In a separate article, we explain what plugins are and how you can use these to easily add new features to your website without editing code.
You can read this article here: WordPress Plugins – Improve Your Website’s Features
In this step-by-step tutorial you will learn why plugins need to be kept up-to-date, how to easily upgrade and delete plugins, and practical tips to help you better manage your plugins.
Why Many WordPress Plugins Need Upgrading
New versions of WordPress are frequently being released (about every three to four months) to fix bugs and address security issues and vulnerabilities found in older versions, as well as to improve existing features.
Depending on how many plugins you have installed on your site, there will typically be new new update notifications for plugins every.
This is because most WordPress plugins are created by third-party developers, so sometimes code in the newly-released 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 develop.
Fortunately, most WordPress plugin developers (and the WordPress developer community itself) are quite proactive when it comes to making sure 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 keep your plugins up-to-date, which, as you will soon learn, is really simple to do.
Keeping your WordPress plugins regularly updated and deleting old plugins you no longer use is an essential aspect of good WordPress management and helps to avoid any problems and errors.
The WordPress step-by-step tutorial below explains how to automatically update and delete plugins from your dashboard without web programming skills required.
Updating And Deleting Plugins Safely In WordPress – Tutorial
WordPress employs a number of different methods of letting users know when plugins on their site need updating.
For example, you can see ‘at a glance’ how many plugins need updating as soon as you log into your Admin area simply by looking at the main “Plugins” menu.
In the screenshot below, 9 WordPress plugins have older versions that need to be updated …
You can also tell how many plugins need to be updated from your WordPress Administration Toolbar (the screenshot below shows that several plugins need updating) …
The Plugins page (Plugins > Installed Plugins) also lets you know which plugins need updating …
As well as providing information about which plugins have updates available, the Plugins section provides links to the plugin download sites and gives you the option to update the plugin with one-click …
Let’s start by learning how to update WP plugins individually.
Updating WordPress Plugins One At A Time
We recommend making a backup of your site files and database before making any upgrades to your website.
From your admin menu, select Plugins > Installed Plugins …
You will be taken to the “Plugins” section. The table of plugins can run down your page for some length, depending on the number of plugins you have added to your blog …
(Plugins Page)
Useful Info:
If you have too many plugins and would like to reduce the number of plugins displaying on the screen, then click on the Screen Options tab at the top of your Plugins page and type in a smaller number of items per page (by default, all plugins display on the page), 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 “Plugin Search” function …
WordPress displays plugin information in different color backgrounds depending on the status of your plugins (active vs. inactive and outdated vs up-to-date) …
Plugins that require updating display the following notification message: “There is a new version of [Plugin] available” …
Select the plugin that needs updating and click on the update now link …
WordPress provides streamlined plugin updates, so that the process of updating your plugins takes place “behind the scenes” without leaving your Plugins screen …
Repeat this process for all plugins on your site that need to be updated, or refer to the section below if you have several plugins that are out-of-date and would like to upgrade them all in one simple operation.
***
Now that you know how to upgrade individual WP plugins, it’s time to learn how to upgrade multiple WP plugins simultaneously.
How To Update Several WordPress Plugins Simultaneously
To upgrade multiple plugins simultaneously using the automatic upgrading feature, 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 each plugin you want to update by checking their individual boxes …
In the Bulk Actions pull-down menu above your plugin table, choose Update …
And then click Apply …
The plugins you have selected will update all at once …
After all plugins have been updated, you can click on the Return to Plugins page link to go back to the Plugins section, or visit a different section of your dashboard …
Once your plugins are all up-to-date, the update reminders disappear (i.e. the “at-a-glance” indicators and “There is a new version of XYZ plugin available” messages no longer display on your screen, toolbar and menus) …
All plugins are now up-to-date!
(When your site uses the latest version of all plugins, update notices disappear)
Now that you know how to automatically update your in the admin dashboard, let’s show you how to safely remove plugins safely from your WordPress blog or website.
Deleting Plugins
Occasionally, you may decide to remove WP plugins that you no longer need or are no longer using on your site. This can help to reduce resources on your server and also will help you avoid potential problems.
