In a separate article, we explain what plugins are and how you can use plugins to add new features to your site with no software programming knowledge required.
You can view the article here:
In this tutorial you will learn the importance of keeping all WordPress plugins up-to-date, how to safely upgrade and uninstall plugins from your site, and some great tools to help you better manage your plugins.
Why Plugins Need Upgrading
The WordPress software is regularly updated (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities found in earlier software versions, 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 every.
The reason for this, is because most WordPress plugins are created by 3rd-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, problems can 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 this is needed). All you have to do as a website owner, is just keep your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon learn, is really easy and simple to do.
Keeping your plugins regularly updated and removing old plugins you no longer need is an essential aspect of good WordPress site management and helps to avoid potential conflicts and errors.
The tutorial below explains how to automatically upgrade and delete plugins without editing web code.
How To Automatically Upgrade And Delete Plugins Inside Your WordPress Dashboard – Step-By-Step Tutorial
WordPress provides a number of different methods to notify you when plugins need to be updated.
For example, you can see how many plugins need to be updated as soon as you log into your Admin area simply by looking at the main “Plugins” menu.
In the screenshot below, you can see that 9 WP plugins have older versions that need updating …
You can also check how many plugins need updating from your WordPress Toolbar (the example below shows that several plugins need updating) …
The Plugins screen (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also lets you know which plugins need to be updated …
In addition to providing information about plugins that have available updates, the Plugins page provides links to the plugin download pages and gives you the option to update the plugins individually or in bulk …
Let’s start by showing you how to upgrade one plugin at a time.
Upgrade WordPress Plugins One At A Time
Always make a full backup of your data and files before making any upgrades to your website.
In your WP admin menu, select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
You will be taken to the “Plugins” area. The table of plugins can run down your screen for some length, depending on the number of plugins you have installed in your blog …
(The WordPress Plugins Screen)
Useful Info:
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 page and type in a smaller number of items per page (by default, all plugins display on the screen), then click the ‘Apply’ button …
Your Plugins area 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” box …
WordPress displays information about plugins in different backgrounds depending on the status of the plugins (inactive vs. active and up-to-date vs. outdated) …
Plugins in need of updating display the following notification message: “There is a new version of [Plugin Name] available” …
Locate the plugin that you want to update and click on the update now link …
WordPress provides faster plugin updates, so that the process of 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 updating, or see the section below if you have several plugins that are out-of-date and would like to update all plugins in one simple operation.
***
Now that you know how to upgrade plugins one at a time, let’s show you how to bulk-upgrade WordPress plugins.
Bulk-Updating WordPress Plugins
To upgrade multiple plugins at the same time from your admin area, go to the “Plugins” section and click on the Update Available 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 only the plugins you want to upgrade by checking their individual boxes …
In the Bulk Actions pull-down menu above the table of plugins, choose Update …
And then click Apply …
Your selected plugins will begin to update automatically …
After your plugins have been updated, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to return to the Plugins screen, or choose another option from the WordPress admin menu …
Once your plugins are all 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 are now up-to-date!
(When your site or blog uses the latest version of all plugins, update icons do not display)
Now that you know how to automatically update your inside your WP dashboard, let’s take a look at how to safely uninstall plugins from your WordPress site or blog.
How To Remove WP Plugins
It’s a good idea to uninstall plugins that are no longer needed or being used on your site. This can help conserve server resources and help to eliminate problems.
In this section, you will learn how to deactivate and delete unused plugins from your WordPress blog or 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 delete a plugin, go to your admin menu and click on Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins section, locate the plugin you want to remove 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, then click on Deactivate before proceeding …
Click Delete …
If you need to review a list of 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” page …
All files belonging to the plugin that you are about to delete will be listed on your screen …
If you are absolutely certain that you would like to proceed and delete the plugin, then click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
The selected plugins and related files will be deleted …
Bulk-Deleting Plugins
You can bulk-delete all inactive plugins, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be deleted.
Note: To delete any plugins that are currently 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 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 drop down menu …
Click the Apply button …
Your selected plugins will be deactivated …
To delete all or some of the inactive plugins, go to the “Plugins” page and click on the Inactive link in the Plugins menu …
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 of the plugins that you want deleted, specify Delete from the Bulk Actions drop down menu …
Click Apply …
A list of all selected plugins will display 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 would like to go ahead and delete all of the plugins listed …
All plugins will be deleted …
WordPress Tools For Managing WP Plugins
As well as the methods shown above, you can install WordPress plugins that help you manage your WordPress plugins.
PLUGIN CENTRAL
Plugin Central is a Free WordPress plugin that improves the management of your plugins by allowing you to install plugins directly, displays the status of plugins in need of update in the WordPress Admin and lets you update multiple plugins with one click …
For more details about this plugin, visit the plugin site:
Managing WordPress Plugins On Multiple Sites
Whenever plugin updates get released, the best practice is to upgrde the plugin to the latest version as soon as possible.
What if you have multiple sites using the same plugin? One option, is to login to every site and then update the plugin manually from that site’s own admin dashboard. If you manage multiple sites, updating the same plugin(s) 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 and uninstall plugins on all of your sites automatically and simultaneously using various WordPress management tools.
Below are a few WordPress management tools that are worth knowing about:
Jetpack By WordPress.com
The Jetpack plugin is a versatile WordPress plugin that provides users with a powerful range of added functionality, allowing self-hosted WordPress site users to benefit from WordPress.com’s infrastructure and take advantage of things like robust stats, automated social sharing, and so much more.
(The Jetpack Plugin lets you access a range of powerful WordPress features)
One of these features is “Manage”.
Jetpack Manage lets you manage multiple self-hosted WordPress sites and WordPress.com sites from one simple dashboard on WordPress.com.
With Manage, you can upgrade 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 device.
For more information about the plugin, go here:
ManageWP
(ManageWP is a widely used management tool for multiple WordPress sites)
ManageWP helps you manage all your sites from one place, including updates, backups, security and more. This tool features easy one-click updates and instant login to all of your sites.
Visit this site to learn more about using this plugin:
WP Pipeline
(With WP Pipeline, you can update all of your WordPress sites, plugins and themes from one single dashboard)
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 a single installation.
Visit this site to download this plugin:
Congratulations! Now you know how to automatically update and remove your plugins in WordPress using your dashboard.
***
"I love the way your email series "Infinite Web Content Creation Training Series" is documented and presented. It is very absorbing and captivating. The links and tutorials are interesting and educational. This has motivated me to rewrite my content following the concepts I am learning from the email series." - Mani Raju, www.fortuneinewaste.com