In another post, we explain what plugins are and how you can use these to extend your blog’s capabilities.
You can read this article here:
In this tutorial you will learn the importance of keeping plugins up-to-date, how to easily upgrade and remove your WordPress plugins, and useful tools to help you better manage your plugins.
How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins
Why Many Plugins Need Regular Upgrading
WordPress frequently updates its software (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities discovered in previous software releases, and to improve existing features or introduce new functionality to users.
Depending on how many plugins you use on your site, there will typically be new updates for plugins when WordPress distributes a new version.
This is because most plugins for WordPress are created by third-party developers, so sometimes code or features in the new WordPress version conflict with plugins that were created and tested to work with a previous version. When this happens, there is a potential for conflicts to sometimes occur.
Fortunately, most WordPress plugin developers (and the WordPress developer community itself) are very 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 maintain your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon discover, is very simple, quick and easy to do.
Keeping your plugins regularly updated and removing old plugins you no longer use is part of good WordPress site management and helps to avoid any potential problems and errors.
The tutorial below explains how to update and delete WordPress plugins safely in your dashboard without requiring coding knowledge.
How To Automatically Update And Delete Plugins – Tutorial
WordPress provides a number of different methods of letting users know when plugins on their blog need to be updated.
For example, you can see ‘at a glance’ how many plugins need updating as soon as you log into your WordPress Dashboard simply by looking at the main “Plugins” menu.
In the screenshot below, you can see that nine WordPress plugins have older versions that need to be updated …
You can also see how many plugins need to be updated from your WP Notification Toolbar (the screenshot below shows that several plugins require updating) …
The Plugins screen (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also lets you know which plugins need to be updated …
As well as providing information about plugins that have updates available, the Plugins screen provides links to the plugin download pages and gives you the option to update your plugins individually or in bulk …
Let’s start by learning how to upgrade one WP plugin at a time.
Upgrading Individual A Plugin
Always make a full backup of your website before making any changes to your blog or website.
In your main menu, select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
You will be taken to the “Plugins” section. This screen can be quite lengthy depending on how many plugins you have installed on your blog …
(Plugins Page)
Additional Info:
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 on the page by default), then click Apply …
Your Plugins page will now be made more manageable with a pagination feature added. You can find an installed plugin by scrolling through the pages or using the “Search Installed Plugins” feature …
You will see information about plugins in different backgrounds depending on the status of the plugins (inactive vs. active and outdated vs up-to-date) …
Plugins that require updating have a distinctive 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 update process, so that updating your plugins takes place with just “one click” without leaving your Plugins screen …
Repeat the above 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 all plugins at once.
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Now that you know how to update one plugin at a time, let’s show you how to upgrade many WP plugins simultaneously.
Bulk-Updating WP Plugins
To upgrade multiple plugins in a single operation 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 next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select only the plugins 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 automatically begin updating …
Once all plugin updates are done, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to return to the Plugins section, or go to another section of your dashboard …
Once your plugins are all up-to-date, any plugin alerts 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 plugins on your site are up-to-date, update messages disappear)
Now that you know how to update your in the WP dashboard, let’s take a look at how to safely remove plugins from your site.
How To Safely Remove WP Plugins
Occasionally, you may choose to delete plugins that are no longer needed or being used on your site. This helps to decrease resource usage and help to eliminate problems.
In this section, you will learn how to safely deactivate and 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 restore your site.
To remove a plugin, go to your WP admin menu and choose Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins section, find the plugin you want to delete and make sure it is deactivated.
Hint: Inactive plugins are listed in a different background color 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 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” screen …
A complete list of files associated with the plugin that you are about to delete will display on your screen …
If you are absolutely certain about going ahead and deleting the plugin files, just click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
The selected plugin(s) will be deleted …
How To Safely Bulk-Delete WP Plugins
You can bulk-delete all inactive plugins, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be removed.
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 check box, 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 dropdown menu …
Click Apply …
Your 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 check box 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 to delete, choose Delete from the Bulk Actions drop down menu …
Click Apply …
A list of all selected plugins will be displayed 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 go ahead and remove all of the plugins listed …
Your plugins will be deleted …
WordPress Management Tools For WP Plugins
As well as the methods shown above, you can install a range of third-party tools that let you manage your WordPress 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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