This is a table of how to tell whether a particular plugin is actually doing anything useful on your website. This is also helpful for finding all the places you need to switch to an alternate method if replacing it with another plugin.
I’ll update/add as needed. Please comment if I’m missing one you want to see here.
| PLUGIN NAME | ARE YOU USING IT? |
| Antispam Bee | Controls comment spam, so if you allow comments using the built-in WordPress commenting system, you’re using it. |
| Auto Upload Images | This is only used while editing pages, when you paste data that contains embedded image references from other websites. |
| Broken Link Checker | Runs automatically, so you’re using it if you ever look at the broken links report. |
| Contact Form 7 | Search pages/posts for contact-form-7 — the form may be included as a shortcode or a block, but both contain this string. |
| Content Views | Search posts/pages for [pt-view |
| Disable auto-update Email Notifications | You are using it to prevent yourself being notified of plugin and theme automatic updates. |
| Embed Plus for YouTube | Search posts/pages for embedyt — the video or channel may be included as a shortcode or a block, but both contain this string. |
| Events Manager | Go to the Events > Events in the dashboard to see whether there are actually any events. If Events appears more than once in the top level of the dashboard you want the one with the shield-shaped icon. Go to Events > Settings page. – Under the heading Event List/Archives find the setting for Events page. If this is a real page that exists on your website, see whether there are links to it anywhere, especially in a menu or widget. You may need to find the page in the Pages screen of the dashboard to see what its URL is so you can search pages for any links. – Likewise for the Locations page under the heading Location List/Archives. – Likewise for the Categories page under the heading Event Categories. – Likewise for any pages mentioned under the Other Pages heading. |
| Export Media Library | A tool to export media library files, e.g. for manual backup, so not used in normal site operation. No way to tell whether someone occasionally uses it. Delete and see if anyone squawks. |
| Feeds for YouTube | Search posts/pages/widgets for youtube-feed |
| Forget About Shortcode Buttons | Search pages/posts for fasc-button |
| Genesis Blocks | Search pages/posts/widgets for wp:genesis-blocks. |
| Gosign – Masonry Post Block | Search pages/posts/widgets for wp:gosign |
| Hide Comment Author Link | This hides the URL field on the comment form, so you only need it if you allow use of the WordPress commenting system. |