In a previous blog post, we provide a detailed explanation of what plugins are all about and how you can use plugins to easily add new features and functionality to your site with no technical skills required.
You can read this article here:
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn the importance of keeping WordPress plugins up-to-date, how to safely update and remove your WordPress plugins, and discover some great plugin management tips.
How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins
Why Some WordPress Plugins Need To Be Upgraded
The WordPress software is regularly updated (about every 3-4 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 use on your site, you can expect to see at least some new new update notices for WordPress plugins every.
The reason for 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 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 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 as a WordPress user, is maintain your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon learn, is very simple to do.
Keeping your WordPress plugins up-to-date and removing old plugins you no longer use is part of good WordPress management and helps to avoid any errors and problems.
The step-by-step tutorial below explains how to upgrade and delete plugins from the WP dashboard with no web coding knowledge required.
Updating And Deleting Plugins In WordPress – Tutorial
WordPress uses a number of different methods of letting users know when plugins need updating.
For example, you can see ‘at a glance’ how many plugins need updating inside your Administration panel simply by looking at the “Plugins” menu.
In the example below, you can see that nine WP plugins are out of date and need to be updated …
You can also tell how many plugins need to be updated from your WordPress Administration Toolbar (in the screenshot below, you can again see that 9 plugins need updating) …
The Plugins page (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also tells you what plugins need updating …
As well as providing information about plugins that have available updates, the Plugins page provides links to the plugin developer sites and gives you the option to update the plugin with one-click …
Let’s start by learning how to update plugins individually.
Upgrading WordPress Plugins Individually
We recommend performing a full backup of your site files and database before upgrading your website or blog.
In your main menu, select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
You will be taken to the “Plugins” page. The table of plugins can go down your screen for some length, depending on how many plugins you have added to your site …
(WordPress Plugins Page)
Additional Information:
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 page and enter a smaller number of items per page (all plugins show on the screen by default), then click Apply …
Your Plugins section will now be reduced in size with a pagination feature added. You can find an installed plugin by scrolling through the pages or using the “Search Plugins” feature …
WordPress displays information about plugins in different backgrounds depending on the status of the plugins (active vs. inactive and up-to-date vs. out-of-date) …
Plugins in need of upgrading have a distinctive notification message: “There is a new version of [Plugin] available” …
Locate the plugin that needs to be updated and click on the update now link …
WordPress provides smooth and simpler plugin updates, so that updating your plugins takes place with just “one click” without leaving your Plugins area …
Repeat the above process for any other plugins on your site that need updating, or refer to the section below if you have many plugins that are out-of-date and would like to update all plugins at once.
***
Now that you know how to update individual WP plugins, it’s time to learn how to bulk-upgrade plugins.
How To Bulk-Update WordPress Plugins
To bulk-upgrade WordPress plugins simultaneously 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 …
Click the check box in 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 pull-down menu above the list of plugins, select Update …
And then click Apply …
The plugins you have selected will automatically begin updating …
After the update process has completed, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to return to the Plugins area, or go to another section of your dashboard …
Once all plugins are up-to-date, the update reminders disappear (i.e. the “at-a-glance” indicators and “There is a new version of XYZ plugin available” notices no longer display) …
All plugins have now been updated!
(When your site or blog uses the latest version of all plugins, notification icons do not display)
Now that you know how to upgrade plugins, let’s show you how to delete plugins from your WordPress site or blog.
How To Safely Remove Plugins
Occasionally, you may decide to delete WP plugins that you no longer need or are no longer using on your site. This helps to decrease resources on your server and also help to minimize causes of some problems.
In this section, we show you how to safely remove unused plugins from your WordPress site.
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 remove a plugin, go to your admin menu and select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins page, find the plugin you want to remove and make sure it is inactive.
Hint: Inactive plugins appear 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 …
Click Delete …
If you would like to browse 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 …
The entire list of files belonging to the plugin selected for deletionwill display on your screen …
If you are absolutely sure about going ahead and deleting these plugin, then click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
The selected plugin(s) will be removed from your WordPress installation …
How To Delete Several Plugins Simultaneously
You can delete all inactive plugins at once, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be removed.
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 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 pull-down menu …
Click the Apply button …
The 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, choose 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 sure that you want to go ahead and remove all of the plugins listed …
Your plugins will be deleted and their associated files will be removed from your server …
Managing WP Plugins – Tools
As well as the methods shown above, you can install WordPress plugins to 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.
***
"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group