# What happens if you uninstall a plugin that manipulated pages?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-happens-if-you-uninstall-a-plugin-that-manipulated-pages/98101
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [26 september 2018 om 10:51 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-happens-if-you-uninstall-a-plugin-that-manipulated-pages/98101 "2018-09-26T10:51:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@vitorl](https://meta.discourse.org/u/vitorl)
#### Post date: [26 september 2018 om 10:51 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-happens-if-you-uninstall-a-plugin-that-manipulated-pages/98101/1 "2018-09-26T10:51:31Z")
I’m just discovering the world of discourse plugins. But before I commit to them, I need to know the consequences.
Since they are open source, there are no guarantee that they will be maintained forever (thank you creators \<3) . So any day they can break and my only choice be to remove it.
But then what happens with the posts that used the plugin?
I’m thinking about plugins like:
- [GitHub - angusmcleod/discourse-events: Allows you to manage events in Discourse · GitHub](https://github.com/angusmcleod/discourse-events)
- [GitHub - merefield/discourse-locations: Tools for handling locations in Discourse · GitHub](https://github.com/angusmcleod/discourse-locations)
This one is one I’d like to use but haven’t been updated in 2 years so I don’t know if I should even bother…
- [GitHub - crob611/discourse-image-gallery: Image gallery plugin for Discourse · GitHub](https://github.com/crob611/discourse-image-gallery)
Why some have check marks and some doesn’t?
Thank you! \<3
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### Author:  [@david](https://meta.discourse.org/u/david)
#### Post date: [26 september 2018 om 11:00 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-happens-if-you-uninstall-a-plugin-that-manipulated-pages/98101/2 "2018-09-26T11:00:33Z")
You can find official plugins here: [https://meta.discourse.org/tags/c/plugin/official](https://meta.discourse.org/tags/c/plugin/official)
We (the Discourse team) maintain these plugins, and so they should not cause issues. Official plugins carry the green checkmark you described.
Third party plugins **could** damage your Discourse instance. In the vast majority of cases, uninstalling the plugin will fix the problem, but this is not always true.
My advice would be to install the bare minimum of plugins, and instead use growing collection of themes in the #Customization > Theme category. They are much safer to install. You mentioned an image gallery plugin - that can now be achieved with a theme like this:
> [@Tiles Image Gallery](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tiles-image-gallery/81950):
>
> warning This component is deprecated. Discourse now has a built-in tiled gallery feature: Responsive Grid Galleries! Built using [David Desandro](https://github.com/desandro)’s open source [Masonry](https://masonry.desandro.com/) and [ImagesLoaded](https://imagesloaded.desandro.com/) libraries - [MIT license](https://desandro.mit-license.org/) " … released under the MIT license. Have at it." #### How do I use this? This component adds a button to the composer. So all you have to do is: 1- Upload a bunch of images using the default Discourse uploa…
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### Author:  [@vitorl](https://meta.discourse.org/u/vitorl)
#### Post date: [26 september 2018 om 11:05 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-happens-if-you-uninstall-a-plugin-that-manipulated-pages/98101/3 "2018-09-26T11:05:14Z")
Thanks! I really like the locations and events plugins, they fit my community quite well. I guess I’ll just create a bunch of topics using them, then comment out the line in my `app.yml` and see what happens…
Edit: I tested it
With the locations plugin, they just get erased, topics continue but without location data.
The events plugin is weird, it does not show as installed anymore, but I can still insert dates, and the previous dates are still correctly displayed.
No damage to the forum itself. But still means you’d lose all the locations data associated. Dates you’d keep some information.
Since they really fit my community I’ll use it and hope it never breaks/becomes obsolete.
Upon reinstalling them, the stuff came back as it was before uninstalling. Weird but good I guess…
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### Author:  [@system](https://meta.discourse.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [26 oktober 2018 om 11:08 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-happens-if-you-uninstall-a-plugin-that-manipulated-pages/98101/4 "2018-10-26T11:08:56Z")
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