You open Plugins to install something and the Add New Plugin button is not there, or the Plugins menu is missing from the left side altogether. WordPress hides it on purpose in six situations, and each has its own fix. Below is a rebuilt example (not a real client), the two-minute check, and the fix for each cause.
wordpress.com/... or the menu has an Upgrades item, your site is hosted by WordPress.com, where plugins depend on the plan (row 2).wp-config.php (hosting File Manager or SFTP, in the folder that holds wp-admin) and search for DISALLOW_FILE_MODS. If it is set to true, that alone hides the button (row 4).| What you see | Why it happens | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| No Plugins menu, or no Users menu either | Your account is not an Administrator. Only administrators can install plugins. Agencies often keep the admin account and give the owner an Editor login | Ask whoever holds the administrator account to change your role under Users, or to create an administrator account in your name. If nobody will, your host's support can add one for the account holder. It is your site: you should hold at least one administrator login yourself |
| Plugins leads to a page of offers, or says plugins need an upgrade | The site is on WordPress.com, and the plan it is on does not allow installing your own plugins | Check the plan under Upgrades > Plans: installing any plugin needs one of the higher plans. The alternative is moving the site to ordinary hosting, where every plugin is allowed. Compare the yearly cost of each before choosing |
| Plugins shows a list but no Add New Plugin button, and there is a My Sites menu | The site is part of a multisite network. Only the network's Super Admin can add plugins; single-site admins can only turn on what is already installed | Go to My Sites > Network Admin > Plugins > Add New Plugin, install it there, then activate it on your site. If you have no Network Admin menu, ask the network's Super Admin |
| You are an Administrator but there is no Add New Plugin button, and no update buttons anywhere either | wp-config.php contains define( 'DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true );. It blocks every install and update from the dashboard. A developer, a security plugin or the host may have set it on purpose | Ask whoever set it why first: some sites are updated another way (Git, the host's tools). If nobody owns updates, change the line to:define( 'DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', false );Change the existing line; do not add a second copy. A site with this switched on and nobody updating it is falling behind on security fixes |
| The button is missing for your account but a colleague's account sees it | A role editor plugin (Members, User Role Editor, PublishPress Capabilities) removed the install_plugins permission from your role or your user | In that plugin's screen, open the Administrator role (and your user, if it has its own settings) and tick install_plugins, activate_plugins and update_plugins again |
| Whole menus are missing and the dashboard carries an agency's logo | A "client dashboard" or white-label plugin, often a must-use plugin you cannot deactivate, hides menus from every account except the agency's | Look under Plugins > Must-Use. A must-use plugin is a file in wp-content/mu-plugins; rename that file to switch it off. If you no longer work with that agency, ask them to hand the site over properly rather than leaving their lock in place |
If the button is there but clicking Install asks for "Connection Information" (FTP host, username, password), or the install fails part way, that is a different problem: WordPress cannot write to its own files. See plugin install or update failed.
Changing a role or one line of wp-config.php takes a minute. Getting an administrator login back from a former developer, moving off a locked plan, or unpicking an agency's dashboard lock without breaking the host's own tools is where most owners would rather have someone do it. If that is you, the box below is for that. Related: login keeps sending you back, update failed and WordPress needs updating.