In a previous post, we explain what plugins are and how you can use plugins to extend your website’s functionality.
You can view the article here:
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn the importance of keeping your plugins up-to-date, how to safely update and uninstall your WordPress plugins, and discover useful plugin management tools.
How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins
Why Many WordPress Plugins Need Updating
New WordPress versions are regularly released (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities found in previous software versions, and to improve existing features.
Depending on how many plugins you have installed on your site, there will typically be new new update notifications for WordPress plugins whenever WordPress releases a new version.
This is because most WordPress plugins are created by third-party developers, so sometimes code or features in the new WordPress version conflict with plugins that were developed and tested with a previous version. When this happens, issues can sometimes occur.
Fortunately, most WordPress plugin developers (and the WordPress developer community itself) are fairly proactive when it comes to making sure that plugins get updated when a new version of WordPress is released (if required). All you need to do on your end, is just keep your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon discover, is really simple to do.
Keeping your WordPress plugins regularly updated and removing old plugins you no longer need is an essential aspect of good WordPress site management and helps to avoid any potential conflicts and errors.
The WordPress step-by-step tutorial below explains how to automatically upgrade and delete plugins safely without requiring web programming knowledge or skills.
How To Automatically Update And Delete Plugins Safely Inside Your WordPress Admin Dashboard – Tutorial
WordPress uses a few methods to alert you when plugins need updating.
For example, you can instantly see how many plugins need to be updated as soon as you log into your WP Dashboard just by looking at the main “Plugins” menu.
In the screenshot below, you can see that 9 WordPress plugins have older versions that need to be updated …
You can also view how many plugins need to be updated from your WP Administration Toolbar (in the screenshot below, you can again see that nine plugins have to be updated) …
The Plugins page (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also lets you know which plugins need to be updated …
As well as providing information about which plugins have updates available, the Plugins section provides links to the plugin download sites and gives you the option to update your plugins with one-click …
Let’s start by showing you how to update plugins individually.
Upgrading Individual Plugins
Always make a complete backup of your site files and database before upgrading your blog or website.
From your dashboard menu, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins …
The “Plugins” screen will display in your browser. The table of plugins can go down your screen for a while, depending on how many plugins you have installed in your site …
(The WordPress Plugins Page)
Notes:
If you have too many plugins and would like to make this section more manageable, then click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your Plugins area and enter a smaller number of items per page (all plugins show on the screen by default, i.e. “999”), then click the ‘Apply’ button …
Your Plugins section will now be reduced in size with a pagination feature added. You can find an installed plugin by scrolling through the pages or using the “Search” function …
WordPress displays information about plugins in different color backgrounds depending on the status of your plugins (inactive vs. active and outdated vs up-to-date) …
Plugins that need updating display the following notification message: “There is a new version of [Plugin] 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 plugin update process, so that the process of updating your plugins takes place with just “one click” without leaving your Plugins screen …
Repeat this process for all plugins on your site that need to be updated, or see the section below if you have many plugins that are out-of-date and would like to upgrade all plugins at once.
***
Now that you know how to upgrade WP plugins individually, let’s show you how to upgrade many plugins simultaneously.
How To Upgrade Multiple Plugins Simultaneously
To update multiple plugins in a single operation from your admin area, go to the “Plugins” screen and click on the Update Available link on the menu at the top of the page …
Click the checkbox next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select only the plugins you want to update by checking its box …
In the Bulk Actions pull-down menu above the table of plugins, select Update …
Click Apply …
Your selected plugins will begin updating …
Once all updates are finished, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to go back to the Plugins area, or select another option from the admin menu …
Once all plugins are up-to-date, the update reminders will disappear (i.e. the “at-a-glance” indicators and “There is a new version of XYZ plugin available” messages no longer display) …
All plugins have now been updated!
(When your site uses the latest version of all plugins, update icons no longer show)
Now that you know how to automatically update inside your dashboard, let’s show you how to delete plugins safely from your site.
Deleting Plugins
At times, you may choose to delete WordPress plugins that you no longer need or are no longer using on your site. This can help reduce resource usage and also helps to eliminate causes of some problems.
In this section, you will learn how to safely uninstall unused plugins from your WordPress site.
We strongly recommend creating 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 reinstall your site.
To remove a plugin, go to your admin menu and click on Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins screen, locate the plugin you want to remove and make sure it is deactivated.
Hint: Inactive plugins have 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 continuing with your plugin deletion …
Click on Delete …
If you would like to browse all the files that will be deleted before going ahead, then click on the “Click to view entire list of files which will be deleted” link in the “Delete Plugin” screen …
A complete list of files associated with the plugin selected for deletionwill display on your screen …
If you are certain that you want to go ahead and delete these plugin files, click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
The selected plugins and related files will be deleted …
Bulk-Deleting WP Plugins
You can delete all inactive plugins at once, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be deleted.
Note: To delete any plugins that are currently 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 check box, or selecting the checkbox next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins (warning: this will deactivate all plugins) …
Once you have done this, choose Deactivate from the Bulk Actions dropdown menu …
Click Apply …
Your 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 on the check box next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select only the plugins you want to delete by checking their individual boxes …
Once you have ticked all the check boxes 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 display 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 would like to go ahead and remove all of the selected plugins …
Your selected plugins will be deleted and their associated files will be removed from your server …
Managing Plugins
In addition to the methods shown above, you can use WordPress plugins 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.
***
"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum