In another article, we provide an overview of what WP plugins are about and how you can use these to easily add new features and functionality to your web site with no software programming knowledge required.
You can view the article here:
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn why plugins need to be kept up-to-date, how to automatically update and uninstall your WordPress plugins, and discover some great tools to help you better manage your plugins.
How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins
Why Many WordPress Plugins Need Upgrading
The WordPress software is regularly updated (about every 3-4 months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities found in earlier versions, and to improve existing features.
Depending on how many plugins you use on your site, there will typically be new new update notifications for WordPress plugins each time a new WordPress version is released.
This is because most WordPress plugins are created by external developers, so sometimes the code in the new WordPress version conflict with plugins that were built for a previous version. Whenever this happens, problems can sometimes develop.
Fortunately, most WordPress plugin developers (and the WordPress developer community itself) are very proactive when it comes to making sure that plugins get updated when a new version of WordPress is released (if this is needed). All you need to do as a WordPress user, is maintain your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon discover, is very easy to do.
Keeping your WordPress plugins regularly updated and deleting old plugins you no longer need is an essential aspect of good WordPress management and helps to avoid any potential conflicts or errors.
The step-by-step tutorial below explains how to automatically update and delete plugins safely from the WP dashboard without requiring coding knowledge.
Updating And Deleting Plugins Safely Inside Your Dashboard – Step-By-Step Tutorial
WordPress uses a few ways to inform users when plugins need to be updated.
For example, you can tell immediately how many plugins are out-of-date as soon as you log into your Administration panel simply by looking at the main “Plugins” menu.
In the screenshot below, you can see that nine WordPress plugins are out of date and need updating …
You can also tell how many plugins need updating from your WP Toolbar (in the screenshot below, you can again see that 9 plugins require updating) …
The Plugins section (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also lets you know which plugins need updating …
In addition to providing information about plugins that have available updates, the Plugins section provides links to the plugin download sites and gives you the option to update your plugins instantly …
Let’s start by learning how to update one plugin at a time.
Upgrade Individual Plugins
We strongly recommend making a full backup of your website before making any updates to your blog or website.
In your dashboard menu, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins …
You will be taken to the “Plugins” screen. This table of plugins can be quite long depending on how many plugins you have added to your site …
(Plugins Page)
Useful Information:
If you have too many plugins and would like to reduce the number of plugins displaying on the screen, then click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your Plugins area and enter a smaller number of items per page (by default, all plugins display on the page), then click Apply …
Your Plugins section will now be made more manageable with a ’numbered pages’ feature added. You can find an installed plugin by scrolling through the pages or using the “Search Plugins” function …
You will see plugin information in different color backgrounds depending on the status of the plugins (inactive vs. active and up-to-date vs. out-of-date) …
Plugins that need upgrading have a distinctive notification message: “There is a new version of [Plugin] available” …
Locate the plugin that needs updating and click on the update now link …
WordPress provides streamlined plugin updates, so that the process of updating your plugins happens with just “one click” without leaving your Plugins area …
Repeat this process for any other plugins on your site that need updating, or refer to the section below if you have several plugins that are out-of-date and would like to upgrade them all in one simple operation.
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Now that you know how to upgrade one plugin at a time, let’s show you how to upgrade a bunch of WP plugins simultaneously.
How To Update Several WordPress Plugins Simultaneously
To bulk-update plugins simultaneously from your admin area, go to the “Plugins” area and click on the Update Available 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 only the plugins you want to update by checking its box …
In the Bulk Actions pull-down menu above the plugin table, select Update …
Click Apply …
Your selected plugins will begin updating …
After all updates have been completed, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to go back to the Plugins screen, or choose another option from the dashboard 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 have now been upgraded!
(When plugins on your site are up-to-date, the notification icons do not display)
Now that you know how to automatically update your plugins, it’s time to learn how to delete plugins from your WordPress blog or website.
How To Safely Remove Plugins
As part of smart WordPress management practices, it’s a good idea to remove inactive plugins. This conserves server resources and help to minimize causes of problems.
In this section, we show you how to remove 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 dashboard menu and choose Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins section, find the plugin you want to remove and make sure it is inactive.
Hint: Inactive plugins appear in a different background color than active plugins and display an “Activate” link below the plugin name …
If the plugin is active, then click on Deactivate before proceeding …
Click Delete …
If you would like to have a look at 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” screen …
The entire list of files belonging to the plugin that you are about to remove will display on your screen …
If you are positively sure that you would like to proceed and delete the selected plugin, then click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
Your plugins and related files will be deleted …
How To Safely Delete Multiple WP Plugins Simultaneously
You can delete all inactive plugins at once, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be removed.
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) …
Once you have done this, select Deactivate from the Bulk Actions drop-down menu …
Click the Apply button …
The selected plugins will be deactivated …
Once you have deactivated these plugins, click on the Inactive link on the menu at the top of the page …
Select all of the plugins you want to delete by either placing a tick next to their checkbox, or click on the check box next to the Plugin column header to select and delete all inactive plugins …
Once you have selected all the plugins that you want to delete, specify Delete from the Bulk Actions pull-down menu …
Click the Apply button …
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 certain that you want to proceed to the next step and remove all of the plugins listed …
Your selected plugins will be deleted and their associated files will be removed from your server …
Plugin Management – Useful WordPress Tools
As well as the methods shown above, you can install WordPress plugins that help you manage your plugins.
PLUGIN CENTRAL
Plugin Central is a Free plugin that helps you manage your plugins by allowing you to install plugins directly, displays the status of plugins in need of update on your WordPress Dashboard and lets you update many plugins at once with a single click of the mouse …
To learn more about using this plugin, visit the plugin site:
Managing WordPress Plugins On Multiple Sites
Whenever plugin updates are released, the best practice is to update the plugin as soon as possible.
What if you have multiple WordPress sites using the same plugin? Normally, you would have to login to every site and then go through the plugin update process from that site’s own dashboard. If you have to update plugins on multiple sites, this process can take quite some time!
WordPress Power User Tip: If you manage multiple WordPress sites or blogs, you can install, upgrade and deactivate plugins on all of your sites automatically and simultaneously using various WordPress management tools.
Here are a couple of WordPress management tools that are worth knowing about:
Jetpack Manage – Single WordPress Dashboard Management
Jetpack is a single plugin for WordPress that provides users with a powerful range of added functionality, allowing self-hosted WordPress site owners to benefit from WordPress.com’s infrastructure and take advantage of robust stats, automated social sharing, and so much more.
(The Jetpack Plugin lets you access a range of powerful WordPress.com features)
One of these features is “Manage”.
Jetpack Manage allows you to manage your self-hosted WordPress sites and WordPress.com sites from a central dashboard.
With Manage, you can update plugins, set plugins to update automatically, and activate or deactivate plugins on a per-site basis or all at once, whether you’re on your PC, tablet, or mobile phone.
To download and use the plugin, visit this site:
ManageWP.com – Multiple WordPress Site Management Software
(ManageWP is a leading WordPress management tool for multiple WP sites)
ManageWP lets you manage all your sites and blogs from one dashboard, including upgrades, backups, security and more. This tool features easy and intuitive one-click upgrades and instant login to your sites.
To download and use this plugin, visit this site:
WP Pipeline
(With WP Pipeline, you can update all of your WordPress sites, plugins and themes from a single WP installation)
WP Pipeline is very similar to ManageWP, but has a one-time license fee instead of monthly payments. It lets you control and organize your entire online WordPress presence and perform multiple upgrades from one single location.
For more information about this plugin, go here:
Congratulations! Now you know how to automatically update and delete plugins.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)