In another post, we explain what plugins are and how you can use these to easily add new features to your website or blog without touching code.
To read this article, go here:
In this tutorial you will learn why WordPress plugins need to be kept up-to-date, how to easily upgrade and uninstall plugins from your site, and discover some tools to help you better manage your plugins if you currently run or manage multiple WordPress sites.
Why Many Plugins Need Updating
The WordPress software is regularly updated (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities discovered in earlier 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 WordPress plugins every.
This is because most WordPress plugins are created by external developers, so sometimes the code in the new WordPress version conflict with plugins that were built for a previous version. When this happens, there is a potential for conflicts to sometimes develop.
Fortunately, most WordPress plugin developers (and the WordPress developer community itself) are quite proactive when it comes to ensuring that plugins get updated when a new version of WordPress is released (if required). All you have to do on your end, is simply maintain your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon discover, is really quick, simple and easy to do.
Keeping your plugins up-to-date and deleting old plugins you no longer use is part of good WordPress site management and helps to avoid problems or errors.
The tutorial below explains how to upgrade and delete WordPress plugins safely in your WordPress admin dashboard without requiring web coding or programming skills or knowledge.
Updating And Deleting Plugins In WordPress – Step-By-Step Tutorial
WordPress uses a few methods to notify you when plugins need updating.
For example, you can see how many plugins need to be updated as soon as you log into your Admin area just by looking at the “Plugins” menu.
For example, in the screenshot below, you can see that 9 WP plugins have older versions that need to be updated …
You can also check how many plugins need to be updated from your WP Admin Toolbar (the example below shows how many plugins need to 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 pages and gives you the option to update your plugins with one-click …
Let’s start by learning how to upgrade one plugin at a time.
Upgrading Individual Plugins
Always make a backup of your website before upgrading your website.
In your admin menu, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins …
The “Plugins” screen will display in your browser. The page can be quite lengthy depending on the number of plugins you have added to your blog …
(The WordPress Plugins Page)
Useful Tips:
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 area and enter a smaller number of items per page (all plugins show on the page by default), then click the ‘Apply’ button …
Your Plugins section will now be reduced in size with a ’numbered pages’ feature added. You can find an installed plugin by scrolling through the pages or using the “Plugin Search” box …
You will see plugin information in different color backgrounds depending on the status of your plugins (active vs. inactive and out-of-date vs up-to-date) …
Plugins that require upgrading have a distinctive notification message: “There is a new version of [Insert Plugin Name] available” …
Find the plugin that needs updating and click on the update now link …
WordPress provides streamlined plugin updates, so that updating your plugins happens “behind the scenes” without leaving your Plugins screen …
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 in one simple operation.
***
Now that you know how to update one plugin at a time, let’s show you how to bulk-upgrade WordPress plugins.
Bulk-Upgrading Plugins
To bulk-update WP plugins simultaneously 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 …
Tick the checkbox 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 pull-down menu above the table of plugins, select Update …
And then click Apply …
The plugins you have selected will automatically begin to update …
Once your plugins have all been updated, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to return to the Plugins area, or select another option from the main 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” messages no longer display on your screen, toolbar and menus) …
All plugins have now been updated to their latest versions!
(When your plugins are up-to-date, the notification icons no longer appear)
Now that you know how to update WordPress plugins, let’s show you how to uninstall plugins safely from your WordPress blog or website.
How To Safely Delete WordPress Plugins
As part of smart WordPress blog management practice, it’s a good idea to delete plugins that are no longer needed or being used on your site. This conserves server resources and eliminate potential problems.
In this section, you will learn how to safely deactivate and 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 delete a plugin, go to your WP admin menu and select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins section, locate the plugin you want to remove 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, then click on Deactivate before proceeding …
Once you have deactivated the plugin, click Delete …
If you need to have a look at 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 that you are about to delete will display on your screen …
If you are sure that you would like to proceed and delete these plugin, then click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
The selected plugin(s) will be deleted …
Bulk-Deleting Plugins
You can bulk-delete all inactive plugins on your site, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be deleted.
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, select 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” 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 each plugin you want to remove by checking its box …
Once you have ticked all the check boxes next to the plugins that you want deleted, choose Delete from the Bulk Actions dropdown 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 sure that you want to go ahead and delete all of the selected plugins …
Your selected plugins will be deleted and their associated files will be removed from your server …
Plugin Management – Tools
In addition to the methods shown above, you can install a range of third-party tools to manage your plugins.
PLUGIN CENTRAL
Plugin Central is a Free plugin that improves the management of your plugins by allowing you to install plugins directly, displays the status of plugins in need of update on the Dashboard and lets you update many plugins at once with a single click …
To learn more about using this plugin, go here:
Managing WordPress Plugins On Multiple Sites
When plugin updates are released, the best practice is to upgrde the plugin to its most recent version as soon as possible.
What if you have multiple WordPress sites using the same plugin? One option, is to login to each site individually and then go through the plugin update process from that site’s own admin dashboard. With multiple sites, this process can take quite some time to complete!
WordPress Power User Tip: If you own a number of WordPress sites, you can install, update or deactivate plugins on all of your sites automatically and simultaneously using a number of WordPress management tools.
Below are just some WordPress management tools that are worth knowing about:
Jetpack Manage
The Jetpack plugin is a multifunctional plugin for WordPress that offers users a powerful range of features, allowing self-hosted WordPress site users to access WordPress.com’s infrastructure and take advantage of robust stats, automated social sharing, and a whole lot more.
(The Jetpack Plugin gives you access to range of powerful WordPress.com features)
One of these features is “Jetpack Manage”.
Jetpack Manage lets you manage your self-hosted WordPress sites and WordPress.com sites from a central dashboard on WordPress.com.
With Manage, you can upgrade plugins, set plugins to update automatically, and activate or deactivate plugins on a site-by-site basis or all at once, whether you’re on your laptop, tablet, or mobile device.
Go here to download the plugin:
ManageWP.com – Update All Your WP Plugins From One Dashboard
(ManageWP is a widely used WordPress management tool for multiple WordPress sites)
ManageWP lets you easily manage all of your sites from one place, including upgrades, backups, security and more. The application features easy and intuitive one-click updates and instant login to your WordPress sites.
Visit this site to download and use this plugin:
WP Pipeline – WordPress Management Software
(WP Pipeline lets you update all of your WordPress sites, plugins and themes from a single WordPress installation)
WP Pipeline works in a similar way to ManageWP, but has a one-time license fee instead of monthly payments. It lets you manage your entire portfolio of WordPress sites and perform multiple upgrades from one central WP installation.
To download and use the plugin, go here:
Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade and delete plugins without touching web code.
***
"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com
One of the most powerful advantages of building an online presence with the WordPress web site publishing platform is that you can easily increase your WordPress web site’s functionality using inexpensive called ’plugins’.
