Automatic Updates for WordPress Plugins and Themes
One thing I love about WordPress are the easy updates.
WordPress recently introduced automatic updates for minor releases of the WordPress core. The ultimate goal is for WordPress to always update automatically so users never even realize that WordPress has updated.
Well, did you know that not only the WordPress core, but also plugins and themes can update automatically? This tutorial will show you how to enable that feature.
Create a daily backup
As with any update, there’s always a risk involved though it might be small. The update could fail or there could be a problem with backward compatibility. This is why we recommend creating a daily automated backup, just in case.
We have two tutorials available to help with creating automatic backups:
Install the Advanced Automatic Updates plugin
We’re going to install the Advanced Automatic Updates plugin.
- Go to Plugins > Add New
- Type in “Advanced Automatic Updates” into the search
- Install the plugin
- Activate the plugin.
Configure the updates
- Click on the Settings link for Advanced Automatic Updates:
You’ll be presented with the following options:
- Major versions
- Minor and security versions
- Update your plugins automatically
- Update your themes automatically
Select the options you’d like, then click “Save Changes” at the bottom:
That’s all there is to it. You’ll now get email notifications for all new updates. Be sure to double check your site when those emails arrive.
Please note that this plugin only supports updates from WordPress.org. It won’t support commercial plugins that may have their own update tools.
My guess is that this functionality will become part of the WordPress core in a future release.
Advanced Automatic Updates has been one of my favorites since I discovered it. We use it on almost all the sites we manage, but we don’t want certain plugins automatically updating (such as e-commerce plugins). Fortunately, there’s a way to exclude plugins from being automatically updated, and I blogged about it: [url=http://optimwise.com/exclude-plugins-advanced-automatic-updates-wordpress-plugin/]Exclude plugins from the Advanced Automatic Updates WordPress plugin[/url].
Great, feedback thanks Chad. That’s an important point … by default this is a one-size-fits-all plugin.