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As mentioned in earlier blog: How to Update WordPress? Updating your WordPress installation is important, similarly, updating your plugins and themes which you are using, so that if there is any bug in any one of these then it can affect your entire installation process.
Let’s see how to Update Plugins and Themes using One Click option:
Just like WordPress one click update, you can update your Plugins and themes using a one click method.
For doing that, navigate to the “Update” option present in your admin panel. If you find some plugins and themes for updating, they all will appear here below the section which informs you if the latest version of WordPress is available or not.
For updating Plugins and Themes, select them and then there is a button “Update Plugin”, click that button. The similar steps can be followed for the themes also: select all of the themes and then click the “Update Themes” button.
Here when you are updating Plugins or Themes, you will be taken to another page which will provide you the information about the progress of Plugins or Themes update, in the similar fashion as we saw while updating the WordPress.
It is important to note that there is another option available for plugins which authorize to update it using one click that option is: “Installed Plugins” option present in the Dashboard. Whenever a plugin gets updated you will receive a message right below it displaying a link to update the plugin automatically. There is one more option in which you can select all of the plugins and then select the ‘Update’ option present in the drop-down menu for a bulk update where it is required.
Let’s see how to update Plugins and Themes automatically:
As we have discussed in our previous blog that WordPress can update itself automatically that too, without needing us to do anything. In a similar way, you can also automatically update the Plugins and Themes.
By default this option is disabled but you can enable it, you can also add a filter inside the functions.php file of your theme or inside functions.php file of your theme, just the way you did it for updating WordPress.
Insert the following line of code for enabling the automatic updates for plugins:
add_filter(‘auto_update_plugin’, ‘__return_true’);
Insert the following line of code for enabling the automatic updates for themes
add_filter(‘auto_update_theme’, ‘__return_true’);
Keep in mind that, as opposed to WordPress, you cannot enable the automatic updates option for the plugins and themes using a constant in the wp-config.php file, but instead of that for the plugins and themes you should use filters as you do not have any other option.
Let’s see how to manually update the Plugins and Themes:
For updating the plugins and themes just like WordPress, the one-click method is more popular. But at the same time, you can update them manually also.
In some situations for example: assume that your plugin is not available on WordPress.org, at that time the WordPress will not allow you to use the one-click method.
For updating a plugin, start by downloading the new version of it from WordPress.org or from its official web page if it is available. Most of the times you will get the archived file, then unzip it and then deactivate the Plugin for restricting any potential bugs.
Now if the plugin is a single file, then substitute for the new file straightway into the plugins subdirectory of wp-content file. But if you observe carefully most of the plugins are stored in a folder and if your plugin is also stored in the folder then upload the content of the latest version file into the old folder, it will overwrite the files. Once it is finished, and then reactivate the plugin.
Now the steps for updating a theme are similar to the steps for updating a plugin, so just like what we did with a plugin, start by downloading the latest version file and unzip the archived file. Now while updating a theme if you want to update a theme which you are using currently then you must deactivate that theme and activate some other theme. Then upload the content of the latest version file inside the old file by substituting the old files. Once it is done, you can now activate the theme.
Let’s discuss a few things about the WordPress one click and automatic updates methods:
It is not possible for WordPress to check whether a new update is available for all the plugins and themes that you are using daily, it checks for only those which are present on the WordPress.org.
If the plugin or themes are not used on your platform, then WordPress would not be able to recommend you the one-click method and also the automatic update method will not work for them.
Now if you want to update a local installation on your computer system, then even if you can access the one-click method or the automatic update method they may not work.
It is important that this content Management System should have the correct rights to write into files. In simple words, a web server user must own these WordPress files otherwise that same user should have the rights to write into these files.
Let’s now see how to update various WordPress Tools and Services:
You can manage updates using some of the third party services and tools like ManageWP, InfiniteWP, WP Remote, and MainWP. You can also use some hosting management tools like Plesk 12’s WordPress Toolkit which has their own methods for managing the updates.
Conclusion:
As discussed earlier it is important to run the current version of your software and I think through this blog you must have come to know how to do this for WordPress and its plugins and themes.
As discussed in this blog there are two methods for updating them. I would like to suggest you that always choose one click and automatic updates methods because they are simple, quick and also less prone to errors. And of course manually updating is still another option and as we have seen previously, sometimes it can be the only one option, therefore it is also important to know how to update them manually.
It is also beneficial if you always choose automatic updates option, in the case when you want to have a recent version of them. As it is possible to update them automatically so while updating them insufficient time cannot be a reason for not updating them!
I hope you like this information! Let me know your opinion by mentioning it in the comment section below.
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