Meet Mike, an agency owner who manages multiple WordPress sites every single day. For the past few months, he’s been playing update roulette, postponing core updates in favor of pressing deadlines. Sound familiar?
The specter of outdated sites looms large. 95% of websites operate on outdated software, leaving themselves wide open to a host of cyber threats and known vulnerabilities, just waiting for an opportunistic hacker to exploit their outdated plugins, themes, or WordPress core.
The crux of the matter is that hitting the “Remind me Later” button or escaping updates is a common habit. This habit can lead to significant costs for your clients and damage your reputation, potentially resulting in lawsuits and many other consequences (that you can already imagine).
Avoiding this big disaster is easy – You need to try auto-update and scheduled updates for WordPress core, themes, and plugins. Let’s tell you how to do that. But before that, let’s reiterate the obvious with more information.
Table of Contents
Why is Running Outdated WordPress Versions Not Wise?
Running outdated versions of WordPress exposes your site to serious security threats.
Hackers actively search for known vulnerabilities in older software, and once they find one, they can easily exploit it. One well-known example is the TimThumb vulnerability, which allowed attackers to compromise thousands of sites due to outdated themes or plugins.
Similarly, using an old WordPress version leaves your site vulnerable to attacks like SQL injections or cross-site scripting (XSS).
The consequences of a hacked site are costly. You could face financial losses from fixing the damage, lose client trust, and even face legal action if sensitive data is compromised.
In the end, the time saved by delaying updates is nothing compared to the potential fallout from a security breach. Regularly updating your WordPress core is a simple yet effective way to protect your website and reputation.
Why You Should Regularly Update WordPress Core
- Security Improvements: Updates provide critical security patches, protecting your site from known vulnerabilities and threats.
- Bug Fixes: Regular updates resolve issues identified in previous versions, ensuring your site runs smoothly.
- New Features: Updates often introduce valuable new functionalities, enhancing your site’s capabilities and user experience.
- Performance Enhancements: Code optimizations can improve loading speeds, contributing to a more efficient website and better user engagement.
- Compatibility: Keeping your core updated ensures compatibility with the latest versions of plugins and themes, reducing conflicts and maintaining site integrity.
Step-by-Step Guide to Updating WordPress Core Manually
Updating the WordPress core keeps your site secure and allows you to take advantage of the latest features. While manually updating the core for multiple websites can be time-consuming, it’s a manageable task for those who own just one site.
Just follow the steps given below:
- Log in to your WordPress Admin Dashboard and navigate to Dashboard > Updates. Here, you’ll see available updates for WordPress.
- Click the Update Now button. WordPress will automatically back up your database and files before proceeding. Check for a success message.
- Once the process is complete, visit key pages on your website to ensure everything functions correctly and look for any plugin conflicts or layout issues.
- If problems arise, you may need to troubleshoot or restore the previous version.
Note: For big releases, replicate your live site to a staging environment, update the core, test everything, and push the update site to the production environment.
How to Schedule WordPress Core Updates Automatically?
Considering you offer WordPress management services to multiple clients, scheduling core updates makes more sense. In this tutorial, we will use InstaWP for WordPress Site Management.
It’s easy to schedule WordPress core updates (alongside plugins and themes updated) if your site is connected to your InstaWP dashboard. If it’s not connected, install this staging plugin on your website and establish a connection really quickly.
Now, go to InstaWP Dashboard > Connects and click on a connected site.
With the Scheduled Updates feature present in this site’s dashboard, you can automate updates for your WordPress core, plugins, and themes by setting a custom frequency.
You can choose to update daily, every few days, or at any interval you prefer.
Simply select the frequency (e.g., every 1 day), set the time based on your local timezone, and choose whether to update the core, plugins, or themes (or all of them). If you ask us, weekly or biweekly updates make more sense when your site is stable.
Once set, the updates will be applied automatically at the specified time. If needed, you can cancel or modify the schedule anytime.
How to Schedule Updates via WP-CLI Commands
Note: You can save and run WP CLI commands in InstaWP.
Just like using the scheduled updates feature, automating updates through WP-CLI (WordPress Command Line Interface) can also streamline your workflow and minimize manual tasks. Here’s how to schedule updates:
- Connect to your server via SSH and navigate to your WordPress directory.
