In another article, we explain what plugins are and how you can use plugins to easily increase your web site’s functionality.
To read the article, go here:
In this tutorial you will learn why WordPress plugins need to be kept up-to-date, how to easily update and delete your WordPress plugins, and discover some great tips to help you better manage your plugins.
Why WordPress Plugins Need Regular Updating
The WordPress software is constantly updated (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities discovered in earlier releases, as well as to improve existing features or introduce new functionality to users.
Depending on how many plugins you have installed on your site, there will typically be new new update notifications for plugins each time a new WordPress version is released.
The reason for this, is because most WordPress plugins are created by 3rd-party developers, so sometimes features in the new WordPress version conflict with plugins that were created and tested to work with a previous version. Whenever this happens, there is a potential for issues to sometimes occur.
Fortunately, most WordPress plugin developers (and the WordPress developer community itself) are very proactive when it comes to ensuring that plugins get updated when a new version of WordPress is released (if required). All you have to do as a WordPress user, is simply maintain your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon learn, is really simple to do.
Keeping your plugins regularly updated and removing old plugins you no longer need is an essential aspect of good WordPress site management and helps to avoid potential errors or problems.
The WordPress step-by-step tutorial below explains how to upgrade and delete plugins safely without touching web code.
Upgrading And Deleting Plugins From Your WP Admin Dashboard – Tutorial
WordPress has a number of different methods to inform users when plugins need updating.
For example, you can instantly see how many plugins need updating as soon as you log into your WordPress Dashboard simply by looking at the main “Plugins” menu.
For example, in the screenshot below, you can see that 9 plugins are out of date and need to be updated …
You can also view how many plugins need to be updated from your WordPress Toolbar (the screenshot below shows that a number of plugins require updating) …
The Plugins page (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also lets you know which plugins need updating …
As well as providing information about which plugins have updates available, the Plugins screen provides links to the plugin developer pages and gives you the option to update the plugins individually or in bulk …
Let’s start by showing you how to update one WordPress plugin at a time.
Update Single WordPress Plugins
We strongly recommend making a backup of your site files and database before updating your blog or website.
From your admin menu, select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
You will be taken to the “Plugins” page. This page can be quite lengthy depending on how many plugins you have installed in your site …
(Plugins Screen)
Additional Info:
If you have too many plugins installed and would like to make this section more manageable, then click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your Plugins screen and type in a smaller number of items per page (all plugins show on the screen by default), then click Apply …
Your Plugins section will now be reduced in size with a page scrolling feature added. You can find an installed plugin by scrolling through the pages or using the “Search” box …
WordPress displays plugin information in different color backgrounds depending on the status of the plugins (inactive vs. active and outdated vs up-to-date) …
Plugins that require upgrading display the following notification message: “There is a new version of [Insert Plugin Name] available” …
Select the plugin that needs updating and click on the update now link …
WordPress has done away with the loading screen when updating plugins and streamlined the process, so that updating your plugins takes place “behind the scenes” without leaving your Plugins area …
Repeat the above process for all plugins on your site that need updating, or see the section below if you have several plugins that are out-of-date and would like to upgrade all plugins in one simple operation.
***
Now that you know how to update WP plugins one at a time, it’s time to learn how to bulk-upgrade plugins.
How To Bulk-Update Plugins
To bulk-upgrade plugins directly inside your dashboard, go to the “Plugins” section and click on the Update Available link on the menu at the top of the page …
Tick the checkbox in the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select each plugin you want to upgrade by checking their individual boxes …
In the Bulk Actions pull-down menu above the list of plugins, select Update …
Click Apply …
Your selected plugins will automatically begin to update …
Once the update process has been completed, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to return to the Plugins screen, or select another option from the WP dashboard menu …
Once your plugins are all up-to-date, any plugin alerts will disappear (i.e. the “at-a-glance” indicators and “There is a new version of XYZ plugin available” notices no longer display) …
You have updated all plugins on your site to their latest version!
(When your site uses the latest version of all plugins, the notification icons disappear)
Now that you know how to update plugins, let’s show you how to uninstall plugins safely from your WordPress site or blog.
