In a previous post, we provide an overview of what WP plugins are about and how you can use these to expand your site’s functionality.
To view this article, go here:
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn why WordPress plugins need to be kept up-to-date, how to safely upgrade and uninstall plugins from your site, and discover some tips to help you better manage your plugins if you run multiple WordPress sites.
How To Update And Delete WordPress Plugins
Why Many WordPress Plugins Need To Be Frequently Upgraded
The WordPress software is regularly updated (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities discovered in older software releases, and to improve existing features.
Depending on how many plugins you have installed on your site, there will typically be new new update notifications for WordPress plugins whenever WordPress distributes an updated version.
This is because most plugins for WordPress are created by 3rd-party developers, so sometimes 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 develop.
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 updating is needed). All you have to do on your end, is just maintain your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon discover, is really simple to do.
Keeping your plugins up-to-date and deleting old plugins you no longer use is an essential aspect of good WordPress site management and helps to avoid potential errors or problems.
The step-by-step tutorial below explains how to upgrade and delete WordPress plugins safely in your dashboard without requiring web coding knowledge.
Updating And Deleting Plugins Safely – Step-By-Step Tutorial
WordPress utilizes a few methods to alert users when plugins need updating.
For example, you can instantly see how many plugins are out-of-date from your WP Dashboard just by looking at the main “Plugins” menu.
For example, in the screenshot below, you can see that 9 plugins need updating …
You can also tell how many plugins need to be updated from your WordPress Admin Toolbar (the screenshot below shows that a number of plugins have to be updated) …
The Plugins screen (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also tells you what plugins need to be updated …
In addition to providing information about which plugins have available updates, the Plugins page provides links to the plugin developer pages and gives you the option to update the plugin instantly …
Let’s start by showing you how to update WP plugins one at a time.
Updating Single A Plugin
We strongly recommend performing a complete backup of your site files and database before upgrading your website.
From your admin menu, select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
You will be taken to the “Plugins” section. The table of plugins can flow down your page for some length, depending on how many plugins you have added to your site …
(WordPress Plugins Screen)
Useful Info:
If you have too many plugins installed and would like to reduce the number of plugins displayed on the screen, 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 page), 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 “Plugin Search” feature …
You will see plugin information in different color backgrounds depending on the status of the plugins (inactive vs. active and outdated vs up-to-date) …
Plugins that need upgrading show the following notification message: “There is a new version of [Plugin Name] available” …
Select the plugin that needs to be updated and click on the update now link …
WordPress provides simple plugin updates, so that the process of updating your plugins takes place with just “one click” without leaving your Plugins screen …
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 all plugins in one simple operation.
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Now that you know how to update plugins individually, it’s time to learn how to bulk-upgrade plugins.
How To Upgrade Many WP Plugins
To update multiple WP plugins in a single operation from your admin area, 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 upgrade by checking its box …
In the Bulk Actions dropdown menu above your plugin table, choose Update …
And then click Apply …
Your selected plugins will begin updating …
Once the update process has been completed, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to go back to your Plugins screen, or choose another section of your dashboard …
Once all plugins are 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 to their latest version!
(When your plugins are up-to-date, the notification icons no longer show)
Now that you know how to update WP in the dashboard, let’s show you how to safely delete plugins safely from your site.
How To Safely Delete WP Plugins
Occasionally, you may want to remove plugins that are no longer needed or being used on your site. This helps to reduce resources on your server and also help to reduce potential problems.
In this section, we show you how to safely remove unused plugins from your site or blog.
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 admin menu and select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins page, locate the plugin you want to remove and make sure it is inactive.
Hint: Inactive plugins have a different colored background than active plugins and show an “Activate” link below the plugin name …
If the plugin is active, click on Deactivate before proceeding with your plugin deletion …
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” section …
All files belonging to the plugin that you are about to delete will display on your screen …
If you are positively certain about going ahead and deleting the plugin files, click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
The selected plugin(s) will be deleted …
How To Delete Several Plugins In Bulk
You can bulk-delete all inactive plugins on your site, or select a combination of active and inactive plugins to be deleted.
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 check box next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins (warning: this will deactivate all plugins) …
Once you have done this, specify Deactivate from the Bulk Actions pull-down menu …
Click the Apply button …
All selected plugins will be deactivated …
To delete all or some of the inactive plugins on your site, go to the “Plugins” screen and click on the Inactive link in the Plugins menu …
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 deleted, choose Delete from the Bulk Actions drop down menu …
Click the Apply button …
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 proceed to the next step and remove all of the selected plugins …
The plugins will be deleted and their associated files will be removed from your server …
Management Tools For Plugins
In addition to the methods shown above, you can install a number of 3rd-party tools 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.
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