Plugins – are you upgrading them regularly?
This is a topic that is often overlooked. One of the nice things with the newer versions of WordPress is that each time you log in you will see a notice if there are plugins that are out of date.
When you see this when logging in just click on plugins and on the plugin page you will see a note below that will have a link you can click.
When you click that it will take you to a page where you enter the ftp information for your site and submit. Then it will go find and re-activate the latest version of the plugin.
It is important that you don’t skip these updates. The plugins are updated by the author either because there is a glitch of some kind or a security problem. WordPress has made this extremely easy with the latest versions so take the few minutes to keep your plugins updated each time you log in and see the notice.
As always your questions and comments are welcomed.
Mike Paetzold
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9 comments
Ron Barrett on March 17, 2009 at 9:41 am
Hey Mike…yes, the great thing about WP 2.7.1 is the auto upgrade feature with the plugins.
Eliminates the time you used to have to take to go and find out if there were updates available.
Thanks for the info.
Ron
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Fred Lotgering on March 17, 2009 at 10:05 am
Mike,
This us one reason why I like WP 2.7.1 so much. It makes it really easy to get you on the latest update. Great feature especially if you need to do this on many blogs and it is otherwise easy to get out of sync. Now you get warned on each blog as soon as you login.
Fred
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Joel Osborne
Twitter: JoelOsborne
on March 17, 2009 at 2:02 pm
I love how easy WordPress is!
It wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I realized I could just put in my FTP information and the plug-in would update automatically… without me having to download and re-upload it!
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Captain Affiliate on March 17, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Quick question, Mike – if the automatic update fails, does it just stop the current plugin from functioning, or can it disturb the blog installation itself? Is it important or superfluous to back up an installation just before trying to automatically install a plugin update?
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Shari Thomas on March 17, 2009 at 5:31 pm
I love the “auto update” feature. It’s so easy to use. I make it a habit of updating each of my blogs immediately, something I rarely did earlier.
Oh yes, I have one blog that has been hacked (never updated the script) so I’m a lot more diligent now.
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Ric Raftis on March 17, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Good post Mike. Whether it be a Wordpress site or a Joomla site, upgrading your plugins and extensions is crucial. Sooner or later the plugins can stop being compatible with the version you’re running.
Mike on March 17, 2009 at 6:08 pm
No you don’t need a backup on this. The first thing it does is de-activate the plugin before it installs. If the install fails the plugin does not get activated. Then just go manually get the upgraded version and ftp it up and activate. It never touches anything except that plugin file.
Brett McEllhiney on March 17, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Got another question for you Mike,
What if everything goes just fine with the upgrade, but once the upgrade is done you have conflicts with another plugin or the plugin just stops working with the theme you have?
How do you recover from this?
I realize that you could just un-install and re-install the old version back assuming you still have it available, but what if there is a lot of configuring that you have done with the plug-in. Do you lose all of that?
Thanks,
Brett McEllhiney
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Earl Netwal on March 18, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Updating plug ins is easy, but on a couple of my blogs I have inactive plug ins and I get notices to update them as well. (They are inactive because of some conflict in the past.) Does it hurt anything to let them sit there? I presume not.
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