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Block Manager

Block Manager

By Darren Cooney
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Description

The Block Manager is an intuitive tool for site admins to globally remove blocks and block patterns. It also provides functionality for updating the category of individual blocks to help organize the admin editing experience.

Features

  • Blocks: Globally disable blocks from being displayed in the Block Inserter and Block Editor.
  • Patterns: Remove unwanted block patterns with the click of a button.
  • Block Categories: Organize the Block Inserter by updating the category of each block.
  • Hooks: Use hooks to remove blocks and patterns from functions.php.
  • Search and Filter: Quickly locate blocks and patterns with the search functionality in the sidebar.
  • Embed Blocks: Choose the Embed blocks you actually want to include on your site by removing the vast majority of useless options.

Hooks & Filters

Use Block Manager hooks to controls blocks via code and sync options across multiple WordPress environments.

gbm_disabled_blocks

Use the gbm_disabled_blocks hook to remove blocks via backend code.

// functions.php
add_filter( 'gbm_disabled_blocks', function() {
    return [
        'core/buttons',
        'core/columns',
        'core/freeform',
        'core/table'
    ];
});

gbm_disabled_patterns

Use the gbm_disabled_patterns hook to remove block patterns via backend code.

// functions.php
add_filter( 'gbm_disabled_patterns', function() {
   return ['gbm/core-patterns', 'core/query-standard-posts', 'core/query-medium-posts'];
});

gbm_block_categories

Use the gbm_block_categories hook to update block categories via backend code.

// functions.php
add_filter( 'gbm_block_categories', function() {
    return [
        [ 'block' => 'core/html', 'cat' => 'design' ],
        [ 'block' => 'core/cover', 'cat' => 'design' ],
        [ 'block' => 'core/details', 'cat' => 'design' ]
    ];
});

block_manager_user_role

Update the minimum user role allowed to access the Block Manager plugin.

// functions.php
add_filter(
    'block_manager_user_role',
    'edit_theme_options' // Default: activate_plugins
);

Screenshots

  • Disable Blocks: Easily remove unwanted WordPress blocks by toggling the active state of each block.
  • Block Toggle: Disable all blocks in a block categories with a single click.
  • Block Categories: Improve the admin editing experience by updating the category of each block using the Category Switcher.
  • Disable Block Patterns: Remove unwanted block patterns and core patterns by toggling the active state of each pattern.
  • Status Reports: Total active and disabled blocks are displayed in the plugin sidebar.
  • Embed Blocks: Choose the Embed blocks you want to allow on your site and remove the majority of useless options.

Installation

How to install Block Manager.

Using The WordPress Dashboard

  1. Navigate to the ‘Add New’ in the plugins dashboard
  2. Search for ‘Block Manager’
  3. Click ‘Install Now’
  4. Activate the plugin on the Plugin dashboard

Uploading in WordPress Dashboard

  1. Navigate to the ‘Add New’ in the plugins dashboard
  2. Navigate to the ‘Upload’ area
  3. Select block-manager.zip from your computer
  4. Click ‘Install Now’
  5. Activate the plugin in the Plugin dashboard

Using FTP

  1. Download block-manager.zip
  2. Extract the block-manager directory to your computer
  3. Upload the block-manager directory to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
  4. Activate the plugin in the Plugin dashboard

Then navigate to wp-admin -> Settings -> Block Manager to use the plugin.

Reviews

Lifesaver, gets rid of bloat

April 18, 2025 1 reply
What a wonderful plugin! It’s amazing how WP adds all kinds of crap and no way to turn it off – I don’t use patterns, don’t want my clients to use them, and this is the perfect solution to avoid these types of issues. Fantastic way to remove unwanted core blocks as well, sanity at last, THANK YOU!

Life Saver

February 4, 2024 1 reply
Great plugin, thank you. Let me tame my plug in beast and bring order to the Press. I combined it with the php filter ‘block_categories_all’ to move them to my own categories as well. Together, they have made a world of difference.

Clean and handy

October 3, 2023
Extremely useful plugin and one of the first I added to all of my installs. Thank you, Darren!

Block listings not displayed

November 19, 2022 2 replies
I wanted to like this plug for the nice UI design. When I open the block manager screen, the two grey tabs where block listings are suppose to display are empty. It looks like some kind of glitch. Update: I added a couple more review stars for author’s response. Hopefully the issue gets fixed soon.

