In another article, we provide an overview of what WordPress plugins are all about and how you can use these to extend your website’s capabilities.
To view the article, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn the importance of keeping plugins up-to-date, how to safely update and remove plugins, and discover some tools to help you better manage your plugins.
How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins
Why Some WordPress Plugins Need Updating
The WordPress software is constantly updated (about every 3-4 months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities found in previous software releases, as well as to improve existing features or introduce new functionality to WordPress users.
Depending on how many plugins you have installed on your site, there will typically be new new update notices for WordPress plugins each time a new version of WordPress is released.
The reason for this, is because most plugins for WordPress are created by 3rd-party developers, so sometimes the code in the new WordPress version conflicts with plugins that were built for a previous version. When this happens, conflicts can sometimes occur.
Fortunately, most WordPress plugin developers (and the WordPress developer community itself) are fairly proactive when it comes to ensuring that plugins get updated when a new version of WordPress is released (if updating is needed). All you need to do on your end, is maintain your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon learn, is really simple, quick and easy to do.
Keeping your plugins regularly updated and deleting old plugins you no longer need is an essential aspect of good WordPress management and helps to avoid potential problems or errors.
The step-by-step tutorial below explains how to automatically upgrade and delete plugins safely without requiring coding knowledge.
Updating And Deleting WordPress Plugins Safely – Tutorial
WordPress utilizes several ways to notify users when plugins need updating.
For example, you can immediately see how many plugins are out-of-date inside your Admin area just by looking at the “Plugins” menu.
For example, in the screenshot below, 9 WP plugins are out of date and need to be updated …
You can also see how many plugins need to be updated from your WP Administration Toolbar (the screenshot below shows that several plugins should be updated) …
The Plugins section (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also lets you know which plugins need updating …
As well as providing information about plugins that have updates available, the Plugins section provides links to the plugin developer sites and gives you the option to update your plugins individually or in bulk …
Let’s start by learning how to update one plugin at a time.
How To Update Individual Plugins
Always make a complete backup of your website before making any changes to your blog or website.
From your dashboard menu, select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
The “Plugins” screen will display in your browser. The table of plugins can go down your page for a while, depending on how many plugins you have added to your site …
(WordPress Plugins Page)
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 (by default, all plugins display on the screen), 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 …
WordPress displays information about plugins in different backgrounds depending on the status of the plugins (inactive vs. active and up-to-date vs. outdated) …
Plugins in need of updating display the following notification message: “There is a new version of [Plugin Name] available” …
Find the plugin that you want to update and click on the update now link …
WordPress provides fast plugin updates, so that the process of updating your plugins happens “behind the scenes” without leaving your Plugins area …
Repeat this process for all plugins on your site that need to be updated, 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.
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Now that you know how to update individual plugins, it’s time to learn how to bulk-upgrade plugins.
Bulk-Upgrading Plugins
To upgrade multiple plugins in a single operation directly inside your dashboard, go to the “Plugins” screen 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 plugin table, choose Update …
And then click Apply …
The plugins you have selected will begin the update process …
After all updates have been completed, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to return to your Plugins screen, or visit a different section of your dashboard …
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” notices no longer display on your screen, toolbar and menus) …
You have updated all plugins on your site to their latest version!
(When your site uses the latest version of all plugins, the notification icons no longer appear)
Now that you know how to upgrade WordPress plugins, it’s time to learn how to uninstall plugins from your WordPress site or blog.
Deleting WordPress Plugins
It’s a good idea to delete inactive plugins. This helps to conserve resources on your server and also eliminates causes of problems.
In this section, we show you how to safely deactivate and delete unused plugins from your WordPress site or blog.
Always create 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 dashboard menu and select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins page, 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 display an “Activate” link below the plugin name …
If the plugin is active, then click on Deactivate before going any further …
Next, click Delete …
If you would like to have a look at all the files that will be deleted before proceeding, then click on the “Click to view entire list of files which will be deleted” link in the “Delete Plugin” section …
A complete list of files belonging to the plugin that you are about to delete will be listed on your screen …
If you are positively sure about going ahead and deleting these plugin files, just click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
The selected plugins and related files will be deleted …
Bulk-Deleting Plugins
You can delete all inactive plugins at once, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be uninstalled.
Note: To delete any plugins that are presently 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 check box 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 pull-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” page and click on the Inactive link on the main menu …
Tick the checkbox next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select each plugin you want to delete by checking its box …
Once you have selected all of the plugins that you want deleted, specify Delete from the Bulk Actions pull-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 would like to proceed to the next step and remove all of the selected plugins …
The plugins will be deleted …
WordPress Tools For Managing WP Plugins
In addition to the methods shown above, you can use a number of 3rd-party tools to manage your plugins.
PLUGIN CENTRAL
Plugin Central helps you manage your plugins by allowing you to install plugins directly, displays the status of plugins in need of update on the WP Admin and also allows you to update multiple plugins with one click …
To learn more about using this plugin, visit the plugin site:
Managing WordPress Plugins On Multiple Sites
As discussed earlier, when a plugin update gets released, the best practice is to update that plugin as soon as possible.
What if you run multiple sites with the same plugin installed? Typically, you would need to login to your sites one by one and then update the plugin manually from that site’s own admin dashboard. With multiple sites, this process can take quite a while!
WordPress Power User Tip: If you own a number of WordPress sites or blogs, you can install, update or delete plugins on multiple sites automatically and simultaneously using a number of WordPress management tools.
Below are just some WordPress management tools that are worth knowing about:
Jetpack Plugin By WordPress.com
The Jetpack plugin is a single plugin for WordPress that provides users with a wide range of added functionality, allowing self-hosted WordPress site owners to access WordPress.com’s infrastructure and take advantage of stats reporting, automated social sharing, and a host of other features.
(Jetpack lets you access a range of powerful WordPress features)
One of these features is “Manage”.
Jetpack Manage allows you to manage multiple WordPress sites from one simple interface.
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 laptop, tablet, or smart phone.
Go here for more information about using the plugin:
ManageWP.com
(ManageWP is a leading WordPress management tool for multiple WordPress sites)
ManageWP helps you easily manage all of your sites from one central location, including upgrades, backups, security and more. This application features easy and intuitive one-click management and instant login access to all of your WP sites.
To learn more about using this plugin, visit this site:
WP Pipeline.com
(WP Pipeline lets you update all of your WordPress sites, plugins and themes from one central dashboard)
WP Pipeline is very similar to ManageWP, but you only have to pay once to access the software. It lets you manage your entire portfolio of WordPress sites and perform multiple updates from one central location.
Visit this site to download and use the plugin:
Congratulations! Now you know how to update and safely uninstall plugins.
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