Updating plugins, themes and WordPress from the panel

Every update WP Safer can install is on the site's own page, in three places: the Plugins tab, the Themes tab and the WordPress card on the Details tab. Nothing is installed until you click, and every button asks for confirmation first.

Find the sites that need something

Open Sites. The Needs update card at the top counts the sites in your account with at least one installable update and links to the three with the most; +N more opens the whole list with the Needs update filter applied. In the table itself, the Plugins and Themes columns show the number installed, and an amber ↑N next to it is the number that can be updated right now.

These counts come from the last time the site was read. If you have just changed something on the site yourself, use Sync now in the row menu (or Check again on the site's Details tab) to refresh them.

Update one plugin or theme

1. Open the site and go to the Plugins or Themes tab.
2. Find the row you want. When a newer version is available, the row has an Update to 6.1.7 button with the exact version on it.
3. Click it and confirm (Update the plugin "…"?).

This one runs immediately — the panel waits for the site to finish and answers with Plugin successfully updated or with the error the site reported. Right afterwards WP Safer re-reads the site, so the version in the list and the counts in the header are the new ones. If the site cannot be reached after the update, you get a second, red message saying so: the update may still have gone through, but something about the site changed, and it is worth opening it.

Update everything on one site

When a tab header says 4 updates available, an Update all button sits next to it. It behaves differently from the single button, and the confirmation says so: "Do you want to update all plugins? We'll add to the cron job."

• WP Safer first asks the site for its current plugin (or theme) list, so the work is planned on today's reality, not on the last sync.
• Each item that needs updating becomes its own job in the queue. They are installed one after another in the background — see Where an update goes after you click.
• Locked items, updates that this site cannot install (see below) and the WP Safer connector plugin itself are skipped.

There is no button that updates every site in your account at once. Updates are started per site; if you want them to happen without you, turn on automatic updates for those sites.

Update WordPress itself

When the site is behind, the Details tab shows an amber card: WordPress 6.8.1 is out of date, with the latest version underneath and an Update core button. Confirm with "Do you want to upgrade WordPress to the latest version?" and the core update is added to the queue.

The version WP Safer compares against is the one in the Latest WP pill at the top of the Sites page. A site that is ahead of it — because WordPress installed a release on its own before we refreshed that number — is not treated as out of date.

"N updates blocked"

A grey-amber chip with a warning triangle means the opposite of the amber ↑ badge: a newer version exists, but this site's WordPress or PHP version is too old to install it. WordPress.org tells the site so, and the site tells us. Those rows show the reason instead of a button, and they are never queued — starting a job that is certain to fail only makes noise.

The fix is not in this panel: raise the site's PHP version at your host, or update WordPress core first, and the update stops being blocked. The Needs update filter deliberately includes these sites — they need attention, just not a click on Update.

Lock a plugin or theme out of updates

The padlock icon at the end of each row is a per-item switch. Locked means "do not update this": the update button is replaced by a plain Update to … label you cannot click, Update all passes it by, and automatic updates leave it alone. Use it for a plugin you have patched by hand, or one you know breaks on the newer version.

The tooltip tells you the current state — "Plugin is locked - auto update is off" or "Plugin is unlocked - auto update is on". A locked item also cannot be deleted; unlock it first.

When an update will not start

• "The filesystem is not writable with the supplied credentials" — WordPress cannot write to the site's own directories. Check FS Method on the Details tab: if it says FTP credentials needed, add them there with Add. Sites with Direct access do not need any.
• "File modification is disabled with the DISALLOW_FILE_MODS constant" — the site's wp-config.php forbids installing anything. That is a decision on the site; WP Safer cannot override it.
• "Plugin is already up to date" — the site checked with WordPress.org and disagrees that there is a newer version. Run Sync now; our list was stale.
• "WP Safer plugin is not installed" on the Details tab, or No plugin found in the site list — nothing can be updated until the connector plugin is active again. See Add a site.