Do you wish to update your WordPress plugins to the latest version without much stress?
It is compulsory to update WordPress plugins if you are using WordPress.
After you start your blog and install plugins, its extremely important for security reasons that you keep the plugins updated. So, we will show you how to properly update WordPress plugins, and how to manage plugin updates more efficiently. There are difference between updating your WordPress site and updating your WordPress plugins, you can read our guide on How to Safely Update WordPress for Beginner’s.
Why you Need to Update WordPress Plugins?
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WordPress is an Open Source software. It’s core developers create newer versions for more features and bug fixes. Also, security and performance improvements are there in updates. Updating to latest version avoids the vulnerability present in previous versions. Updating your WordPress prevents hackers to insert malicious code through plugins. Such malicious codes can steal your confidential information or even create a bad SEO impact.
You can learn more about WordPress plugins in our guide on what are WordPress plugins? How do they work?.
Plugins are created by third-party developers. Most of them keep improving their plugins by adding new features, improving code quality, and keeping them secure. These changes are then released as updates.
Steps updating your Plugins to latest version
There is nothing much to do, you can update using any method below automatically.
Single Update WordPress Plugins
Go to Dashboard » Updates page.
You will see the notice that a new version of WordPress is available. Now you just need to click on the ‘Update Now’ button to initiate the update.
Some times you might have updated version of your plugins on your computer as zip file and you need to update, then you need to install using installing plugins tools. You can read our guide on how to install WordPress plugins and update to the current plugins or WordPress.
You can also install these updates by visiting the Plugins page. You will see a notification below each plugin that has updates available for you to install.
You can just click on the ‘Update Now’ link to install each update.
Bulk Update WordPress Plugins
If there are updates for several plugins on your website, then you may want to quickly review and bulk update those plugins.
To do that, you need to visit the Plugins page and click on the ‘Update Available’ link.
This will show you the list of all plugins that have updates available. You can select all of them and then select ‘Update’ from the ‘Bulk Actions’ drop down menu.
How to Undo the WordPress Plugin Update
Sometimes a plugin update can produce unexpected results like some plugin features may not work properly.
Uninstall using Deactivate Link
In that case, first you will need to deactivate that plugin.
If you can access the Plugins page in WordPress admin area, then simply click on the ‘Deactivate’ link below the misbehaving plugin.
Uninstall using backup for your WordPress installation
If you wish to rollback your plugins, you can install your backup files of your WordPress,it does not take a long time to roll back using your WordPress backup especially if you backup your site everyday automatically.
How to Manage WordPress Plugins More Efficiently
If you manage multiple WordPress sites, then you will soon realize that you have to update plugins quite often. Here are some tips to help you manage them more effeciently.
If you are confident about the plugins that you are using, then you can enable automatic updates for all your WordPress plugins.
If you don’t manage multiple WordPress sites, then you can setup email notifications for plugin updates. This will allow you to be alerted when there is an update available without logging into your WordPress site.
Always make sure that you have setup an automatic backup plugin on your WordPress site. This will allow you to restore your WordPress site in case something goes wrong.
We hope this article helped you learn how to Properly Update WordPress Plugins in WordPress. If you change your website’s permalink structure or change the URL of any page on your website, you should ensure visitors are still directed to the correct pages.
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