In another post, we explain what plugins are and how you can use these to easily add new features to your website or blog with no technical knowledge required.
You can view this article here:
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn the importance of keeping plugins up-to-date, how to safely update and delete plugins, and practical tips to help you better manage your plugins.
Why Many WordPress Plugins Need To Be Upgraded
WordPress regularly updates its software (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities found in previous software versions, as well as to improve existing features or introduce new ones.
Depending on how many plugins you have installed on your site, there will typically be new updates for plugins when new WordPress versions are released.
The reason for this, is because most plugins for WordPress are created by external developers, so sometimes code in the newly-released WordPress version conflicts with plugins that were built for a previous version. When this happens, there is a potential for problems to sometimes develop.
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 this is required). All you need to do as a WordPress user, is simply maintain your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon learn, is really simple and easy to do.
Keeping your WordPress plugins up-to-date and removing old plugins you no longer use is part of good WordPress management and helps to avoid potential conflicts and errors.
The WordPress tutorial below explains how to automatically update and delete WordPress plugins in the dashboard without editing web code.
How To Upgrade And Delete Plugins – Step-By-Step Tutorial
WordPress has a number of different methods to inform you when plugins need updating.
For example, you can tell immediately how many plugins need updating from your Admin area just by looking at the main “Plugins” menu.
In the example below, nine WP plugins are out of date and need updating …
You can also tell how many plugins need updating from your WordPress Admin Toolbar (as shown below, 9 plugins require updating) …
The Plugins screen (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also notifies you about plugins that need updating …
As well as providing information about which plugins have available updates, the Plugins page provides links to the plugin download pages and gives you the option to update the plugins instantly …
Let’s start by showing you how to upgrade plugins individually.
How To Upgrade WordPress Plugins Individually
Always make a full backup of your data and files before upgrading your website or blog.
From your dashboard menu, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins …
The “Plugins” page will display in your browser. The table of plugins can go down your page for a while, depending on the number of plugins you have added to your blog …
(WordPress Plugins Page)
Additional Info:
If you have too many plugins installed and would like to reduce the number of plugins displayed on the page, then click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your Plugins screen and type in a smaller number of items per page (all plugins show on the page by default, i.e. “999”), then click the ‘Apply’ button …
Your Plugins section will now be reduced in size with a page scrolling feature added. You can find an installed plugin by scrolling through the pages or using the “Search Plugins” box …
You will see information about plugins in different color backgrounds depending on the status of your plugins (inactive vs. active and out-of-date vs up-to-date) …
Plugins in need of updating display the following notification message: “There is a new version of [Insert Plugin Name] available” …
Find the plugin that you want to update 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 all plugins on your site that need updating, or see the section below if you have several plugins that are out-of-date and would like to upgrade them all in bulk.
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Now that you know how to update individual plugins, it’s time to learn how to update several plugins simultaneously.
Bulk-Updating WP Plugins
To bulk-upgrade plugins simultaneously directly inside your dashboard, go to the “Plugins” area 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 its box …
In the Bulk Actions dropdown menu above your plugin table, select Update …
Click Apply …
The plugins you have selected will begin to update automatically …
Once all updates have completed, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to return to your Plugins section, or go to another section of your dashboard …
Once all plugins are up-to-date, any plugin alerts disappear (i.e. the “at-a-glance” indicators and “There is a new version of XYZ plugin available” notices no longer display) …
You have updated all plugins on your site!
(When plugins on your site are up-to-date, update messages no longer show)
Now that you know how to upgrade in the WP dashboard, it’s time to learn how to remove plugins safely from your WordPress blog or website.
How To Delete Plugins
As part of good WordPress management, it’s a good idea to delete plugins that are no longer needed or being used on your site. This can conserve resources on your server and also help you avoid causes of some problems.
In this section, we show you how to deactivate and delete unused plugins from your site or blog.
Always create 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 …
In the Plugins section, locate the plugin you want to delete and make sure it is deactivated.
Hint: Inactive plugins use a different background color than active plugins and show an “Activate” link below the plugin name …
If the plugin is active, click on Deactivate before going any further …
Next, 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” section …
All files belonging to the plugin that you are about to remove will display on your screen …
If you are positively sure about going ahead and deleting these plugin files, click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
The selected plugins and related files will be removed from your server …
Bulk-Deleting WP Plugins
You can bulk-delete all inactive plugins, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be uninstalled.
Note: To delete any plugins that are currently 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 check box, or selecting the check box next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins (warning: this will deactivate all plugins) …
Next, specify Deactivate from the Bulk Actions pull-down menu …
Click the Apply button …
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 …
Tick the checkbox next to 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 ticked all the check boxes next to the plugins that you want deleted, choose Delete from the Bulk Actions drop down menu …
Click Apply …
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 sure that you would like to proceed to the next step and delete all of the selected plugins …
Your selected plugins will be deleted …
WordPress Management Tools For WP Plugins
As well as the methods shown above, you can use WordPress plugins that help you 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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