In this section, you will learn how to safely delete unused plugins from your WordPress 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 reinstall your site.
To remove a plugin, go to your WP admin menu and choose Plugins > Installed Plugins …
In the Plugins section, locate the plugin you want to delete and make sure it is inactive.
Hint: Inactive plugins have a different background color than active plugins and show an “Activate” link below the plugin name …
If the plugin is active, click on Deactivate before going any further …
Next, click on Delete …
If you want to review a list of all the files that will be deleted before going ahead with the next step, then click on the “Click to view entire list of files which will be deleted” link in the “Delete Plugin” page …
The entire list of files associated with the plugin that you are about to delete will display on your screen …
If you are certain that you want to proceed and delete the plugin, just click on the Yes, Delete these files button …
Your plugins and related files will be deleted from your server …
Deleting Multiple Plugins At Once
You can bulk-delete all inactive plugins, 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 check box, or selecting the check box next to the Plugin column header to select all plugins (warning: this will deactivate all plugins) …
Next, specify Deactivate from the Bulk Actions drop down menu …
Click the Apply button …
Your 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 check box in the Plugin column header to select all plugins at once, or select only the plugins you want to delete by checking its box …
Once you have ticked all the checkboxes next to the plugins that you want to delete, specify Delete from the Bulk Actions pull-down menu …
Click Apply …
A list of all selected plugins will display 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 would like to go ahead and delete all of the selected plugins …
The selected plugins will be deleted …
Managing Plugins
In addition to the methods shown above, you can install a number of tools to manage your plugins.
For example, Plugin Central is a Free plugin that improves the management of your plugins with features that let you install plugins directly, displays the status of plugins in need of update on your Admin area and lets you update many plugins at once with a single click …
For more details about using this plugin, go here: Plugin Central – WordPress Plugin
Managing WordPress Plugins On Multiple Sites
Whenever plugin updates get released, the best practice is to update the plugin right away.
What if you have multiple sites with the same plugin installed? Typically, you would need to login to every site and then update the plugin from that site’s own WP dashboard. If you own or manage multiple sites, updating the same plugin(s) can take quite some time!
WordPress Power User Tip: If you own multiple WordPress sites, you can install, upgrade or delete plugins on all of your sites automatically and simultaneously using a number of WordPress management tools.
Here are a few WordPress management tools that are worth knowing about:
Jetpack
The Jetpack plugin is a versatile WordPress plugin that offers users a powerful range of added functionality, allowing self-hosted WordPress site owners to access WordPress.com’s infrastructure and take advantage of things like stats reporting, automated social sharing, and many other great features.
(The Jetpack Plugin lets you access a range of powerful WordPress.com features)
One of these features is “Manage“.
Jetpack Manage lets you manage multiple self-hosted WordPress sites and WordPress.com sites from a single dashboard on WordPress.com.
With Manage, you can update plugins, set plugins to update automatically, and activate or deactivate plugins on a per-site basis or all at once, whether you’re on your laptop, tablet, or mobile phone.
Go here to download this plugin: Jetpack Manage – Single WP Dashboard Management
ManageWP – WordPress Management Tool
(ManageWP is a very popular management tool for multiple WP sites)
ManageWP lets you manage all your sites from one place, including updates, backups, security and more. The application features easy one-click updates and instant login to your WordPress sites.
To download and use this plugin, visit this site: ManageWP
WP Pipeline – Multiple WordPress Site Management Tool
(With WP Pipeline, you can update all of your WordPress sites, plugins and themes from one central location)
WP Pipeline is very similar to ManageWP, but has a one-time purchase fee instead of monthly payments. It lets you control and organize your entire portfolio of WordPress sites and perform multiple updates from a single dashboard.
Go here to download and use this plugin: WP Pipeline – Manage All Your Sites From One Dashboard
Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade and safely delete your plugins.
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Disclaimer: This site is not associated with WordPress or any of the WordPress products written about on this site. We may derive a financial benefit from sales of products advertised, reviewed or linked to from this site. The product images used in this review have been sourced from the plugin’s own website.
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Originally posted 2016-01-26 16:35:12.
