How to disable WordPress comments

Overview

Steps for disabling comments in WordPress.

Steps

For new posts

1. Click Settings
2. Click Discussion
3. Uncheck Allow people to submit comments on new posts
4. Click Save Changes

For existing posts

This will prevent new comments from being made. However, existing comments will continue to be displayed.

1. Click Posts
2. Click All Posts
3. Select all or some posts
4. Select Edit from the Bulk actions dropdown
5. Click Apply
6. Select Do not allow from the Comments dropdown
7. Click Update

For existing comments

1. Click Comments
2. Select all or some comments
3. Select Unapprove or Move to Bin from the Bulk actions dropdown
4. Click Apply

Unapproved comments continue to exist, which is useful if you want to bring them back later, while moving comments to the bin will eventually permanently delete the comments once you empty the bin.