In another article, we explain what plugins are and how you can use plugins to add new features to your web site with no technical skills required.

To read the article, go here:

• WordPress Plugins – The Easy Way To Extend Your Website’s Capability

In this tutorial you will learn the importance of keeping WordPress plugins up-to-date, how to automatically upgrade and remove plugins from your site, and some great plugin management tools if you plan to manage multiple WordPress sites.

How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins

Why Some Of Your WordPress Plugins Need Updating

New WordPress versions are regularly released (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities found in previous versions, and to improve existing features.

Depending on how many plugins you have installed on your site, you can expect to see at least some new new update notifications for plugins whenever WordPress releases a new version.

This is because most WordPress plugins are created by third-party developers, so sometimes the code in the newly-released WordPress version conflicts with plugins that were developed for a previous version. When this happens, conflicts 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 needed). All you need to do on your end, is just keep your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon learn, is really quick, simple and easy to do.

Keeping your plugins regularly updated and removing old plugins you no longer use is part of good WordPress management and helps to avoid errors or conflicts.

The tutorial below explains how to upgrade and delete plugins safely in the WordPress admin dashboard with no web programming skills or knowledge necessary.

How To Automatically Upgrade And Delete Plugins In WordPress – Tutorial

WordPress utilizes a number of different ways to inform users when plugins need updating.

For example, you can immediately see how many plugins need updating from your WP Dashboard by looking at the “Plugins” menu.

In the screenshot below, 9 WP plugins have older versions that need to be updated …

You can also tell how many plugins need to be updated from your WordPress Notification Toolbar (as shown below, nine plugins have to be updated) …

The Plugins page (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also provides information about plugins that need to be updated …

In addition to providing information about plugins that have updates available, the Plugins page provides links to the plugin developer 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.

How To Update Individual WordPress Plugins

Always make a backup of your site files and database before making any changes to your blog or website.

In your main menu, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins …

You will be taken to the “Plugins” screen. The list of plugins can run down your screen for some length, depending on how many plugins you have installed on your blog …

(The WordPress Plugins Section)

Tips:

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

Your Plugins section will now be made more manageable with a pagination feature added. You can find an installed plugin by scrolling through the pages or using the “Search Plugins” feature …

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

Plugins that need updating show the following notification message: “There is a new version of [Plugin] available” …

Select the plugin that needs to be updated and click on the update now link …

WordPress provides streamlined plugin updates, so that the process of updating your plugins takes place with just “one click” without leaving your Plugins area …

Repeat this process for any other plugins on your site that need updating, or refer to the section below if you have a number of plugins that are out-of-date and would like to update them all in bulk.

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Now that you know how to update one WP plugin at a time, the next step is to learn how to bulk-upgrade WP plugins.

How To Upgrade Various WP Plugins

To upgrade multiple WP plugins in one go from your admin area, go to the “Plugins” area and click on the Update Available link on the menu at the top of the page …

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

In the Bulk Actions dropdown menu at the top of the page, choose Update …

And then click Apply …

The plugins you have selected will begin updating …

Once your plugins have all been updated, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to go back to the Plugins section, or select another section of your dashboard …

Once all plugins are 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 your site or blog uses the latest version of all plugins, notification icons disappear)

Now that you know how to update in your admin dashboard, let’s show you how to remove plugins safely from your WordPress blog or website.

Deleting WP Plugins

Occasionally, you may choose to delete plugins that are no longer needed or being used on your site. This can help decrease resource usage and help you avoid problems.

In this section, you will learn how to safely delete unused plugins from your WordPress site or blog.

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 reinstall your site.

To delete a plugin, go to your main menu and select Plugins > Installed Plugins …

In the Plugins screen, locate the plugin you want to delete and make sure it is inactive.

Hint: Inactive plugins are listed in a different colored background than active plugins and display an “Activate” link below the plugin name …

If the plugin is active, then click on Deactivate before going any further …

Next, click on Delete …

If you need to review a list of 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” section …

The entire list of files associated with the plugin that you are about to remove will display on your screen …

If you are absolutely sure that you want to go ahead and delete the plugin files, just click on the Yes, Delete these files button …

The selected plugins and related files will be deleted from your server …

How To Safely Delete Several WP Plugins At Once

You can delete all inactive plugins at once, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be removed.

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 checkbox, or selecting the check box next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins (warning: this will deactivate all plugins) …

Next, select Deactivate from the Bulk Actions dropdown menu …

Click Apply …

All selected plugins will be deactivated …

To delete all or some of the inactive plugins, go to the “Plugins” screen and click on the Inactive link on the main menu …

Click on the check box next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select only the plugins you want to delete by checking their individual boxes …

Once you have ticked all the check boxes 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 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 sure that you want to proceed to the next step and delete all of the selected plugins …

All selected plugins will be deleted and their associated files will be removed from your server …

Management Tools For Plugins

In addition to the methods shown above, you can use a number of third-party tools that let 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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