How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins

Learn how to update and delete WordPress plugins inside your WordPress dashboard…

How To Update And Delete PluginsIn another article, we provide a detailed explanation of what WordPress plugins are all about and how you can use plugins to easily add new features to your web site without editing code.

You can read the article here:

In this tutorial you will learn the importance of keeping all plugins up-to-date, how to automatically upgrade and uninstall your WordPress plugins, and discover useful tips to help you better manage your plugins if you manage multiple WordPress sites.

How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins

Why Many Of Your WordPress Plugins Need Upgrading

The WordPress software is regularly updated (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities discovered in earlier software releases, and to improve existing features or introduce new ones.

Depending on how many plugins you have installed on your site, you can expect to see at least some new new update notices for WordPress plugins each time a new version of WordPress is made available.

This is because most WordPress plugins are created by third-party developers, so sometimes the code in the newly-released WordPress version conflicts with plugins that were created and tested to work with a previous version. Whenever this happens, conflicts can sometimes develop.

Fortunately, most WordPress plugin developers (and the WordPress developer community itself) are quite proactive when it comes to ensuring that plugins get updated when a new version of WordPress is released (if updating is needed). All you have to do on your end, is just maintain your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon discover, is really simple and easy to do.

Useful Info

Keeping your plugins regularly updated and removing old plugins you no longer use is part of good WordPress site management and helps to avoid potential errors and conflicts.

The WordPress tutorial below explains how to upgrade and delete plugins safely without touching web code.

Upgrading And Deleting Plugins In WordPress – Step-By-Step Tutorial

WordPress uses a few methods to notify you when plugins need updating.

For example, you can immediately see how many plugins need to be updated as soon as you log into your WordPress Dashboard simply by looking at the main “Plugins” menu.

For example, in the screenshot below, nine WP plugins have older versions that need to be updated …

How To Upgrade And Delete Plugins

You can also see how many plugins need to be updated from your WP Administration Toolbar (as shown below, nine plugins have to be updated) …

Updating And Deleting Plugins Safely

The Plugins section (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also provides information about plugins that need to be updated …

Upgrading And Deleting WordPress Plugins In Your WordPress Dashboard

In addition to providing information about plugins that have available updates, the Plugins screen provides links to the plugin developer sites and gives you the option to update your plugin individually or in bulk …

Upgrading And Deleting Plugins From The Dashboard

Let’s start by learning how to update one plugin at a time.

How To Update Plugins One At A Time

Warning

We strongly recommend making a complete backup of your data and files before making any upgrades to your website.

From your admin menu, select Plugins > Installed Plugins

How To Automatically Update And Delete Plugins Safely From The Dashboard

You will be taken to the “Plugins” page. The list of plugins can run down your page for some length, depending on how many plugins you have installed in your blog …

How To Upgrade And Delete Plugins

(The WordPress Plugins Screen)

Useful Tip

Useful Tips:

If you have too many plugins installed and would like to reduce the number of plugins showing on your page, then click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your Plugins page and type in a smaller number of items per page (by default, all plugins display on the page), then click Apply …

How To Upgrade And Delete Plugins Safely Inside The WordPress Admin Dashboard

Your Plugins page will now be made more manageable with a pagination feature added. You can find an installed plugin by scrolling through the pages or using the “Search” field …

How To Upgrade And Delete Plugins Safely From Your WordPress Dashboard

WordPress displays information about plugins in different backgrounds depending on the status of the plugins (active vs. inactive and up-to-date vs. outdated) …

Updating And Deleting Plugins

Plugins in need of updating show the following notification message: “There is a new version of [Insert Plugin Name] available”

Updating And Deleting Plugins Safely In WordPress

Locate the plugin that needs updating and click on the update now link …

Upgrading And Deleting Plugins Safely In WordPress

WordPress has done away with the loading screen when updating plugins and streamlined the process, so that updating your plugins happens “behind the scenes” without leaving your Plugins screen …

Upgrading And Deleting Plugins In Your WP Dashboard

Repeat this process for all plugins on your site that need to be updated, or refer to the section below if you have several plugins that are out-of-date and would like to update them all at once.

***

Now that you know how to update one plugin at a time, let’s show you how to bulk-upgrade WordPress plugins.

