In a previous article, we explain what plugins are and how you can use these to add new features or functionality to your blog with no coding skills required.
You can read the article here:
In this tutorial you will learn the importance of keeping your plugins up-to-date, how to safely upgrade and remove plugins, and some tools to help you better manage your plugins if you plan to manage multiple WordPress sites.
Why Your WordPress Plugins Need To Be Updated
WordPress constantly updates its software (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities found in previous software releases, and to improve existing features.
Depending on how many plugins you have installed on your site, there will typically be new updates for plugins every.
This is because most plugins for WordPress are created by external developers, so sometimes features in the new WordPress version conflict with plugins that were developed for a previous version. Whenever this happens, conflicts can sometimes occur.
Fortunately, most WordPress plugin developers (and the WordPress developer community itself) are fairly proactive when it comes to ensuring that plugins get updated when a new version of WordPress is released (if required). All you need to do as a website owner, is simply maintain your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon discover, is very quick, simple and easy to do.
Keeping your WordPress plugins regularly updated and deleting old plugins you no longer use is part of good WordPress site management and helps to avoid problems or errors.
The WordPress step-by-step tutorial below explains how to upgrade and delete plugins in WordPress without touching web code.
How To Upgrade And Delete Plugins In WordPress – Step-By-Step Tutorial
WordPress uses several methods of letting you know when plugins on your site need to be updated.
For example, you can see ‘at a glance’ how many plugins need to be updated from your WP Dashboard just by looking at the “Plugins” menu.
In the screenshot below, nine WP plugins are out of date and need to be updated …
You can also check how many plugins need to be updated from your WP Notification Toolbar (the screenshot below shows that nine plugins need updating) …
The Plugins section (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also tells you which plugins need to be updated …
In addition to providing information about plugins that have available updates, the Plugins page provides links to the plugin developer sites and gives you the option to update your plugins individually or in bulk …
Let’s start by showing you how to upgrade one plugin at a time.
Upgrading Individual Plugins
Always make a full backup of your data and files before making any updates to your website.
In your admin menu, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins …
The “Plugins” area will display in your browser. The list of plugins can go down your screen for a while, depending on how many plugins you have installed on your site …
(Plugins Page)
Additional Information:
If you have too many plugins and would like to reduce the number of plugins showing on your screen, then click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your Plugins area and type in a smaller number of items per page (by default, all plugins display on the screen), then click Apply …
Your Plugins section will now be reduced in size with a ’numbered pages’ feature added. You can find an installed plugin by scrolling through the pages or using the “Search Plugins” feature …
WordPress displays information about plugins in different color backgrounds depending on the status of the plugins (inactive vs. active and up-to-date vs. outdated) …
Plugins that need upgrading show the following notification message: “There is a new version of [Insert Plugin Name] available” …
Find 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 with just “one click” without leaving your Plugins screen …
Repeat this process for any other plugins on your site that need updating, or refer to the section below if you have a number of plugins that are out-of-date and would like to upgrade them all at once.
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Now that you know how to upgrade one WP plugin at a time, it’s time to learn how to update multiple plugins simultaneously.
Bulk-Upgrading Plugins
To update multiple plugins in a single operation using the automatic upgrade feature, go to the “Plugins” section and click on the Update Available link on the menu at the top of the page …
Click the checkbox in the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select each plugin you want to upgrade by checking its box …
In the Bulk Actions pull-down menu at the top of the page, choose Update …
And then click Apply …
Your selected plugins will begin updating …
Once your plugins have been updated, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to return to your Plugins section, or select another option from the sidebar menu …
Once all plugins are up-to-date, the update reminders disappear (i.e. the “at-a-glance” indicators and “There is a new version of XYZ plugin available” notices no longer display on your screen, toolbar and menus) …
All plugins are now up-to-date!
(When plugins on your site are up-to-date, the notification icons disappear)
Now that you know how to update WP plugins, let’s take a look at how to safely uninstall plugins from your WordPress site.
How To Delete Plugins
Occasionally, you may choose to delete WordPress plugins that are no longer needed or being used on your site. This decreases resource usage and also eliminate problems.
In this section, you will learn how to safely uninstall unused plugins from your WordPress blog or site.
Always create a full back up of your WordPress site before installing, upgrading or deleting plugins, in case something goes wrong and you need to recover data or restore your site.
To delete a plugin, go to your main menu and click on Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins section, locate the plugin you want to delete and make sure it is inactive.
Hint: Inactive plugins use a different colored background than active plugins and show an “Activate” link below the plugin name …
If the plugin is active, click on Deactivate before continuing …
Click Delete …
If you need to review a list of all the files that will be deleted before proceeding any further, then click on the “Click to view entire list of files which will be deleted” link in the “Delete Plugin” section …
A complete list of files belonging to the plugin selected for deletionwill display on your screen …
If you are certain about going ahead and deleting the selected plugin files, just click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
Your plugin(s) will be deleted …
How To Safely Delete Several Plugins Simultaneously
You can bulk-delete all inactive plugins on your site, 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, choose Deactivate from the Bulk Actions pull-down menu …
Click the Apply button …
The 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 …
Tick the check box next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select each plugin you want to remove by checking their individual boxes …
Once you have ticked all the checkboxes next to the plugins that you want to delete, specify Delete from the Bulk Actions drop down menu …
Click Apply …
A list of all selected plugins will show up in the Delete Plugins screen. 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 sure that you want to proceed to the next step and delete all of the plugins listed …
Your selected plugins will be deleted …
Managing WordPress Plugins
As well as the methods shown above, you can install Free and Paid WordPress plugins that let you manage your WordPress 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.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group