{"id":54703,"date":"2020-05-03T11:00:58","date_gmt":"2020-05-03T05:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/?p=54703"},"modified":"2021-11-08T13:43:54","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T08:13:54","slug":"auto-update-wordpress-plugins-themes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2020\/05\/auto-update-wordpress-plugins-themes\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Auto-Update Plugins and WordPress Themes"},"content":{"rendered":"

WordPress now auto-updates plugins and themes automatically since WordPress 5.5 and this will enables the much-requested feature to be part of the WordPress core and enhance server security as it would auto patch security issues and bring feature updates on all installations in a one-click setup.<\/p>\n

I remember a decade back how tedious it used to be to manually download, install, and update plugins, till WordPress introduced one click updates<\/a> in WordPress 2.5, which we are so used to now.<\/p>\n

\"wordpress<\/p>\n

How we\u00a0 Update\u00a0 Plugins\/Themes Now<\/h2>\n

I always used the Companion WordPress Auto Updater<\/a> plugin which does a great job to allow auto-update of WordPress plugins whenever an update is pushed to the WordPress admin.<\/p>\n

However themes I like to manually update depending on whether I have a child theme or not or I am playing with directly editing my themes<\/a> without a child theme, in which case you might want to back up with FTP.<\/p>\n

Many people disable updates<\/a>, but that is not a good idea. BTW I make it a point and is a good practice to look at the changelog of the WordPress plugin (by clicking on the ‘View details<\/em>‘ link) so you realize and appreciate all the effort which the WordPress plugin developer has done to make your plugin more efficient as well as safer for you to use and enjoy.<\/p>\n

Auto-update WordPress Plugins<\/h2>\n

This is a no-brainer as far as updating WordPress plugins is concerned because most people do not edit WordPress plugins<\/a>, unlike WordPress themes.<\/p>\n

So basically it is good functionality to auto-update WordPress themes rather than manually get those notifications in the WordPress admin sidebar and manually go and click those plugin updates.<\/p>\n

The link to enable or disable plugin auto-updates can be seen in the plugin menu of WordPress Admin.<\/p>\n

\"autoupdate<\/p>\n

I think most people would really appreciate this feature because plugin updates not only give new features but more importantly it fixes WordPress security<\/a>. So this feature is really appreciated as now it is part of the WordPress core and it will really dramatically improve the safety of WordPress installations across the globe<\/p>\n

Auto-update WordPress Themes<\/h2>\n

Should you enable the auto-update themes feature when prompted to is a question that is easy to answer if you use a WordPress Child Theme or you use the default WordPress themes and options and do not edit theme files<\/a>, so do not risk losing any theme design changes.<\/p>\n

Either way, a WordPress child theme is a better way to use WordPress because any WordPress theme updates will automatically override your custom theme change. If you create theme files<\/a> regularly, then you will become hesitant to click the Theme update options and continue with the outdated theme and keep criticizing the theme designer, who may have fixed issues in a new update.<\/p>\n

You can find the option, when you go to WordPress Admin> Appearance> Theme Details > Enable AutoUpdates<\/em><\/p>\n

\"autoupdate<\/p>\n

Therefore it’s a good idea to update WordPress themes as theme designers continue to improve theme code<\/a> and fix glitches in design as well as incorporate new features and functionality in theme design<\/p>\n

Try WP-Autoupdates Plugin<\/h2>\n

It is also notable that while this feature was being tested, you could try it through a separate WordPress plugin called WP-Autoupdates<\/a> which is now modified and part of the WordPress core.<\/p>\n

They recommend that the plugin is in beta phase and you would not want to run it on a production website, still, if you want to try it out on a demo site or a test site it is a good idea to do a test run and see how it will be integrated and how it will work when it comes out in the next WordPress version. Till then enjoy the plugin.<\/p>\n

They will provide options that are at a granular level,\u00a0 where you can enable auto-update of all themes and plugins or you can choose to manually select which themes or plugins you want to continue updating. Looking forward to this …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WordPress now auto-updates plugins and themes automatically since WordPress 5.5 and this will enables the much-requested feature to be part…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":54711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49,17],"class_list":["post-54703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogging","tag-tutorials","tag-wordpress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}