Keeping your WordPress plugins and themes updated is one method to protect your site from hackers. It’s also a way to make sure the site stays functional and efficient. Setting these updates to occur automatically can be a time-saver while making sure the files are current as they are published.
In this tutorial, I’m going to show you how to automatically update WordPress plugins. It’s a very simple process that will help streamline the site and keep all of your components working properly.
WordPress is free and open-source software; therefore anyone in the world can download the full source code, meaning evildoers are constantly looking for ways to penetrate websites to carry out malicious activity (spam, phishing, etc.).
Setup Auto Updates In Softaculous
If you initially installed WordPress using the Softaculous auto-installer, the easiest way to automatically update WordPress, including your plugins/themes is inside of there.
If you didn’t select those options on install, you can set them by going to cPanel -> WordPress (under Softaculous Apps Installer)
From there, you want to click the pencil icon beside the website you’re wanting to auto-update.
Once this is completed, Softaculous will automatically keep your WordPress website, plugins, and themes updated automatically.
Setup Auto Update Plugins
There are a lot of tools available to automatically update WordPress plugins. In this tutorial, I am going to demonstrate Companion Auto Update. It’s a simple plugin that allows you to set various elements of WordPress. Currently, it’s also one of the more actively updated tools available in the system.
You will need to install the plugin before you can continue to enable automatic updates in WordPress.
Install and activate the Companion Auto Update plugin.
By default, Companion will have four main components of WordPress selected for auto-updates. These are:
- Plugins
- Themes
- WordPress core files
- Translation materials
You can select or deselect any element you wish for automatic updates. However, I suggest leaving the selections as-is to provide the best experience for keeping your site functional.
You can also change email notifications upon updating the various elements. However, you want to be careful when setting these options. If you have a lot of plugins and themes, your inbox could be quickly flooded with update messages.
Once you’re done making your selections, click “Save Changes.”
Should You Automatically Update WordPress?
If you’re like me and log in to your WordPress website at least five times a week, you’re probably fine to manually update everything.
However, if you only plan on logging in a few times a year, I HIGHLY recommend automatically updating.
As Binarilink Cloud CEO it’s a bit frustrating seeing customers get angry at us when the problem was caused due to lack of updates. Our malware scanner can help you AFTER the site has been injected, but the best route is to prevent it altogether.
