In another blog post, we explain what plugins are and how you can use plugins to easily increase your web site’s functionality.

To read the article, go here:

• Adding New Features And Functionality To Your WP Blog With Plugins

In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn the importance of keeping your plugins up-to-date, how to upgrade and uninstall plugins from your site, and discover some great plugin management tools if you run multiple WordPress sites.

How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins

Why Many Of Your Plugins Need To Be Frequently Updated

The WordPress software is constantly updated (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities found in earlier software releases, as well as to improve existing features or introduce new ones.

Depending on how many plugins you use on your site, you can expect to see at least some new new update notifications for plugins each time a new version of WordPress is announced.

The reason for this, is because most WordPress plugins are created by third-party developers, so sometimes the code in the new WordPress version conflicts with plugins that were created and tested to work with a previous version. When this happens, there is a potential for issues to sometimes occur.

Fortunately, most WordPress plugin developers (and the WordPress developer community itself) are fairly proactive when it comes to ensuring that plugins get updated when a new version of WordPress is released (if updating is needed). All you need to do as a website owner, is just maintain your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon learn, is really quick, simple and easy to do.

Keeping your plugins up-to-date and removing old plugins you no longer need is part of good WordPress site management and helps to avoid any potential errors and problems.

The step-by-step tutorial below explains how to automatically update and delete plugins safely without requiring coding knowledge.

How To Update And Delete Plugins Safely In The Dashboard – Step-By-Step Tutorial

WordPress employs several methods of letting users know when plugins need updating.

For example, you can instantly see how many plugins are out-of-date as soon as you log into your WP Dashboard simply by looking at the main “Plugins” menu.

For example, in the screenshot below, nine plugins need updating …

You can also see how many plugins need to be updated from your WP Toolbar (as shown below, a number of plugins require updating) …

The Plugins section (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 screen provides links to the plugin download pages and gives you the option to update your plugin instantly …

Let’s start by showing you how to update WordPress plugins one at a time.

How To Update Plugins Individually

We recommend making a complete backup of your website before making any changes to your website or blog.

From your dashboard menu, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins …

You will be taken to the “Plugins” section. The table of plugins can be quite lengthy depending on how many plugins you have installed in your site …

(WordPress Plugins Screen)

Notes:

If you have too many plugins installed and would like to reduce the number of plugins displayed on your screen, then click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your Plugins page and enter a smaller number of items per page (by default, all plugins display on the screen), then click the ‘Apply’ button …

Your Plugins section 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 Installed Plugins” function …

You will see plugin information in different color backgrounds depending on the status of your plugins (inactive vs. active and outdated vs up-to-date) …

Plugins that need upgrading have a distinctive notification message: “There is a new version of [Insert Plugin Name] available” …

Select 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 updating your plugins takes place “behind the scenes” without leaving your Plugins screen …

Repeat this process for any other plugins on your site that need to be updated, or refer to the section below if you have many plugins that are out-of-date and would like to update them all in one simple operation.

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Now that you know how to update WordPress plugins one at a time, let’s show you how to upgrade many plugins simultaneously.

How To Update Many Plugins Simultaneously

To upgrade multiple plugins at the same time 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 …

Click the check box in the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select only the plugins you want to update by checking its box …

In the Bulk Actions dropdown menu above your plugin table, choose Update …

Click Apply …

The plugins you have selected will begin to update automatically …

Once the update process has been completed, 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 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” 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 up-to-date, update icons do not display)

Now that you know how to automatically update plugins, let’s show you how to safely uninstall plugins safely from your WordPress site.

Deleting Plugins

It’s a good idea to remove plugins that are no longer needed or being used on your site. This helps to decrease resource usage and will help you avoid potential problems.

In this section, you will learn how to safely uninstall unused plugins from your site.

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 reinstall your site.

To remove a plugin, go to your main menu and click on Plugins > Installed Plugins …

In the Plugins screen, find the plugin you want to remove and make sure it is deactivated.

Hint: Inactive plugins use a different background color than active plugins and display 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 have a look at all the files that will be deleted before proceeding, then click on the “Click to view entire list of files which will be deleted” link in the “Delete Plugin” page …

The entire list of files belonging to the plugin selected for deletionwill display on your screen …

If you are certain that you would like to proceed and delete these plugin, click on the Yes, Delete these files button …

Your plugin(s) will be deleted …

Bulk-Deleting Plugins

You can delete all inactive plugins at once, 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 check box, or selecting the checkbox next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins (warning: this will deactivate all plugins) …

Next, choose Deactivate from the Bulk Actions dropdown menu …

Click Apply …

Your 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 …

Click on the check box in the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select only the plugins you want to delete by checking its box …

Once you have ticked all the checkboxes next to the plugins that you want deleted, specify Delete from the Bulk Actions drop down menu …

Click the Apply button …

A list of all selected plugins will show up 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 absolutely certain that you want to go ahead and delete all of the plugins listed …

Your plugins will be deleted …

Useful Management Tools For Plugins

In addition to the methods shown above, you can install a number of tools to manage your 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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