Plugin and theme updates include new features, bug fixes, and security patches. This guide will show you how to update a plugin or theme on your site.
In this guide
If your plugin or theme is listed in the WordPress.org repository, these plugins and themes will automatically update. Your site will check for new versions regularly and automatically install the latest version for you.
If you’re unsure if a plugin is in the WordPress.org repository, search for it here. If you installed a plugin by going to Plugins → Add New in your WordPress.com dashboard and using the search function to find it, those plugins are from the WordPress.org repository.
If you’re unsure if a theme is in the WordPress.org repository, search for it here. If your site is using a WordPress.com theme, we keep that up-to-date for you automatically, too.
Although we do not recommend turning off automatic plugin updates, you can do so by following these steps:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins.
- To the right of each plugin, there will be a column for “Automatic Updates“.
- Click the link “Disable auto-updates” to turn off automatic updates for the plugin.
- If the link says “Enable auto-updates”, that means automatic updates are already switched off.
- Some plugins will say “Managed by host”, meaning we keep this plugin safely up to date for you.
You can install old or out-of-date versions of plugins or themes if needed for compatibility issues, but you would also need to disable automatic updates to remain on the older version.
To check if there is a new update for one of your installed plugins:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins.
- If a plugin has an update available, you’ll have a notice and a link that says “Update now“:
If you have a lot of plugins installed, you can use the filter at the top of the screen to show only plugins with updates available:
To check if there is a new update for one of your installed themes:
- Visit your site’s dashboard.
- Navigate to Appearance → Themes.
- Click on the “My Themes” tab.
- If a theme has an update available, you’ll see a notice above the theme that says “Update now:”
You can set a day and time in the future for a plugin update to run. Scheduling these updates ensures that your plugins update when you’re available to monitor them for possible conflicts with your site. You can create up to two separate schedules, for up to ten plugins each.
To create a schedule for plugin updates:
- Navigate to Plugins → Scheduled Updates.
- Click the button labeled “Add new schedule“.
- Under “Update every,” select Daily or Weekly.
- Select a time of day and, for a Weekly schedule, a day of the week for the scheduled update.
- Under “Select plugins,” select up to ten plugins you want to add to the scheduled update.
- Click the button labeled “Create.”
Your scheduled updates will appear on the Plugin Update Manager screen under Plugins → Scheduled Updates.
To delete a schedule for plugin updates:
- Navigate to Plugins → Scheduled Updates.
- Click the three dots to the right of the schedule you want to delete.
- Click the “Remove” option.
- In the dialog box reading “Are you sure you want to delete this schedule?”, click the button labeled “OK.”
Updates will not always be automatically installed if you’re using a plugin or theme that’s not available in the WordPress.org repository. Commonly, this includes themes from theme shops like ThemeForest by Envato and plugins you purchased directly from the developer’s website.
Updates for these plugins and themes may be distributed manually by the developers, or they may provide their own automatic update system. Reach out to the creators of the plugin or theme directly to learn about their process for updates.
