How to Disable Openverse in WordPress

One of the reasons you might choose WordPress for making a website is its simplicity. Simplicity involves unburdening your work, and working more lightly with fewer distractions that interfere will create a high-quality result, right? Disabling the WordPress Openverse feature is one of the options we recommend achieving that goal.

Since WordPress 6.2 release on March 29, 20203, WordPress has embedded the Openverse feature on their block editor/Gutenberg. Openverse is a relatively new project. It’s for creating a free, open, and public domain for media developed by WordPress.org, which is still in the early stages of development. You can find that feature on the block inserter panel under the Media tab of your WordPress Gutenberg editor.

How to Disable Openverse in WordPress

Disabling Openverse in WordPress is very easy. The only thing that you need to do is add a simple code snippet to the functions.php file.

On your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance -> Theme File Editor. If you use a block theme, you can find Theme File Editor under the Tools menu. Once enter the Theme File Editor page, select the functions.php file. Afterward, paste the PHP snippet below at the end of the functions file content. Next, update the theme file by clicking the Update File button.

add_filter(
	'block_editor_settings_all',
	function( $settings ) {
		$settings['enableOpenverseMediaCategory'] = false;

		return $settings;
	},
	10
);

Note: If you are afraid of breaking your site after adding the new function to the functions.php file, you can create a child theme or custom plugin. Read here to learn more.

That’s it. To see the result, go to the WordPress block editor/Gutenberg in a new tab or window.

The Bottom Line

This article shows how easily you can disable Openverse in WordPress. Openverse is designed to promote the free and open use of media; some creators may feel it undermines their ability to control and monetize their work. Click here to see our recommendation for some free stock photo sites.