In another blog post, we explain what plugins are and how you can use these to easily add new features or functionality to your website or blog without editing code.
To view this article, go here:
In this tutorial you will learn why plugins need to be kept up-to-date, how to safely upgrade and remove plugins, and discover some great plugin management tips.
How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins
Why Plugins Need To Be Regularly Upgraded
New WordPress versions are constantly being released (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities discovered in earlier software versions, and to improve existing features.
Depending on how many plugins you have installed on your site, there will typically be new updates for plugins whenever WordPress distributes a new version.
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 created and tested to work with a previous version. Whenever this happens, problems 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 updating is needed). All you have to do on your end, is simply keep your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon learn, is really simple and easy to do.
Keeping your plugins regularly updated and deleting old plugins you no longer use is an essential aspect of good WordPress site management and helps to avoid any potential conflicts and errors.
The WordPress step-by-step tutorial below explains how to automatically upgrade and delete plugins without web coding knowledge required.
Upgrading And Deleting Plugins Safely From Your WordPress Admin Dashboard – Step-By-Step Tutorial
WordPress uses a number of different ways of letting you know when your plugins need to be updated.
For example, you can tell immediately how many plugins are out-of-date as soon as you log into your Administration site just by looking at the “Plugins” menu.
In the screenshot below, 9 WP plugins are out of date and need updating …
You can also check how many plugins need updating from your WordPress Toolbar (as shown below, nine plugins need updating) …
The Plugins section (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also notifies you about plugins that need updating …
As well as providing information about which plugins have updates available, the Plugins section provides links to the plugin developer pages and gives you the option to update your plugins with one-click …
Let’s start by showing you how to upgrade plugins one at a time.
How To Update WordPress Plugins One At A Time
Always make a complete backup of your site files and database before updating your website or blog.
From your main menu, go to Plugins > Installed Plugins …
The “Plugins” area will display in your browser. The list of plugins can flow down your page for some length, depending on the number of plugins you have added to your blog …
(WordPress Plugins Screen)
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 screen and type in a smaller number of items per page (by default, all plugins display on the screen), then click Apply …
Your Plugins section 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” function …
You will see plugin information in different color backgrounds depending on the status of the plugins (inactive vs. active and up-to-date vs. outdated) …
Plugins that need updating show the following notification message: “There is a new version of [Plugin] available” …
Find the plugin that needs updating and click on the update now link …
WordPress provides smoother plugin updates, so that the process of updating your plugins happens with just “one click” without leaving your Plugins screen …
Repeat this process for all plugins on your site that need to be updated, or refer to the section below if you have several plugins that are out-of-date and would like to upgrade all plugins at once.
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Now that you know how to update WP plugins individually, let’s show you how to upgrade multiple WordPress plugins simultaneously.
Bulk-Upgrading Plugins
To bulk-upgrade WP plugins simultaneously using the automatic updating feature, 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 their individual boxes …
In the Bulk Actions drop-down menu above the table of plugins, select Update …
Click Apply …
The plugins you have selected will begin the update process …
After your plugins have been updated, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to return to your Plugins section, or choose another option from the dashboard menu …
Once all plugins are up-to-date, any plugin alerts will disappear (i.e. the “at-a-glance” indicators and “There is a new version of XYZ plugin available” notices no longer display) …
All plugins are now up-to-date!
(When your site uses the latest version of all plugins, update icons do not display)
Now that you know how to automatically upgrade in the WP dashboard, let’s take a look at how to safely delete plugins from your site.
How To Safely Delete WordPress Plugins
It’s a good idea to remove inactive plugins. This helps to conserve resource usage and help you avoid causes of problems.
In this section, we show you how to safely uninstall 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 remove a plugin, go to your WP admin menu and click on Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins section, find the plugin you want to remove and make sure it is deactivated.
Hint: Inactive plugins use a different colored background than active plugins and display an “Activate” link below the plugin name …
If the plugin is active, click on Deactivate before continuing …
Once you have deactivated the plugin, click Delete …
If you would like 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” section …
The entire list of files associated with the plugin that you are about to delete will be listed on your screen …
If you are absolutely sure about going ahead and deleting the selected plugin files, just click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
Your plugins and related files will be deleted …
How To Safely Delete Several Plugins At Once
You can bulk-delete all inactive plugins on your site, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be uninstalled.
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 checkbox next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins (warning: this will deactivate all plugins) …
Next, specify Deactivate from the Bulk Actions dropdown menu …
Click Apply …
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 …
Click on the checkbox next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select only the plugins you want to delete by checking its box …
Once you have ticked all the check boxes next to the plugins that you want deleted, select 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 sure that you would like 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 …
Tools For Managing WordPress 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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