How to Exclude Group Forums from the Forums Directory in BuddyBoss

In BuddyBoss, forums associated with groups (Group Forums) are still shown in the Forums Directory by default—even if you’ve chosen to hide the groups themselves.

If you want to hide group-associated forums from the Forums Directory, you can do this easily with a small code snippet using the bbp_before_has_forums_parse_args filter.

✅ The Solution

Add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a custom plugin:

/**
 * Exclude group forums from the directory.
 *
 * @param array $args The arguments to modify.
 *
 * @return array The modified arguments.
 */
function bb_custom_exclude_group_forums_from_directory_args( $args ) {

	if ( function_exists( 'bbp_is_forum_archive' ) && bbp_is_forum_archive() ) {

		// Exclude forums associated with groups.
		$args['meta_query'][] = array(
			'relation' => 'OR',
			array(
				'key'     => '_bbp_group_ids',
				'compare' => 'NOT EXISTS',
			),
			array(
				'key'     => '_bbp_group_ids',
				'value'   => '',
				'compare' => '=',
			),
			array(
				'key'     => '_bbp_group_ids',
				'value'   => 'a:0:{}',
				'compare' => '=',
			),
		);
	}

	return $args;
}

add_filter( 'bbp_before_has_forums_parse_args', 'bb_custom_exclude_group_forums_from_directory_args' );

🧠 How It Works

• Checks if we’re on the Forums Directory page.
• Adds a meta_query to exclude forums that have the _bbp_group_ids meta key, which links them to a group.

✅ Result

Only standalone forums (not connected to any group) will appear in the Forums Directory.