In another blog post, we explain what plugins are and how you can use plugins to easily increase your site’s capabilities.
To view this article, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn why WordPress plugins need to be kept up-to-date, how to automatically upgrade and uninstall plugins, and discover some great plugin management tips.
Why Your Plugins Need To Be Frequently Upgraded
The WordPress software is constantly updated (about every 3-4 months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities discovered in earlier software versions, and to improve existing features or introduce new functionality to users.
Depending on how many plugins you have installed on your site, you can expect to see at least some new updates for WordPress plugins every.
The reason for this, is because most WordPress plugins are created by 3rd-party developers, so sometimes code in the new WordPress version conflict with plugins that were developed and tested with a previous version. Whenever this happens, problems can sometimes occur.
Fortunately, most WordPress plugin developers (and the WordPress developer community itself) are very proactive when it comes to making sure that plugins get updated when a new version of WordPress is released (if updating is needed). All you have to do on your end, is just maintain your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon learn, is very quick, simple and easy to do.
Keeping your plugins regularly updated and removing old plugins you no longer use is an essential aspect of good WordPress management and helps to avoid any potential errors or conflicts.
The WordPress tutorial below explains how to automatically update and delete plugins without web programming knowledge required.
How To Automatically Update And Delete Plugins In The WP Admin Dashboard – Tutorial
WordPress uses a number of different methods of letting users know when plugins need to be updated.
For example, you can tell immediately how many plugins need to be updated from your WP Dashboard by looking at the “Plugins” menu.
In the example below, nine WordPress plugins need to be updated …
You can also see how many plugins need updating from your WP Administration Toolbar (as shown below, nine plugins should be updated) …
The Plugins section (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also lets you know which plugins need to be updated …
In addition to providing information about which plugins have updates available, the Plugins page provides links to the plugin developer sites and gives you the option to update your plugins with one-click …
Let’s start by learning how to update individual WordPress plugins.
Upgrade Plugins One At A Time
We recommend making a full backup of your site files and database before making any updates to your blog or website.
From your dashboard menu, select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
You will be taken to the “Plugins” section. This screen can be quite lengthy depending on the number of plugins you have added to your blog …
(Plugins Section)
Additional Info:
If you have too many plugins and would like to reduce the number of plugins showing on the page, then click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your Plugins screen and enter a smaller number of items per page (all plugins show up on the screen by default, i.e. “999”), then click Apply …
Your Plugins area will now be reduced in size with a page scrolling feature added. You can find an installed plugin by scrolling through the pages or using the “Search Plugins” box …
WordPress displays plugin information in different backgrounds depending on the status of the plugins (active vs. inactive and out-of-date vs up-to-date) …
Plugins that require updating display the following notification message: “There is a new version of [Insert Plugin Name] available” …
Find the plugin that you want to update and click on the update now link …
WordPress has done away with the loading screen when updating plugins and streamlined the plugin updating process, so that the process of updating your plugins takes place with just “one click” 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 many plugins that are out-of-date and would like to update all plugins in bulk.
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Now that you know how to upgrade WordPress plugins one at a time, it’s time to learn how to bulk-upgrade WP plugins.
How To Bulk-Update Plugins
To upgrade multiple plugins in one go 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 next to 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 drop-down menu at the top of the page, select Update …
Click Apply …
The plugins you have selected will automatically begin to update …
Once all plugin upgrades are done, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to return to the Plugins screen, or visit a different section of your dashboard …
Once all plugins are 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) …
You have updated all plugins on your site!
(When your plugins are up-to-date, notification icons do not display)
Now that you know how to automatically update in the dashboard, it’s time to learn how to safely remove plugins from your WordPress blog or website.
How To Remove WordPress Plugins
Occasionally, you may want to remove plugins that are no longer needed or being used on your site. This can decrease resource usage and will help you avoid causes of some problems.
In this section, you will learn how to deactivate and delete unused plugins from your site.
We strongly recommend creating 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 dashboard menu and choose Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins section, locate the plugin you want to delete and make sure it is deactivated.
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, click on Deactivate before proceeding …
Next, click on Delete …
If you would like to review a list of all the files that will be deleted before going ahead, 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 removalwill be listed on your screen …
If you are absolutely sure about going ahead and deleting the selected plugin, click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
Your plugin(s) will be deleted from your server …
How To Delete Multiple 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 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 drop down menu …
Click the Apply button …
All selected plugins will be deactivated …
To delete all or some of the inactive plugins on your site, go to the “Plugins” area 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 checkbox next to the Plugin column header to select and delete all inactive plugins …
Once you have selected all of the plugins that you want to delete, choose Delete from the Bulk Actions dropdown menu …
Click Apply …
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 sure that you want to go ahead and delete all of the plugins listed …
All plugins will be deleted …
Management Tools For WordPress Plugins
In addition to the methods shown above, you can use WordPress plugins to 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 Admin area and also allows you to update multiple plugins with a single mouse-click …
To learn more about this plugin, visit the plugin site:
Managing WordPress Plugins On Multiple Sites
Whenever plugin developers release a new plugin update, the best practice is to update that plugin right away.
What if you run multiple sites with the same plugin installed? One option, is to login to your sites one by one and then update the plugin manually from that site’s own dashboard. If you own multiple sites, this process can take quite a while!
WordPress Power User Tip: If you own or manage a number of WordPress sites or blogs, you can install, update and remove plugins on all of your sites automatically and simultaneously using various WordPress management tools.
Below are just a few great WordPress management tools that are worth knowing about:
Jetpack Manage – Single WordPress Dashboard Management
Jetpack is a single WordPress plugin that provides users with a powerful range of added functionality, allowing self-hosted WordPress site owners to access WordPress.com’s infrastructure and take advantage of things like stats reporting, automated social sharing, and a whole lot more.
(Jetpack gives you access to range of powerful WordPress features)
One of these features is “Jetpack Manage”.
Jetpack Manage lets you manage your WordPress sites and plugins from one dashboard.
With Manage, you can upgrade 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 mobile phone.
To download the plugin, visit this site:
ManageWP.com – WordPress Management Tool
(ManageWP is a very popular management tool for multiple WP sites)
ManageWP lets you manage all of your WordPress sites from one dashboard, including updates, backups, security and more. This application features easy one-click upgrades and instant login access to your WP sites.
To download and use the plugin, go here:
WP Pipeline – Multiple WordPress Site Management Tool
(WP Pipeline lets you update all of your WordPress sites, plugins and themes from a single WP installation)
WP Pipeline is very similar to ManageWP, but sells for a one-time purchase fee instead of recurring payments. It lets you control and organize your entire online WordPress presence and perform multiple updates from a single installation.
Go here to download and use the plugin:
Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade and safely uninstall plugins using your dashboard.
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