In another blog post, we explain what plugins are and how you can use these to add new features or functionality to your website without editing code.
To view the article, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn why WordPress plugins need to be kept up-to-date, how to automatically update and delete your WordPress plugins, and useful plugin management tips if you currently manage multiple WordPress sites.
Why Some Of Your WordPress Plugins Need To Be Regularly Updated
WordPress regularly updates its software (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities found in previous releases, as well as to improve existing features.
Depending on how many plugins you use on your site, you can expect to see at least some new updates for plugins every.
This is because most plugins for WordPress are created by external developers, so sometimes code in the new WordPress version conflicts with plugins that were developed and tested with a previous version. Whenever this happens, there is a potential for conflicts to 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 updating is required). All you have to do on your end, is simply keep your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon learn, is really simple, quick and easy to do.
Keeping your plugins up-to-date and removing old plugins you no longer use is part of good WordPress site management and helps to avoid any potential conflicts and errors.
The WordPress tutorial below explains how to automatically update and delete plugins in WordPress without web coding knowledge or skills necessary.
How To Update And Delete Plugins Safely – Tutorial
WordPress has a number of different ways of letting users know when plugins on their site need to be updated.
For example, you can see how many plugins need updating inside your Admin area just by looking at the “Plugins” menu.
In the example below, you can see that 9 WordPress plugins need to be updated …
You can also check how many plugins need updating from your WP Admin Toolbar (as shown below, several plugins should be updated) …
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 page provides links to the plugin developer sites and gives you the option to update your plugin individually or in bulk …
Let’s start by showing you how to upgrade one WordPress plugin at a time.
How To Update WordPress Plugins Individually
Always make a backup of your site files and database before making any upgrades to your website or blog.
From your admin menu, select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
You will be taken to the “Plugins” area. The table of plugins can flow down your screen for some length, depending on the number of plugins you have installed in your blog …
(Plugins Page)
Useful Info:
If you have too many plugins and would like to make this section more manageable, 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 on the screen by default), then click Apply …
Your Plugins page 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 “Plugin Search” function …
You will see plugin information in different color backgrounds depending on the status of your plugins (active vs. inactive and up-to-date vs. out-of-date) …
Plugins in need of upgrading have a distinctive notification message: “There is a new version of [Plugin] available” …
Locate the plugin that you want to update and click on the update now link …
WordPress provides smooth and simpler plugin updates, so that updating your plugins happens with just “one click” without leaving your Plugins area …
Repeat the above 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 upgrade them all at once.
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Now that you know how to upgrade one plugin at a time, let’s show you how to bulk-update WordPress plugins.
Bulk-Upgrading WP Plugins
To bulk-update plugins from your admin area, go to the “Plugins” screen and click on the Update Available link on the menu at the top of the page …
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 …
In the Bulk Actions drop-down menu above your plugin table, choose Update …
Click Apply …
Your selected plugins will automatically begin updating …
After all plugins have been updated, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to go back to your Plugins area, or select another section of your dashboard …
Once all plugins are up-to-date, the update reminders will 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) …
All plugins are now up-to-date!
(When your plugins are all up-to-date, update icons no longer appear)
Now that you know how to upgrade plugins, let’s show you how to safely uninstall plugins from your site.
Deleting WP Plugins
It’s a good idea to delete plugins that you no longer need or are no longer using on your site. This helps to decrease resource usage and help you avoid problems.
In this section, you will learn how to delete unused plugins from your site or blog.
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 restore your site.
To delete a plugin, go to your main menu and click on Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins page, locate the plugin you want to delete and make sure it is inactive.
Hint: Inactive plugins appear in a different colored background than active plugins and show an “Activate” link below the plugin name …
If the plugin is active, click on Deactivate before continuing with your plugin deletion …
Once you have deactivated the plugin, click Delete …
If you would like to browse 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 associated with the plugin selected for removalwill display on your screen …
If you are absolutely sure about going ahead and deleting the plugin, just click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
Your plugin(s) will be deleted …
Bulk-Deleting WordPress Plugins
You can bulk-delete all inactive plugins, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be cleared.
Note: To delete any plugins that are presently active, your will 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, specify Deactivate from the Bulk Actions pull-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 …
Tick the checkbox in the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select each plugin you want to remove by checking its box …
Once you have selected all the plugins that you want to delete, choose 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 sure that you would like to go ahead and remove all of the selected plugins …
The plugins will be deleted …
Useful Tools For Managing Plugins
In addition to the methods shown above, you can use a range of third-party tools that help you manage your plugins.
PLUGIN CENTRAL
Plugin Central helps you manage your plugins with features that let you install plugins directly, displays the status of plugins in need of update on your Dashboard and lets you update multiple plugins with a single click of the mouse …
For more details about using this plugin, go here:
Managing WordPress Plugins On Multiple Sites
Whenever plugin developers release a new plugin update, the best practice is to upgrde the plugin to the most recent version as soon as possible.
What if you run multiple WordPress sites with the same plugin installed? Normally, you would need to login to each site individually and then go through the plugin update process from that site’s own dashboard. If you plan to manage multiple sites, this process can take quite some time to complete!
WordPress Power User Tip: If you own or manage a number of WordPress sites, you can install, update or uninstall plugins on multiple sites automatically and simultaneously using a number of WordPress management tools.
Below are just a few great WordPress management tools you should look at:
Jetpack Manage – Single WP Dashboard Management
The Jetpack plugin is a multifunctional 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 things like stats reporting, easy social sharing, and a whole lot more.
(Jetpack gives you access to range of powerful WordPress features)
One of these features is “Manage”.
Jetpack Manage allows you to manage multiple self-hosted WordPress sites and WordPress.com sites 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 per-site basis or in bulk, whether you’re on your PC, tablet, or mobile phone.
To download and use the plugin, go here:
ManageWP – Multiple WordPress Site Management Tool
(ManageWP is a leading WordPress management tool for multiple WordPress sites)
ManageWP lets you easily manage all of your WordPress sites from one dashboard, including updates, backups, security and more. This tool features easy and intuitive one-click updates and instant login to your sites.
Visit this site to learn more about using the plugin:
WP Pipeline.com
(WP Pipeline lets you update all of your WordPress sites, plugins and themes from one single location)
WP Pipeline works in a similar way to ManageWP, but sells for a one-time purchase fee instead of recurring payments. It lets you manage your entire online WordPress presence and perform multiple upgrades from a single location.
Visit this site to download this plugin:
Congratulations! Now you know how to automatically upgrade and delete your plugins in WordPress via your dashboard.
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