In a previous post, we provide a detailed explanation of what plugins are all about and how you can use these to easily enhance your website’s functionality.
To view this article, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn the importance of keeping plugins up-to-date, how to safely update and uninstall plugins, and useful plugin management tips.
How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins
Why Many WordPress Plugins Need Upgrading
New versions of WordPress are regularly released (about every 3-4 months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities discovered in previous releases, as well as 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 notifications for WordPress plugins each time a new version of WordPress is announced.
This is because most plugins for WordPress are created by third-party developers, so sometimes the code in the newly-released WordPress version conflicts with plugins that were built for a previous version. Whenever this happens, there is a potential for problems to sometimes occur.
Fortunately, most WordPress plugin developers (and the WordPress developer community itself) are quite proactive when it comes to making sure that plugins get updated when a new version of WordPress is released (if required). All you have to do on your end, is keep your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon discover, is very easy and simple to do.
Keeping your WordPress plugins up-to-date and deleting old plugins you no longer use is part of good WordPress site management and helps to avoid any errors and conflicts.
The WordPress tutorial below explains how to update and delete plugins in the WP dashboard with no web coding skills necessary.
How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins In Your Dashboard – Step-By-Step Tutorial
WordPress uses a number of different methods to let you know when your plugins need to be updated.
For example, you can see how many plugins need updating from your Admin area just by looking at the main “Plugins” menu.
For example, in the screenshot below, 9 plugins need to be updated …
You can also view how many plugins need updating from your WP Notification Toolbar (in the screenshot below, you can again see that nine plugins have to be updated) …
The Plugins screen (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also lets you know which plugins need to be updated …
As well as providing information about plugins that have available updates, the Plugins section provides links to the plugin developer pages and gives you the option to update the plugin instantly …
Let’s start by showing you how to upgrade individual plugins.
Update WordPress Plugins One At A Time
Always make a backup of your data and files before making any upgrades to your blog or website.
In your main menu, select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
The “Plugins” area will display in your browser. This screen can be quite lengthy depending on how many plugins you have added to your site …
(The WordPress Plugins Screen)
Useful Tips:
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 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 page will now be made more manageable with a page scrolling 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 backgrounds depending on the status of the plugins (active vs. inactive and up-to-date vs. outdated) …
Plugins that require updating have a distinctive notification message: “There is a new version of [Plugin Name] available” …
Find the plugin that needs to be updated and click on the update now link …
WordPress has done away with the loading screen when updating plugins and streamlined the process, so that the process of updating your plugins takes place 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 many plugins that are out-of-date and would like to update them all at once.
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Now that you know how to update WordPress plugins individually, let’s show you how to bulk-upgrade plugins.
How To Upgrade Various WordPress Plugins
To update multiple WP plugins in one go directly inside your dashboard, go to the “Plugins” page and click on the Update Available link on the menu at the top of the page …
Tick the checkbox next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select only the plugins you want to upgrade by checking their individual boxes …
In the Bulk Actions dropdown menu above the plugin list, select Update …
Click Apply …
Your selected plugins will begin the update process …
After your plugins have all been updated, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to return to the Plugins area, or choose a different section of your dashboard …
Once all plugins are up-to-date, the plugin notifications will disappear (i.e. the “at-a-glance” indicators and “There is a new version of XYZ plugin available” notices no longer display) …
All plugins have now been updated to their latest versions!
(When your site or blog uses the latest version of all plugins, the notification icons do not display)
Now that you know how to update your plugins, it’s time to learn how to safely uninstall plugins from your WordPress blog or website.
How To Remove WordPress Plugins
It’s a good idea to uninstall plugins that you no longer need or are no longer using on your site. This can help decrease server resources and also help to minimize causes of problems.
In this section, you will learn how to safely remove unused plugins from your site.
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 main menu and choose Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins page, find 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, click on Deactivate before going any further …
Click Delete …
If you want to browse all the files that will be deleted before going ahead with the next step, then click on the “Click to view entire list of files which will be deleted” link in the “Delete Plugin” page …
All files belonging to the plugin selected for deletionwill be listed on your screen …
If you are sure that you want to proceed and delete the plugin, just click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
Your plugin(s) will be deleted …
How To Safely Delete Several WordPress Plugins In Bulk
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 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 checkbox next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins (warning: this will deactivate all plugins) …
Once you have done this, specify Deactivate from the Bulk Actions drop down menu …
Click Apply …
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 checkbox in the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select each plugin you want to delete by checking their individual boxes …
Once you have ticked all the check boxes next to the plugins that you want deleted, choose Delete from the Bulk Actions pull-down menu …
Click the Apply button …
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 want to go ahead and remove all of the selected plugins …
The selected plugins will be deleted …
WP Plugin Management – Useful WordPress Tools
As well as the methods shown above, you can use a number of third-party tools to manage your plugins.
PLUGIN CENTRAL
Plugin Central is a Free WordPress plugin that helps you manage your plugins by allowing you to install plugins directly, displays the status of plugins in need of update in the WP Admin and also allows you to update many plugins at once with a single mouse-click …
For more details about using this plugin, visit the plugin site:
Managing WordPress Plugins On Multiple Sites
As discussed earlier, when plugin developers release a new plugin update, the best practice is to upgrde the plugin as soon as possible.
What if you have multiple WordPress sites with the same plugin installed? Typically, you would need to login to each site individually and then update the plugin from that site’s admin dashboard. If you plan to manage multiple sites, updating the same plugin(s) can take quite some time!
WordPress Power User Tip: If you own or manage a number of WordPress sites or blogs, you can install, update and deactivate plugins on multiple sites automatically and simultaneously using a number of WordPress management tools.
Below are just a few great WordPress management tools that are worth knowing about:
Jetpack Manage
Jetpack is a versatile plugin for WordPress that offers users a powerful range of features, allowing self-hosted WordPress site users to benefit from WordPress.com’s infrastructure and take advantage of robust stats, automated social sharing, and a whole lot more.
(Jetpack gives you access to range of powerful WordPress features)
One of these features is “Jetpack Manage”.
Jetpack Manage lets you manage your WordPress sites and plugins from a central dashboard on WordPress.com.
With Manage, you can update plugins, set plugins to automatically update, and activate or deactivate plugins on a site-by-site basis or in bulk, whether you’re on your PC, tablet, or smart phone.
For more information about using this plugin, visit this site:
ManageWP.com – Multiple WordPress Site Management Software
(ManageWP is a widely used WordPress management tool for multiple WordPress sites)
ManageWP lets you easily manage all of your sites from one central location, including updates, backups, security and more. The application features easy and intuitive one-click management and instant login to all of your sites.
Visit this site to learn more about this plugin:
WP Pipeline – WordPress Mass Control Plugin
(With WP Pipeline, you can update all of your WordPress sites, plugins and themes from a single WordPress installation)
WP Pipeline is very similar to ManageWP, but you only have to pay once to access the software. It lets you control and organize your entire online WordPress presence and perform multiple updates from a central location.
To learn more about this plugin, go here:
Congratulations! Now you know how to update and delete plugins inside your dashboard without requiring web coding or programming knowledge or skills.
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