---
title: "Installation"
description: "How to install Adminkeep from your WordPress admin or WP-CLI, what it needs to run, how updates arrive, and what deleting the plugin keeps or removes."
source: https://adminkeep.com/docs/installation/
---

## Requirements

- WordPress 6.9 or newer
- PHP 7.4 or newer

Adminkeep is free, GPL-licensed, and hosted in the
[WordPress.org plugin directory](https://wordpress.org/plugins/adminkeep/).

## Install from your WordPress admin

<div class="mt-6 grid gap-4 sm:grid-cols-3">
  <div class="rounded-xl border border-line bg-paper p-5"><span class="font-mono text-sm text-accent">01</span><p class="mt-2 font-semibold">Search</p><p class="mt-1 text-sm text-muted">Go to <strong>Plugins → Add New Plugin</strong> and search for <strong>Adminkeep</strong>.</p></div>
  <div class="rounded-xl border border-line bg-paper p-5"><span class="font-mono text-sm text-accent">02</span><p class="mt-2 font-semibold">Install</p><p class="mt-1 text-sm text-muted">Click <strong>Install Now</strong> on the Adminkeep card.</p></div>
  <div class="rounded-xl border border-line bg-paper p-5"><span class="font-mono text-sm text-accent">03</span><p class="mt-2 font-semibold">Activate</p><p class="mt-1 text-sm text-muted">Click <strong>Activate</strong>. Done.</p></div>
</div>

Prefer the command line? WP-CLI installs it by name:

```bash
wp plugin install adminkeep --activate
```

You can also download the zip from the
[plugin's WordPress.org page](https://wordpress.org/plugins/adminkeep/) and upload it under
**Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin**.

## After activation

Adminkeep adds its settings under **Settings → Adminkeep**, and the Plugins screen has a
Settings link to it. That screen is the whole plugin.

Every feature starts **off**. Activating the plugin changes nothing on your site until you
switch something on — a feature you haven't enabled registers zero hooks and loads zero
assets.

## Updating

Updates come from WordPress.org through the normal WordPress update flow. When a new version
is released, it appears on your **Dashboard → Updates** screen and in the plugin list like any
other update — one click, or automatic if you enable auto-updates for it.

Your settings survive every update: everything lives in a single option row that the
update never touches. If you'd rather update by hand, uploading a newer release zip over
the installed copy works too — WordPress asks to **Replace current with uploaded**.

## Uninstalling

Deactivating the plugin simply stops all features and deletes nothing.

**Deleting it keeps your data, unless you ask otherwise** (since 2.2.0). The settings, your
Custom CSS and Header & Footer Code, the SMTP and Contact Form settings, the email log and the Keep URL redirects
all stay in the database, so installing Adminkeep again brings everything back as it was. Only
its scheduled jobs are cleared, since nothing is left to run them. Before 2.2.0, deleting the
plugin always removed its data.

To have everything removed when you delete the plugin, go to **Settings → Adminkeep → Plugin
settings**, tick **Delete all Adminkeep data when the plugin is deleted** and press **Save
changes** first. Or from a shell:

```bash
wp adminkeep setting set delete_data=true
wp plugin uninstall adminkeep --deactivate
```

With that setting on, deleting the plugin removes:

- The settings, the Custom CSS, the Header & Footer Code, and the SMTP and Contact Form settings.
- The [email log](/docs/email-log/) table, with every email in it.
- The [Keep URL](/docs/configuration/#content-tools) redirect table. Old page addresses stop
  redirecting.
- Live Draft pointers and Replace Media bookkeeping from post meta.
- What [Two-Factor Login](/docs/two-factor-login/) stored: remembered devices, any login waiting
  on its code, any wrong-code lock and the recovery link.

One thing is left alone on purpose, even then: media files. If Replace Media kept previous
versions of a file, those stay on disk. Deleting user uploads is not this plugin's call to make.

The clean-up runs when you press **Delete** on the Plugins screen, or run
`wp plugin uninstall adminkeep`. `wp plugin delete` removes the files without running it, so it
never deletes data.

On multisite, each site in the network follows its own setting: a site that switched it on is
cleaned up, and the others keep their data.