In another post, we provide an overview of what WP plugins are all about and how you can use plugins to add new features or functionality to your web site without touching code.
To read the article, go here:
In this tutorial you will learn the importance of keeping your plugins up-to-date, how to safely update and remove plugins from your site, and discover useful tips to help you better manage your plugins if you need to run multiple WordPress sites or blogs.
Why Many WordPress Plugins Need Frequent Updating
The WordPress software is regularly updated (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities found in earlier releases, as well as 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 an updated version.
The reason for this, is because most plugins for WordPress are created by third-party developers, so sometimes 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 quite proactive when it comes to making sure 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 keep your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon discover, is really quick, simple and easy to do.
Keeping your plugins regularly updated and removing old plugins you no longer use is an essential aspect of good WordPress site management and helps to avoid errors and conflicts.
The WordPress tutorial below explains how to automatically update and delete plugins without requiring coding knowledge.
How To Automatically Upgrade And Delete Plugins Safely In WordPress – Tutorial
WordPress employs several methods to alert users when plugins need to be updated.
For example, you can immediately see how many plugins are out-of-date from your Administration site simply by looking at the “Plugins” menu.
In the example below, 9 plugins have older versions that need to be updated …
You can also view how many plugins need updating from your WordPress Admin Toolbar (the example below shows that several plugins should be updated) …
The Plugins section (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also tells you 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 developer sites and gives you the option to update your plugin with one-click …
Let’s start by learning how to upgrade individual WordPress plugins.
How To Update Individual WordPress Plugins
Always make a complete backup of your website before upgrading your website.
In your main menu, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins …
The “Plugins” section will display in your browser. The screen can be quite long depending on the number of plugins you have added to your site …
(Plugins Page)
Useful Info:
If you have too many plugins and would like to reduce the number of plugins displayed on your page, then click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your Plugins page and enter a smaller number of items per page (all plugins show up on the page by default, i.e. “999”), then click the ‘Apply’ button …
Your Plugins page 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 Plugins” field …
You will see information about plugins in different backgrounds depending on the status of the plugins (inactive vs. active and out-of-date vs up-to-date) …
Plugins in need of upgrading have a distinctive notification message: “There is a new version of [Plugin] available” …
Find the plugin that needs updating and click on the update now link …
WordPress provides smoother plugin updates, so that updating your plugins happens “behind the scenes” without leaving your Plugins area …
Repeat the above process for any other plugins on your site that need to be updated, or see the section below if you have several plugins that are out-of-date and would like to update them all at the same time.
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Now that you know how to update plugins individually, the next step is to learn how to upgrade a bunch of WordPress plugins simultaneously.
How To Bulk-Update Plugins
To bulk-upgrade WordPress plugins simultaneously using the automatic upgrading feature, go to the “Plugins” page and click on the Update Available link on the menu at the top of the page …
Click on the check box in the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select only the plugins you want to upgrade by checking its box …
In the Bulk Actions drop-down menu at the top of the page, choose Update …
And then click Apply …
Your selected plugins will begin updating …
Once your plugins have all been updated, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to return to your Plugins section, or choose another option from the admin menu …
Once your plugins are all up-to-date, the update reminders disappear (i.e. the “at-a-glance” indicators and “There is a new version of XYZ plugin available” messages no longer display on your screen, toolbar and menus) …
You have updated all plugins on your site to their latest version!
(When plugins on your site are all up-to-date, notification icons do not display)
Now that you know how to update WP plugins, it’s time to learn how to safely remove plugins safely from your site.
Deleting Plugins
At times, you may decide to delete WP plugins that are no longer needed or being used on your site. This decreases resource usage and also help you avoid causes of some problems.
In this section, you will learn how to delete unused plugins from your site or blog.
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 remove a plugin, go to your WP admin menu and select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins section, locate the plugin you want to remove and make sure it is inactive.
Hint: Inactive plugins have a different colored background than active plugins and show an “Activate” link below the plugin name …
If the plugin is active, then click on Deactivate before proceeding …
Click on Delete …
If you want to browse 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” screen …
The entire list of files belonging to the plugin that you are about to remove will be listed on your screen …
If you are certain that you want to go ahead and delete the selected plugin, then click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
Your plugins and related files will be deleted from your WordPress installation …
Bulk-Deleting WP Plugins
You can bulk-delete all inactive plugins on your site, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be uninstalled.
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 drop down menu …
Click Apply …
The selected plugins will be deactivated …
To delete all or some of the inactive plugins on your site, go to the “Plugins” area and click on the Inactive link on the main menu …
Click on the checkbox in the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select only the plugins you want to remove by checking their individual boxes …
Once you have selected all the plugins that you want to delete, select Delete from the Bulk Actions drop-down menu …
Click the Apply button …
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 absolutely sure that you want to proceed to the next step and remove all of the selected plugins …
Your selected plugins will be deleted …
Managing WordPress Plugins
In addition to the methods shown above, you can use WordPress plugins to 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