Incredibly useful plugin

September 15, 2022 1 reply
Having the ability to disable some of the more obscure, unnecessary blocks is essential and this plugin features on every site I work on. Thanks!
Read all 12 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Block Manager” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Block Manager” has been translated into 4 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Block Manager” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

3.1.1 – March 15, 2025

  • FIX: Fixed issue with rendering block icons of various plugins. Now using default WP block editor BlockIcon rendering.
  • FIX: Fixed issue with blocks not showing in Block Manager when being registered using enqueue_block_assets hook.
  • UPDATE: Admin UI/UX updates.

3.1.0 – November 3, 2024

  • UPDATE: New admin UI.
  • UPDATE: Various changes for upcoming Block Manager Pro plugin.

3.0.0 – April 3, 2024

  • NEW: Added support for disabling block patterns and core block patterns.
  • FIX: Fixed incorrect number of filtered blocks display in Blocks sidebar.
  • FIX: Fixed issue with return value in admin_footer text.
  • UPDATE: Updated plugin installer vendor file.
  • UPDATE: Various code refactoring and organization.
  • UPDATE: Various security updates.

2.1.1 – November 1, 2023

  • HOTFIX: Fix for undefined React key warning when WP_DEBUG is enabled.

2.1.0 – November 1, 2023

  • NEW: Adding notification system for feedback after an action is performed.
  • UPDATE: Added display indicators for variation blocks.
  • FIX: Fixed potential upgrade issue with disabled blocks throwing admin error due to object vs array data.
  • FIX: Fixed issue with missing loading animation.
  • FIX: Fixed issue with block variations not counting towards block count.

2.0.0 – October 20, 2023

  • NEW – New admin interface and interactions for the Block and Block Categories pages.
  • NEW: Added block category export and hook gbm_block_categories to allow for changing block categories at the theme level.
  • UPDATE: Updated build scripts and dependencies to use wp-scripts.
  • UPDATE: Block Manager is now supported on Widget screen.
  • FIX: Fixed issue with some missing block definitions.
  • FIX: Fixed issues with block icons not rendering for some blocks.
  • FIX: Fixed issue with various blocks crashing the Block Manager edit screen.
  • FIX: Other various bug fixes and overall improvements.

1.2.5 – May 23, 2023

  • FIX – Fixed potential issue with JS errors on Site Editor screens.
  • UPDATE – WP version bump and testing.

1.2.4 – November 30, 2022

  • HOTFIX – Fixed issue with plugin not working on edit screens.

1.2.3 – November 19, 2022

  • FIX: Added fix for blank screen when users have JetPack plugin enabled.
  • FIX: Fixed issue with missing semi-colon in Block Manager export functionality.
  • FIX: Added fix for only loading the block removal script on New and Edit screens.

1.2.2 – August 17, 2021

  • NEW – Added new Reset option that will clear all disabled blocks.
  • FIX – Added fix for possible issue with icon width on blocks admin page.
  • UPDATE – Updated tab navigation inside the plugin to make it more clear which section was being edited.

1.2.1 – February 28, 2021

  • UPDATE – Added Category Switcher support for all block including core Gutenberg blocks.

1.2 – February 27, 2021

  • NEW – Added new Category Switcher.
    • The Category Switcher provides functionality for changing the category core Gutenberg blocks.
    • Changing a block category will update the location of the block in the Gutenberg Block Inserter while editing posts.
  • FIX – Fixed issue with missing semi-colon in export code.
  • UPDATE – Various admin UI/UX updates.

1.1 – January 19, 2021

  • NEW – Added new gbm_disabled_blocks filter to allow for disabling blocks via functions.php
  • NEW – Added Export option to dynamically build a pre-populated gbm_disabled_blocks filter.
  • NEW – Added Grid/List view toggle.

1.0.1 – January 2, 2021

  • NEW – Added support for Embed blocks (Twitter, Facebook, Spotify etc). These blocks were changed in WP 5.6 and the handler had to be updated to manage the active/inactive states.
  • FIX – Fixed REST API warning for missing permissions_callback.

1.0 – January 6, 2020

  • Initial release

Meta

Ratings

4.9 out of 5 stars.

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Support

Issues resolved in last two months:

1 out of 3

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