In a separate post, we provide a detailed explanation of what plugins are about and how you can use plugins to add new features to your website without editing code.
You can view this article here:
In this tutorial you will learn the importance of keeping all plugins up-to-date, how to automatically upgrade and remove plugins, and practical tools to help you better manage your plugins if you need to own or manage multiple WordPress sites or blogs.
How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins
Why Some Of Your Plugins Need To Be Upgraded
WordPress frequently updates its software (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities found in older releases, and to improve existing features or introduce new ones.
Depending on how many plugins you use on your site, there will typically be new new update notifications for WordPress plugins every.
This is because most plugins for WordPress are created by third-party developers, so sometimes the code in the newly-released WordPress version conflict with plugins that were built for a previous version. Whenever this happens, there is a potential for issues to 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 required). All you have to do on your end, is just maintain your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon discover, is very quick, simple and easy to do.
Keeping your plugins regularly updated and removing old plugins you no longer need is an essential aspect of good WordPress management and helps to avoid any errors and problems.
The step-by-step tutorial below explains how to automatically update and delete WordPress plugins without requiring coding skills or knowledge.
Updating And Deleting Plugins Safely In WordPress – Step-By-Step Tutorial
WordPress provides a number of different methods of letting users know when plugins need updating.
For example, you can see how many plugins are out-of-date as soon as you log into your Admin area by looking at the main “Plugins” menu.
For example, in the screenshot below, 9 plugins are out of date and need updating …
You can also check how many plugins need to be updated from your WordPress Notification Toolbar (in the screenshot below, you can again see that 9 plugins should be updated) …
The Plugins section (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also tells you how many plugins need to be updated …
As well as providing information about which plugins have available updates, the Plugins screen provides links to the plugin download pages and gives you the option to update the plugin instantly …
Let’s start by showing you how to upgrade individual WP plugins.
Upgrading Single WordPress Plugins
We strongly recommend performing a full backup of your site files and database before updating your blog or website.
In your main menu, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins …
You will be taken to the “Plugins” screen. This page can be quite long depending on the number of plugins you have installed in your blog …
(Plugins Page)
Additional Information:
If you have too many plugins installed 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 (by default, all plugins display on the screen), 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 “Plugin Search” feature …
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 in need of upgrading have a distinctive notification message: “There is a new version of [Insert Plugin Name] available” …
Locate 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 plugin update process, so that the process of updating your plugins takes place “behind the scenes” without leaving your Plugins screen …
Repeat this process for all plugins on your site that need updating, or see the section below if you have a number of plugins that are out-of-date and would like to upgrade them all at once.
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Now that you know how to update individual WordPress plugins, it’s time to learn how to update many WordPress plugins simultaneously.
Bulk-Updating WP Plugins
To bulk-update WordPress plugins simultaneously using the automatic upgrading feature, go to the “Plugins” section and click on the Update Available link on the menu at the top of the page …
Tick 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 their individual boxes …
In the Bulk Actions dropdown menu above the table of plugins, choose Update …
Click Apply …
The plugins you have selected will begin updating …
Once the update process has been completed, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to return to the Plugins section, or select a different section of your dashboard …
Once your plugins are all up-to-date, the update reminders will disappear (i.e. the “at-a-glance” indicators and “There is a new version of XYZ plugin available” messages no longer display) …
All plugins have now been updated!
(When your plugins are up-to-date, update notices disappear)
Now that you know how to update in your WP dashboard, let’s show you how to remove plugins safely from your WordPress blog or website.
How To Remove Plugins
At times, you may choose to delete WordPress plugins that are no longer needed or being used on your site. This helps to decrease resources on your server and helps to eliminate potential problems.
In this section, you will learn how to safely delete unused plugins from your site.
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 WP admin menu and choose Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins screen, locate the plugin you want to remove and make sure it is deactivated.
Hint: Inactive plugins are listed 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 going any further …
Next, click on Delete …
If you want to browse all the files that will be deleted before going ahead with the next step, then click on the “Click to view entire list of files which will be deleted” link in the “Delete Plugin” page …
A complete list of files associated with the plugin selected for deletionwill be listed on your screen …
If you are absolutely sure about going ahead and deleting the plugin files, click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
Your plugins and related files will be deleted from your server …
How To Delete Multiple WP Plugins At Once
You can delete all inactive plugins at once, 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 checkbox, or selecting the check box next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins (warning: this will deactivate all plugins) …
Once you have done this, choose Deactivate from the Bulk Actions drop-down menu …
Click the Apply button …
All 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 …
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 the plugins that you want deleted, select Delete from the Bulk Actions drop down menu …
Click Apply …
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 selected plugins …
The plugins will be deleted and their associated files will be removed from your server …
Practical Management Tools For WP Plugins
As well as the methods shown above, you can use a range of 3rd-party tools that let you 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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"Wow! I never knew there's so much to learn about WordPress! I bought one of the WordPress for Dummies three years ago, such authors need to be on this course!" - Rich Law, Create A Blog Now