Bulk-Updating WP Plugins

To bulk-update WP plugins simultaneously using the automatic update feature, go to the “Plugins” section and click on the Update Available link on the menu at the top of the page …

Upgrading And Deleting Plugins Inside Your Dashboard

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 …

Upgrading And Deleting WordPress Plugins Safely From Your Dashboard

In the Bulk Actions drop down menu above the plugin table, select Update

Upgrading And Deleting WordPress Plugins Safely In Your WordPress Admin Dashboard

And then click Apply

How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins

The plugins you have selected will all be updated at once …

Updating And Deleting Plugins

Once your plugins have been updated, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to return to the Plugins screen, or visit a different section of your dashboard …

Upgrading And Deleting Plugins

Once your plugins are all up-to-date, the plugin notifications disappear (i.e. the “at-a-glance” indicators and “There is a new version of XYZ plugin available” messages no longer display) …

How To Upgrade And Delete Plugins Safely Inside Your WordPress Admin Dashboard

All plugins have now been updated to their latest versions!

How To Upgrade And Delete Plugins Inside Your Dashboard

(When your site or blog uses the latest version of all plugins, the notification icons no longer appear)

Now that you know how to upgrade plugins, it’s time to learn how to safely delete plugins safely from your WordPress site or blog.

How To Remove Plugins

It’s a good idea to remove plugins that are no longer needed or being used on your site. This helps to conserve resource usage and will help you avoid causes of problems.

In this section, we show you how to uninstall unused plugins from your WordPress site.

Warning

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 delete a plugin, go to your WP admin menu and choose Plugins > Installed Plugins

How To Upgrade And Delete Plugins Inside The Dashboard

In the Plugins section, locate the plugin you want to remove and make sure it is inactive.

Hint: Inactive plugins have a different background color than active plugins and show an “Activate” link below the plugin name …

How To Upgrade And Delete Plugins Safely From Your WP Admin Dashboard

If the plugin is active, then click on Deactivate before going any further …

How To Automatically Upgrade And Delete Plugins In The Dashboard

Next, click on Delete

Upgrading And Deleting Plugins Safely In WordPress

If you want to have a look at all the files that will be deleted before proceeding, then click on the “Click to view entire list of files which will be deleted” link in the “Delete Plugin” section …

How To Upgrade And Delete Plugins From Your WP Dashboard

The entire list of files belonging to the plugin selected for deletionwill display on your screen …

Updating And Deleting Plugins Safely From The Dashboard

If you are absolutely certain about going ahead and deleting these plugin files, then click on the Yes, Delete these files button …

Upgrading And Deleting Plugins Safely

The selected plugins and related files will be deleted from your server …

How To Automatically Update And Delete Plugins In WordPress

How To Safely Delete Multiple WP Plugins At Once

You can delete all inactive plugins at once, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be deleted.

Info

Note: To delete any plugins that are presently active, you first need to 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) …

How To Update And Delete Plugins

Next, specify Deactivate from the Bulk Actions dropdown menu …

Updating And Deleting Plugins Safely In WordPress

Click the Apply button …

How To Automatically Upgrade And Delete Plugins Safely

Your selected plugins will be deactivated …

How To Automatically Upgrade And Delete Plugins

To delete all or some of the inactive plugins, go to the “Plugins” page and click on the Inactive link in the Plugins menu …

Updating And Deleting Plugins Safely

Select all of the plugins you want to delete by either placing a tick next to their check box, or click on the checkbox next to the Plugin column header to select and delete all inactive plugins …

Upgrading And Deleting Plugins In Your Dashboard

Once you have selected all the plugins that you want deleted, select Delete from the Bulk Actions drop-down menu …

How To Automatically Upgrade And Delete Plugins Safely Inside The Dashboard

Click Apply

How To Update And Delete Plugins Safely In The WordPress Dashboard

A list of all selected plugins will be displayed 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 sure that you want to proceed to the next step and remove all of the selected plugins …

How To Upgrade And Delete Plugins Inside Your WordPress Admin Dashboard

All plugins will be deleted …

How To Automatically Upgrade And Delete Plugins Safely

Plugin Management – Tools

In addition to the methods shown above, you can install WordPress plugins to manage your plugins.

Health Check & troubleshooting

Health Check & Troubleshooting WordPress plugin
Health Check identifies common problems and helps you troubleshoot plugin and theme conflicts.

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

WPMU DEV's The Hub - Unlimited WordPress Site Management
WPMU DEV’s The Hub – Unlimited WordPress Site Management

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.

WPMU DEV: The Hub - My Sites - Updates menu

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.

WPMU DEV: The Hub - My Sites - Updates menu

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.

The Hub - Update notifications.
This feature can help you save a lot of time updating multiple WordPress sites, especially when WordPress releases a new version of its software.

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