How to uninstall a module in Drupal 7

Drupal modules are a very useful part of your site. You may activate and utilize many different ones as your site matures. Some will be replaced with newer or different functionality as your needs change. Eventually you may need to clean house and remove some of the modules. Follow the instructions below to delete a module from your Drupal 7 site.

Removing a module in Drupal 7

1. Log into your Drupal 7 admin dashboard.
2. From the top menu bar, locate the Modules option and click it.
   
3. Scroll down if needed to find the module you want to unsinstall. This is necessary as the module must be disabled. Here we are going to remove the Lightbox2 module. We ensure the checkbox next to its name is unchecked
   
4. Once it is disabled, we scroll back up to the top of the screen and click on the Uninstall tab at the upper right corner
   
5. This new screen lists all modules that are currently disabled. Find your module and click the checkbox next to its name. Then you can click the Uninstall button at the bottom of the screen.
   
6. You then will be brought to a confirmation screen. Once again, click on the Uninstall button at the bottom. This confirms and finalizes the removal of the module by removinf database tables and other files that were inserted during the initial installation.
   
7. The final screen is the disabled module list. You should have a message confirming the deletion at the top and no longer see the module in the list.
   
8. We are not finished yet. The modules are still listed in the modules list. To finish the removal of the installation we must delete the files physically from the folder they are stored in. You can do this via FTP, SSH (if available), or your cPanel. This tutorial will use the cPanel for demonstration. You must now log into your cPanel dashboard.
9. Once in the cPanel dashboard, find and click on the File Manager tool.
   
10. From here, select the proper root folder for your drupal installation. To do so, use the dropdown at the bottom. Once selected click the Go button at the bottom.
    
11. Once in the root folder, click through the folders to get down to the ‘/sites/all/modules’ folder. You will see folders for your installed modules in the right hand panel under the Name column.
    
12. After you find the correct module folder, right click on it to bring up a menu. From here click on the Delete option to remove the files.
    
13. You will then be greeted with a confirmation popup. Click on the Delete File(s) button to complete the deletion.
    
14. Going back to your Drupal 7 admin Modules area, you should now no longer see the module you uninstalled and deleted.