Deleting Toolset from a WordPress site is easier than it sounds.

Toolset initially was a free plugin to create custom post types.

It became a premium product in 2018, and free updates no longer are available.

I removed Toolset from two sites in 2019 and created the custom post types with code.

I experienced no problems.

Here are the steps I took.

Steps to Delete Toolset

Record elsewhere each custom post type in the Toolset plugin and its name and singular name.

Record the name of templates being applied to each custom post type.

My templates were constructed so WordPress automatically applied the template to the custom post type. I wasn’t using Toolset to do that. For example, a template named single-headline.php was applied to a custom post type named headline. If you currently are not using the WordPress template naming convention, you may need to rename your templates.

Back up your custom post types in the WordPress dashboard using Tools > Export. I backed up mine by exporting one custom post type at a time.

Prepare your code to create your custom post types in the functions.php file.

I placed the following code in my functions.php to register a custom post type called headline:

 

function create_headline_type() {

register_post_type( ‘headline’,

array(

‘labels’ => array(

‘name’ => __( ‘Headlines’ ),

‘singular_name’ => __( ‘Headline’ )

),

‘public’ => true,

‘publicly_queryable’ => true,

‘show_ui’ => true,

‘show_in_menu’ => true,

‘has_archive’ => true,

‘supports’ => array( ‘editor’, ‘title’,’author’,’thumbnail’,’excerpt’, ‘custom-fields’, ‘revisions’ ),

‘taxonomies’ => array( ‘category’, ‘post_tag’ ),

)

);

}

add_action( ‘init’, ‘create_headline_type’ );

 

WordPress explains the code for the register post type function here: https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/register_post_type

Deactivate the Toolset plugin.

Your custom post types will not disappear from the front end of your site, but access to them will disappear in the dashboard until you register the custom post types in your functions.php file. The information in the custom post types will remain in your database.

Add your code to register your custom post types in your functions.php file.

Ensure that the custom post types have returned to your dashboard.

Open several custom post type entries to ensure everything looks OK and view the posts from the front end to ensure the intended template is being applied.

Copy the Toolset folder in your back end and save it somewhere in case you need to reverse the steps here. I doubt you can download a copy again from the developers.

Delete the Toolset plugin if you don’t need it anymore. Deleting the Toolset plugin did not delete any of my data in my custom post types.