In another post, we explain what plugins are and how you can use plugins to easily add new features or functionality to your blog without editing code.
To view the article, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn why plugins need to be kept up-to-date, how to safely upgrade and remove your WordPress plugins, and discover practical tools to help you better manage your plugins if you own or manage multiple WordPress sites.
How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins
Why Many WordPress Plugins Need Frequent Updating
WordPress regularly updates its software (about every 3-4 months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities found in earlier software releases, as well as to improve existing features or introduce new ones.
Depending on how many plugins you use on your site, there will typically be new updates for WordPress plugins each time a new version of WordPress is made available.
The reason for this, is because most plugins for WordPress are created by third-party developers, so sometimes code in the new WordPress version conflict with plugins that were developed and tested with a previous version. When this happens, issues can sometimes occur.
Fortunately, most WordPress plugin developers (and the WordPress developer community itself) are fairly 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 as a WordPress user, is just maintain your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon learn, is very simple and easy to do.
Keeping your WordPress plugins up-to-date and deleting old plugins you no longer need is an essential aspect of good WordPress management and helps to avoid any errors and conflicts.
The WordPress step-by-step tutorial below explains how to automatically update and delete WordPress plugins in the WP admin dashboard without requiring web coding or programming knowledge or skills.
Updating And Deleting Plugins Safely In WordPress – Step-By-Step Tutorial
WordPress uses a number of different ways to alert users when plugins need to be updated.
For example, you can see ‘at a glance’ how many plugins are out-of-date as soon as you log into your Site’s Dashboard by looking at the main “Plugins” menu.
In the example below, you can see that 9 WordPress plugins have older versions that need to be updated …
You can also check how many plugins need to be updated from your WordPress Toolbar (as shown below, several plugins need to be updated) …
The Plugins section (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also notifies you about plugins that need to be updated …
In addition to providing information about which plugins have available updates, the Plugins screen provides links to the plugin developer pages and gives you the option to update the plugin individually or in bulk …
Let’s start by learning how to update one WordPress plugin at a time.
How To Update Individual WordPress Plugins
We recommend making a complete backup of your data and files before upgrading your blog or website.
From your admin menu, select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
You will be taken to the “Plugins” area. This list of plugins can be quite long depending on the number of plugins you have added to your blog …
(WordPress Plugins Section)
Additional Info:
If you have too many plugins installed and would like to reduce the number of plugins displayed on the page, 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 section will now be made more manageable with a page scrolling feature added. You can find an installed plugin by scrolling through the pages or using the “Search Plugins” field …
You will see information about plugins in different color backgrounds depending on the status of the plugins (active vs. inactive and up-to-date vs. out-of-date) …
Plugins that require upgrading have a distinctive notification message: “There is a new version of [Plugin] available” …
Select the plugin that you want to update and click on the update now link …
WordPress provides smooth & simpler plugin updates, so that updating your plugins happens “behind the scenes” without leaving your Plugins area …
Repeat the above process for any other 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 update them all at once.
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Now that you know how to update individual WordPress plugins, let’s show you how to bulk-update plugins.
Bulk-Upgrading WordPress Plugins
To upgrade multiple plugins in a single operation using the automatic update feature, go to the “Plugins” area and click on the Update Available link on the menu at the top of the page …
Tick the check box 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 drop-down menu above the list of plugins, choose Update …
And then click Apply …
Your selected plugins will automatically begin updating …
After all updates have been completed, 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, 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) …
You have updated all plugins on your site to their latest version!
(When your site uses the latest version of all plugins, update alerts disappear)
Now that you know how to upgrade your inside your WP dashboard, let’s show you how to delete plugins from your site or blog.
Deleting WordPress Plugins
At times, you may decide to delete plugins that are no longer needed or being used on your site. This can help decrease resource usage and will help you avoid problems.
In this section, you will learn how to safely delete unused plugins from your site.
Always create 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 restore your site.
To remove a plugin, go to your main menu and click on Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins area, 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 display an “Activate” link below the plugin name …
If the plugin is active, click on Deactivate before proceeding …
Once you have deactivated the plugin, click Delete …
If you would like to review a list of 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” screen …
A complete list of files belonging to the plugin selected for deletionwill be listed on your screen …
If you are positively certain about going ahead and deleting the plugin files, then click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
The selected plugin(s) will be deleted from your server …
How To Safely Bulk-Delete WordPress Plugins
You can bulk-delete all inactive plugins, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be cleared.
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 checkbox 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 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 …
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 their individual boxes …
Once you have selected all of the plugins that you want deleted, specify 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 delete all of the selected plugins …
Your selected plugins will be deleted …
Practical Management Tools For WordPress Plugins
As well as the methods shown above, you can install a number of 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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"I was absolutely amazed at the scope and breadth of these tutorials! The most in-depth training I have ever received on any subject!" - Myke O'Neill, DailyGreenPost.com