What are some best practices for updating WordPress plugins regularly and safely?

It's good practice to backup your site before performing any changes, let alone ones as important as updates to plugins. Plugins can, on some occasions, completely break your website and if you've not got a regular backup schedule running, or didn't take one before performing the update, then it'll be much more difficult to get your site running smoothly again. Typically your hosting company will take daily backups of your site and you can also consider using backup-specific plugins or even WordPress management tools to backup all your sites on a daily basis.

1. Choose a reliable web hosting provider with built-in backup options. 2. Utilize automated backup plugins or tools for scheduled backups. 3. Backup both your website files and database regularly. 4. Store backups in multiple locations, including cloud services and local storage. 5. Verify the integrity of your backups to ensure data accuracy. 6. Label and organize backup files with clear, date-specific identifiers. 7. Implement a disaster recovery plan outlining steps for data restoration. 8. Regularly test the restoration process to guarantee functionality. 9. Keep communication channels open with your hosting provider for support and guidance. 10. Document your backup procedures for quick reference and easy troubleshooting.

?? Backup Your Site Before Updates! ? Always back up your site before making any changes, especially plugin updates. ? Plugins can sometimes break your site, and having a recent backup makes recovery easier. ? Check if your hosting provider offers daily backups or use backup plugins and management tools to ensure daily site backups. Regular backups keep your site safe and your recovery smooth! ??

Storing your website files in a repository is like putting them in a virtual safety locker. It ensures they're safe and sound, reducing the need for constant manual backups. Snyk automatically synchronizes any changes you make to your website. Consider using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to make your images load faster and more reliably so there is no need to take a backup of the images. Now only the website's database remains, we can use any plugins designed for regular backups. This approach saves server space and simplifies your backup strategy, making maintenance and recovery easier than ever.

Updating WordPress plugins is crucial for maintaining the security, performance, and functionality of your website. However, improper updates can sometimes lead to issues. Here are some best practices for updating WordPress plugins regularly and safely: 1. Backup Your Website 2. Test Updates in a Staging Environment 3. Update WordPress Core First 4. Update Themes Before Plugins 5. Check Compatibility 6. Read Release Notes and Changelogs 7. Update Regularly 8. Update One at a Time 9. Disable Caching During Updates 10. Use a Child Theme 11. Monitor Your Website After Updates 12. Rollback Option 13. Keep Inactive Plugins Updated 14. Consider Security Plugins 15. Regularly Audit and Remove Unused Plugins

I suggest don't update the plugin straight away, turn off automatic updates also. Many plugin updates break the website due to compatibility issues with another plugin. Wait for some time, then update.

Sometimes, updating to the latest version of a plugin might not be the best course of action, at least not immediately. So it's helpful to first check the version information published by the plugin developers. This will let you know what's changed as well as advise you on the current compatibility with the version of WordPress core being run on your website and the theme. Keep an eye on reviews too, just like you would if you were ordering a takeaway from a restaurant. If the reviews are dropping, be very wary. Plugins already expose some kind of security risk to your website. Plugins with poor recent reviews pose an even bigger one. So keep reviewing your plugins and if needs be, switch for alternatives.

I will also add that we always read the release notes or changelog provided by the plugin developer. This information outlines what changes are included in the update, such as bug fixes, new features, or improvements. This can inform our decision on updates & also confirm if there is redundancy in compatibility with other plugins or themes

In my experience it is important to understand how a plugin may or may not affect your site. Some plugins may not have a big impact on the site in case of an error while others like WooCommerce, LiteSpeed, Rank Math, the theme builder of your choice (Breakdance, Oxygen, Elementor) and the WordPress core itself should be treated with more care. For most plugins with little impact on the site you can update all at once and even activate the automatic update. While for those that have an impact on the site it is advisable to perform the manual update and even not update immediately (especially if it is a major update) and wait for the next version with possible bugs fixed.

When checking plugin details, it's also wise to consider the developer's reputation and support history. A plugin with active and responsive developers can be a safer bet, as they are more likely to release timely fixes and updates. Additionally, understanding the scope of changes in the changelog can help you anticipate any potential conflicts or need for adjustments in your site's configuration. This proactive approach minimizes the risk of website downtime and ensures a smoother update process.