How To Remove WordPress Plugins
Occasionally, you may choose to remove plugins that you no longer need or are no longer using on your site. This can conserve resources on your server and help you avoid problems.
In this section, you will learn how to safely remove unused plugins from your WordPress site or blog.
We strongly recommend creating a full back up of your site before installing, upgrading or deleting plugins, in case something goes wrong and you need to recover data or restore your site.
To remove a plugin, go to your WP admin menu and select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins section, find the plugin you want to remove and make sure it is deactivated.
Hint: Inactive plugins use a different colored background than active plugins and display an “Activate” link below the plugin name …
If the plugin is active, then click on Deactivate before proceeding with your plugin deletion …
Next, click on Delete …
If you want to review a list of all the files that will be deleted before taking the next step, then click on the “Click to view entire list of files which will be deleted” link in the “Delete Plugin” page …
The entire list of files associated with the plugin selected for deletionwill display on your screen …
If you are positively sure that you would like to go ahead and delete these plugin, just click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
The selected plugin(s) will be deleted from your server …
Bulk-Deleting Plugins
You can bulk-delete all inactive plugins, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be cleared.
Note: To delete any plugins that are presently active, you must first deactivate them.
Go to the “Plugins” section and select all of the active plugins that you want to delete by either placing a tick next to their checkbox, or selecting the check box next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins (warning: this will deactivate all plugins) …
Next, select Deactivate from the Bulk Actions dropdown menu …
Click the Apply button …
All selected plugins will be deactivated …
Once you have deactivated your plugins, click on the Inactive link on the menu at the top of the page …
Click the check box in the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select only the plugins you want to remove by checking its box …
Once you have selected all of the plugins that you want deleted, specify Delete from the Bulk Actions drop down menu …
Click Apply …
A list of all selected plugins will show up in the Delete Plugins area. Click on “click to view entire list of files which will be deleted” to review all the plugin files that you are about to delete, or click on the Yes, Delete these files button if you are absolutely sure that you want to go ahead and remove all of the plugins listed …
Your plugins will be deleted and their associated files will be removed from your server …
WordPress Plugin Management – Tools
In addition to the methods shown above, you can install a range of tools to manage your plugins.
Health Check & troubleshooting
This plugin provides comprehensive checks for your WordPress installation to detect common configuration errors and known issues. It also enables plugins and themes to add their own custom checks.
The debug section allows you to easily gather information about your WordPress and server configuration, which can be shared with support representatives for themes, plugins, or on the official WordPress.org support forums.
The troubleshooting feature allows you to initiate a clean WordPress session, where all plugins are disabled and a default theme is used, but only for your user account until you choose to disable it or log out.
The Tools section offers the ability to check for file tampering in WordPress, test email-sending functionality, and verify plugin compatibility with future PHP version updates.
For more details, go here: Health Check And Troubleshooting
Managing WordPress Plugins On Multiple Sites
As discussed earlier, when plugin updates are released, the best practice is to update the plugin as soon as possible to its latest version.
What if you run multiple WordPress sites using the same plugin?
Typically, you would need to log in to every site individually and update the plugin manually from the site’s admin dashboard.
If you manage or plan to manage multiple sites, this process can become very time-consuming, especially as plugins get updated quite often.
If you manage multiple WordPress sites, you can install, update, and delete multiple plugins on all your sites automatically and simultaneously using WordPress site management tools, like the one below:
WPMU DEV’s The Hub
The Hub lets you manage unlimited WordPress sites easily and effectively from one central command center.
The Updates section of The Hub shows you exactly what needs updating on each of your managed site(s), including plugins, themes, and core software updates.
The Hub’s Updates features display how many outdated components need updating on your site(s).
You can choose to either update all your plugins at once or update them individually with just a few clicks. Best of all, you don’t need to log into every site separately to perform your plugin updates.
Update everything at once or perform individual updates directly in The Hub with a few clicks.
This can be a real time-saver when managing multiple WordPress sites, especially when WordPress releases a new version and you have to update many plugins and themes to prevent potential issues from happening.
You can read our comprehensive article on managing multiple sites effectively using the Hub or visit WPMU DEV to learn more and try The Hub for free.
***
"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)