In a separate article, we provide an overview of what plugins are all about and how you can use plugins to easily extend your blog’s capabilities.
To read the article, go here:
In this tutorial you will learn the importance of keeping all plugins up-to-date, how to automatically upgrade and remove plugins from your site, and some tools to help you better manage your plugins if you plan to run multiple WordPress sites.
Why WordPress Plugins Need Upgrading
New versions of WordPress are frequently being released (about every 3-4 months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities discovered in older software versions, and 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 updates for plugins when new WordPress versions are 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 developed and tested with a previous version. Whenever this happens, there is a potential for problems to sometimes occur.
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 updating is required). All you have to do on your end, is keep your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon discover, is really simple and easy to do.
Keeping your WordPress plugins regularly updated and removing old plugins you no longer use is part of good WordPress site management and helps to avoid errors and problems.
The step-by-step tutorial below explains how to automatically upgrade and delete WordPress plugins safely from your dashboard without web coding knowledge or skills necessary.
How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins – Step-By-Step Tutorial
WordPress has several ways of letting you know when plugins on your blog need updating.
For example, you can see ‘at a glance’ how many plugins need updating as soon as you log into your Admin area just by looking at the main “Plugins” menu.
For example, in the screenshot below, nine plugins need to be updated …
You can also view how many plugins need to be updated from your WP Toolbar (as shown below, several plugins require updating) …
The Plugins section (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also provides information about plugins that need to be updated …
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 your plugin instantly …
Let’s start by learning how to update one WordPress plugin at a time.
Updating Individual WordPress Plugins
Always make a full backup of your data and files before updating your blog or website.
From your WP admin menu, select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
The “Plugins” screen will display in your browser. The list of plugins can go down your screen for some length, depending on how many plugins you have added to your site …
(WordPress Plugins Screen)
Useful Information:
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 screen and type in a smaller number of items per page (all plugins show up on the page by default), then click the ‘Apply’ button …
Your Plugins page will now be reduced in size with a pagination feature added. You can find an installed plugin by scrolling through the pages or using the “Search Installed Plugins” box …
WordPress displays information about plugins in different 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 [Plugin Name] available” …
Find the plugin that needs updating 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 happens with just “one click” without leaving your Plugins area …
Repeat this process for all 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 upgrade them all at the same time.
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Now that you know how to update one plugin at a time, it’s time to learn how to upgrade many WP plugins simultaneously.
How To Bulk-Upgrade WP Plugins
To update multiple WP plugins at the same time using the automatic update feature, go to the “Plugins” screen and click on the Update Available 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 each plugin you want to upgrade by checking its box …
In the Bulk Actions dropdown menu above the table of plugins, choose Update …
Click Apply …
The plugins you have selected will begin the update process …
Once your plugins have been updated, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to go back to the Plugins screen, or choose a different section of your dashboard …
Once your plugins are all up-to-date, the plugin notifications disappear (i.e. the “at-a-glance” indicators and “There is a new version of XYZ plugin available” notices no longer display) …
All plugins have now been updated!
(When plugins on your site are all up-to-date, update alerts no longer show)
Now that you know how to update in the admin dashboard, let’s show you how to safely uninstall plugins safely from your WordPress site or blog.
How To Safely Delete Plugins
As part of good blog management, it’s a good idea to uninstall plugins that you no longer need or are no longer using on your site. This helps to reduce resources on your server and also help to minimize problems.
In this section, we show you how to delete unused plugins from your site or blog.
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 select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins area, find the plugin you want to delete and make sure it is inactive.
Hint: Inactive plugins have a different background color than active plugins and display an “Activate” link below the plugin name …
If the plugin is active, then click on Deactivate before proceeding …
Click on Delete …
If you want 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 …
The entire list of files belonging to the plugin that you are about to delete will display on your screen …
If you are positively sure about going ahead and deleting the selected plugin, just click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
The selected plugin(s) will be removed from your WordPress installation …
How To Safely Delete Multiple Plugins Simultaneously
You can bulk-delete all inactive plugins on your site, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be removed.
Note: To delete any plugins that are currently active, you must first 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) …
Once you have done this, specify Deactivate from the Bulk Actions pull-down menu …
Click Apply …
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 …
Select all of the plugins you want to delete by either placing a tick next to their check box, or click on the checkbox next to the Plugin column header to select and delete all inactive plugins …
Once you have ticked all the check boxes next to the plugins that you want deleted, specify Delete from the Bulk Actions pull-down menu …
Click the Apply button …
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 certain that you want to proceed to the next step and remove all of the plugins listed …
Your selected plugins will be deleted and their associated files will be removed from your server …
Managing WordPress Plugins
In addition to the methods shown above, you can use a range of tools to manage your WordPress plugins.
PLUGIN CENTRAL
Plugin Central improves the management of your plugins by allowing you to install plugins directly, displays the status of plugins in need of update in your Dashboard and lets you update multiple plugins with a single click …
To learn more about this plugin, visit the plugin site:
Managing WordPress Plugins On Multiple Sites
When plugin developers release a new plugin update, the best practice is to update the plugin to the most recent version as soon as possible.
What if you have multiple WordPress sites with the same plugin installed? Normally, you would have to login to each site individually and then update the plugin manually from that site’s own WP dashboard. If you run multiple sites, this process can take quite some time!
WordPress Power User Tip: If you own a number of WordPress sites, you can install, upgrade or delete plugins on multiple sites automatically and simultaneously using various WordPress management tools.
Below are a couple of WordPress management tools you can look at:
Jetpack Manage – Single WP Dashboard Management
Jetpack is a multifunctional plugin for WordPress that provides users with a wide range of added functionality, allowing self-hosted WordPress site owners to benefit from WordPress.com’s infrastructure and take advantage of stats reporting, easy social sharing, and a host of other features.
(Jetpack gives you access to range of powerful WordPress.com features)
One of these features is “Manage”.
Jetpack Manage allows you to manage your WordPress sites from one simple interface.
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 smart device.
Visit this site to download the plugin:
ManageWP – Multiple WordPress Site Management Software
(ManageWP is a very popular WordPress management tool for multiple WP sites)
ManageWP helps you easily manage all your sites from one dashboard, including updates, backups, security and more. This tool features easy one-click updates and instant login access to all of your WordPress sites.
Go here to download and use this plugin:
WP Pipeline
(With WP Pipeline, you can update all of your WordPress sites, plugins and themes from a single WordPress installation)
WP Pipeline is very similar to ManageWP, but has a one-time purchase fee instead of monthly payments. It lets you control and organize your entire online WordPress presence and perform multiple upgrades from one central location.
Visit this site to download and use the plugin:
Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade and delete plugins safely without web coding skills or knowledge needed.
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"These tutorials have so much information and are easy to understand. If you use WordPress or plan to in the future these will help you with everything you need to know." - Valisa (Mesa, Arizona)