While it can be a big time saver to update all your plugins in one go, I'd advise caution against this. In my opinion, I'd do this only if: 1. There were a small number of plugins on the site (eg. Less than 10) 2. ALL the plugins were extremely reputable, long standing plugins in the WordPress community (think Yoast SEO, ACF Pro etc) In this case, based on my 10+ years of experience, it is extremely unlikely that you'll run into any issues. On the other hand, if you're working on a site with lots of plugins (20+) of differing reputation, updating 1-by-1 might be more prudent, giving you the chance to test the website functionality after each one.

Update all WordPress plugins at once! All the "update 1-by-1" caution here usually has the effect of adding unnecessary work to your day. So long as you make an easily-restorable backup prior to bulk-updating plugins, you'll be good. Then, in an edge case where a plugin update causes problems, you can restore from backup before using the "update 1-by-1" methodology to find the problem plugin.

Updating one plugin at a time is recommended if there are many in use. ? Helps identify which plugin update causes any conflicts or issues. ? Simplifies the process of reverting changes or seeking support for a specific plugin. ? Reduces the chances of breaking your site due to multiple conflicting updates. ? Allows you to test each update individually for site functionality and performance. ? Facilitates pinpointing and addressing problems more effectively.

While it's great to update all plugins simultaneously, it's better to update them one at a time, especially if you have many of them activated. Update them one at a time, check your website to see if everything's all right, and as Jay-Z says, "on to the next one" ??

? WordPress Plugin Updates: One at a Time, Every Time! ? When updating plugins, remember: one at a time ensures smoother troubleshooting, minimizing conflicts. For fewer plugins or updates (less than 7), batch updates (e.g., 6 at a time) can be efficient. Take a cautious approach for stability and ease! ???

Using a staging site is crucial for updating WordPress plugins safely. A staging site is a clone of your live site used for testing and development. You can create one using a plugin, hosting service, or manually. It allows you to update plugins without affecting your live site, testing changes and troubleshooting issues first. Once satisfied, you can push updates to your live site. In my experience, this approach has prevented many potential disruptions. For example, during a major update for a client's site, testing on a staging site revealed conflicts that we resolved before going live, ensuring a smooth transition.

Some websites have multiple staging environments, which can help you preview changes before they are published. In fact, making changes on a production site is not recommended in most situations, so it's a good thing to have anyway.

Make sure your staging website is a nearly identical version of your production website. When you are updating plugins in a staging website and testing the updates, you might miss a critical issue if the plugin impacts functionality that doesn't exist on your staging website. To ensure the environments align before your plugin updates, you can pull down a copy of your production database to your staging website. Then, update plugins and test from there.

Staging sites are a handy way to perform major changes or security updates to your website, in a risk-free way. If something breaks during the change or during a plugin update, the live site is not affected, only the staging site. It's super simple to setup staging sites. Your hosting company can help with this and there are many plugins or WordPress management tools that'll allow you to do this as well. Once setup, you can make your changes or run your plugin updates and if you're happy that the website is running fine afterwards, just push those changes to the live site.

For WordPress sites, if you do not have WordPress tools directly from your host or for agencies managing multiple sites, I’d recommend InfiniteWP. We run this tool on our server and use it to manage all WP installations. It allows you to run backups, plug-in and core update, plus you can use extensions to further improve the app’s functionality.

1. Backup your site before updating. 2. Update plugins one-by-one to identify conflicts. 3. Check for compatibility with your WordPress version. 4. Test updates on a staging site first. 5. Use automatic updates with caution. 6. Regularly update WordPress core and themes. 7. Install and activate only trusted plugins. Following these best practices helps maintain a secure, stable, and smoothly-running WordPress site.

In the end it is a "cost-benefit" balance. Performing manual updates, pre-update backup, checking details, keeping a log is certainly the safest option. But if the site has more than 20-30 plugins, this activity becomes a daily task. If you also manage more than 10 sites it can take a good part of your day. This is not very cost-effective, considering that 99% of the updates are no big deal. Although there will always be that 1% that can become a real headache. My recommendation is to find for each site the right balance between update frequency, security and time invested in the process.

In addition to keeping a record of your plugin updates, I find it very helpful to keep a record of what each plugin actually does on your site (e.g. "Plugin X is being used to generate the accordion on Page A"). That way, if a specific page breaks after updating the plugins, the path to troubleshooting is oftentimes shorter. There's a free plugin in the wp.org repository called "Plugin Notes Plus" that helps with this exact thing.