Alan,
By default s2Member does not erase the settings when disabling the plugin. This option can be changed in
WP Admin -> s2Member -> General Options -> De-activation Safeguards. If at some point you changed this option to No (i.e., don't save settings when disabling), then that would explain why your s2Member settings were erased when you disabled the plugin.
However, if the option was set to Yes (i.e.,
do save settings when deactivating) and you still lost your s2Member settings upon deactivating the plugin, then it's likely you have something else wrong with your WordPress installation (e.g., problems writing data to the database, strange issues with the server, etc.).
If you have full backups of the WordPress database from when your s2Member settings were in place, then restoring that database should restore your s2Member settings. If it doesn't, then it's likely that your backed up database doesn't contain the s2Member settings that you had configured.
If you'd like to search your database for the s2Member settings, you can run an SQL query like the one below:
- Code: Select all
SELECT *
FROM `wp_options`
WHERE `option_name` LIKE '%s2member%'
LIMIT 0 , 30