins-activate-vs-network-activate/?output_format=md) [1](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugins-activate-vs-network-activate/?output_format=md) 2 The topic ‘Plugins: Activate vs. Network Activate’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [3.0](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/3-0/) * [activate](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/activate/) * [multisite](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/multisite/) * [network activate](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/network-activate/) * In: [Alpha/Beta/RC](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/alphabeta/) * 19 replies * 10 participants * Last reply from: [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ipstenu/) * Last activity: [15 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugins-activate-vs-network-activate/page/2/#post-1514401) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics