You can do this by editing the database via PhpMyAdmin.
Go to your database’s Options table and find a row called active_plugins.
You should see something like this…
a:10:{
i:0;s:49:"1and1-wordpress-wizard/1and1-wordpress-wizard.php";
i:1;s:29:"acf-repeater/acf-repeater.php";
i:2;s:30:"advanced-custom-fields/acf.php";
i:3;s:45:"limit-login-attempts/limit-login-attempts.php";
i:4;s:27:"redirection/redirection.php";
i:6;s:33:"w3-total-cache/w3-total-cache.php";
i:7;s:41:"wordpress-importer/wordpress-importer.php";
i:8;s:24:"wordpress-seo/wp-seo.php";
i:9;s:34:"wpml-string-translation/plugin.php";
}
You can add a new row for your plugin. You will need to know the following.
- a:10 : 10 = the count of row (how many plugins are in the list)
- i:0;s:49 : i = the item position in the list
- i:0;s:49 : s = the character count
So you you can activate a new plugin by adding a new row and change the values like this…
a:11:{
i:0;s:49:"1and1-wordpress-wizard/1and1-wordpress-wizard.php";
i:1;s:29:"acf-repeater/acf-repeater.php";
i:2;s:30:"advanced-custom-fields/acf.php";
i:3;s:45:"limit-login-attempts/limit-login-attempts.php";
i:4;s:27:"redirection/redirection.php";
i:6;s:33:"w3-total-cache/w3-total-cache.php";
i:7;s:41:"wordpress-importer/wordpress-importer.php";
i:8;s:24:"wordpress-seo/wp-seo.php";
i:9;s:34:"wpml-string-translation/plugin.php";
i:10;s:20:"my-plugin/plugin.php";
}