why i cannot see some plugins while they are enabled on network admin page?

Plugins with Network: true in their header cannot be seen, activated or deactivated in sub sites. The reason is simple: You need super admin rights to do something with them, and their settings section (if there are any) are visible in wp-admin/network/ only.

Even if you are the super admin and on a sub site you will not see those menus usually, because the API for network plugins is slightly different: The registration of menu entries works different, URLs differ and there is no real options API. For a plugin developer it would require some rather unstable hacks to offer those menu entries. It is just not worth the efforts.

The other group of invisible plugins is mu-plugins. They are stored in a directory mu-plugins, and they run without activation. Again, only the network admin’s business, and only visible here.

Related Posts:

  1. How to add field for new site-wide option on Network Settings screen?
  2. Getting Custom Post Type content from main-site of a Multisite
  3. WordPress network: set themes and plugins for new blog
  4. Multisite: Activate plugin for subsites only?
  5. Setting up a multilingual wordpress site
  6. Plugin to list active plugins across networked sites
  7. How to hide plugin from WordPress Multisite admin plugin list
  8. Show function to super admin
  9. Activation flow of a plugin in a multisite environment
  10. Plugin De/Activation Not Firing On MultiSite install
  11. Uninstall, Activate, Deactivate a plugin: typical features & how-to
  12. WordPress sharding: which multi-DB plugin to use?
  13. What is a Network Activated Plugin Exactly?
  14. Show a confirm message before plug-in activation
  15. Using Vagrant for customizable WordPress Multi-sites [closed]
  16. Sharing Ad Revenue among Users of a Multisite in a Collaborative Model?
  17. While using WordPress Multisite is it possible to display data to main site from subsites?
  18. Function to activate WordPress theme inside a plugin
  19. Is it possible to run plugin code when a multisite blog is deleted?
  20. Multi domain, multi sites with different themes and content
  21. Bug in Stackoverflow styled badge system script
  22. How can a plugin run a script after being updated in MultiSite?
  23. Aggregate Summaries of Posts of Different Blogs in Multisite Instance
  24. Posts wont expire
  25. Multisite functions to communicate with individual site functions
  26. explanation for activate_plugin function in wordpress core
  27. I’m trying to create security question field for my login page
  28. Force plugin to fail activation
  29. Duplicate a Multi-Site Subdomain
  30. How to get last_updated and newest_blogs in WP 3.0
  31. Display All Non-Used Plugins
  32. Having separate plugins and themes folder for multi-site setup
  33. Creating Custom Roles for use on a WordPress Multi-site Instance?
  34. Remove filter from WordPress Plugin
  35. What Plugin Do You Use to Turn WordPress based site to A Blog Aggregator
  36. Check if User exists in WordPress Multisite
  37. Detect when any plugin is activated or deactivated
  38. Is the wordpress user-model changed in wpmu?
  39. Network: retrieve a list of latest posts
  40. Plugin won’t activate – cannot declare class (already in use)
  41. Unable to install theme recommended plugins on Multisite
  42. How to add class in plugin only for network site?
  43. How to activate plugins for my WordPress sites from a remote server
  44. register_activation_hook with include file [closed]
  45. How to make an interface similar to multi-site for switching between multiple (single) sites for administrators?
  46. How to write a plugin to add users to a mail list
  47. My Category is too big on the Menu what can i do?
  48. Prevent a plugin from being automatically activated
  49. Is any information available in PHP files in WP about plugin activation history?
  50. WordPress on AWS with ELB
  51. Solutions to repost categories into multisite blogs?
  52. Own plugin corrups plugin-activation
  53. Media is not attached after import
  54. Any recommendation on how to manage ads?
  55. Plugins not showing in Multisite dashboard
  56. How can I force users to a particular subdomain to log in for MU (Multisite)?
  57. How to check if tables in WordPress still exists after activations
  58. Run plugins only on certain pages
  59. There is any way to remove post-format filter? [closed]
  60. WordPress site periodically goes down
  61. Are functions in main plugin file called before function bound to register_activation_hook runs?
  62. Force file download on plugin activation
  63. WordPress user account activation
  64. Uninstalling plugins across all sites
  65. Why this function not working for install database on plugin activation
  66. Run function on plugin activation before plugin is loaded
  67. Create a single website with 3 theme options in wordpress
  68. A question about register_activation hook
  69. One sub site is slow while all others load fine, same theme & plugins [closed]
  70. rewrite_rules() not applying rules on plugin activation only after permalinks menu is clicked
  71. How to check wp_options’s rewrite_rules if current and existing are the same before flush the rules?
  72. WordPress super admin login issue. (Automatically logout)
  73. Advanced WordPress plugin activation detection
  74. How to remove a CPT Menu from the Root Admin only
  75. Hosting multiple sites
  76. how to make a wplang for network fill automatically
  77. Multisite Plugin – Access options (wp_options) on child sites
  78. Plugin to create unlimited custom shortcodes?
  79. Constructing a Pay to Download music website with wordpress
  80. Multisite Change from domain.com to sub.newdomain.com
  81. Can I edit multiple sites with an online WordPress account?
  82. Fatal error: require_once(): Failed opening required
  83. how to enable/activate a plugin per Cpanel
  84. Creating one user access account for all the multiple sites
  85. Media Dialog CSS broken in WP v.5.3.2
  86. My WordPress activation hook isn’t working
  87. Copying content from my other websites
  88. how to add navigation icons in specific template?
  89. Update javascript URL in header – Domain Mapping Plugin [closed]
  90. Error Copying Directory On Plugin Activation
  91. How do plugin updates work?
  92. Automatization for automatization
  93. Is there going to an issue running different features of WP site in different subdomains?
  94. Plugin on all site except primary one
  95. After installing plugins, changes don’t appear
  96. Integrating planning tools in wordpress
  97. Pulling sub-site content into specific pages
  98. Frontpage Admin Bar Disappeared
  99. Change email notification language based on the site language in WPForms
  100. Automatically install bundled plugins during theme activation?