- Use the following commands to enable automatic updates for the WordPress core, themes, and plugins:
wp config set WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE true –raw
wp config set WP_AUTO_UPDATE_THEMES true –raw
wp config set WP_AUTO_UPDATE_PLUGINS true –raw
- To run updates automatically, add a cron job to your crontab. For daily updates at midnight, use:
0 0 * * * wp plugin update –all && wp theme update –all
3 Best Practices for WordPress Core Updates
#1 – Always Backup Your Site First
Before initiating updates, create a complete backup using a reliable backup tool. If using InstaWP, leverage its versioning feature in Staging or the on-demand backup option with InstaWP Live for quick restoration if necessary.
#2 – Test Updates in Staging
While updating WordPress is necessary, it’s important to ensure that updates don’t cause conflicts with your plugins or themes. Sometimes, new WordPress versions may not work well with custom themes or older plugins, leading to broken features or even crashing your site. This makes testing updates crucial before applying them.
The best way to prevent issues is by using a staging environment.
A staging site lets you test updates safely before pushing them live. With tools like InstaWP, setting up a staging environment is easy and allows you to experiment with updates without affecting your live site.
Additionally, using WP-CLI commands to check plugin or theme compatibility ahead of time helps you stay ahead of potential conflicts.
#3 – Verify Site Functionality
After updating in staging, check key aspects like speed, compatibility, and formatting to ensure everything works as expected before pushing changes live.
- Speed: Check loading times to ensure they remain optimal.
- Compatibility: Test key plugins and features for seamless operation.
- Formatting: Review pages and posts for any layout or design discrepancies.
- Functionality: Ensure interactive elements, like forms and buttons, operate correctly.
It will allow you to confidently push updates to their live sites, minimizing the risk of downtime or user frustration.
Post-Update Checklist for Your WordPress Sites
After updating your WordPress site, it’s crucial to ensure everything functions as intended. This checklist will help you identify any potential issues that may arise post-update:
1. Check Website Loading Speed
Test your site’s performance using tools like GTmetrix or Google PageSpeed Insights. Measure page load times, speed index, and overall performance to ensure there’s no degradation post-update.
2. Test Core Functionalities
Review key features like contact forms, pop-ups, sliders, and navigation menus to make sure everything is functioning properly. Ensure that dynamic elements such as image galleries, animations, and interactive forms work as expected.
You must also:
- Test Login and Registration Processes
- Check for Plugin and Theme Conflicts
- Check Browser Console for Errors
- Test Checkout Process (for eCommerce Sites)
3. Verify Responsiveness Across Devices
Test your website on mobile, tablet, and desktop devices to confirm that it remains responsive. Check that all elements scale properly so that there are no issues with layouts or fonts across different screen sizes.
4. Review User Experience (UX)
Navigate through your website as a user. Test all the navigation links, buttons, and interactive elements to ensure a smooth user experience. If your site is eCommerce, try adding products to the cart or initiating a checkout process.
5. Verify SEO Settings
For websites using SEO plugins like Yoast or Rank Math, ensure that your SEO settings and sitemaps are still intact. Double-check meta tags, schema data, and robot settings to avoid any impact on your search rankings.
6. Run a Security Scan
Use security plugins or external services (e.g., Wordfence or Sucuri) to run a full security scan. This ensures there are no new vulnerabilities or malware introduced post-update.
7. Backup Your Updated Site
After ensuring everything works perfectly, create a new backup of your site in its updated state. This will provide a safety net in case any issues arise later.
Conclusion
Regularly updating the WordPress core is crucial for maintaining a secure and efficient website. By leveraging automated updates, update scheduling, and site management best practices, agency owners can protect their clients and enhance site functionality, ensuring a worry-free WordPress experience for all involved.
FAQs
How can I test updates safely without affecting my live site?
InstaWP’s staging environment allows you to test WordPress core updates without impacting your live site, ensuring everything works before going live.
Can I schedule WordPress core updates without using a plugin?
Yes, you can use WP-CLI to run the command wp core update –schedule=<time_interval>. However, using tools like InstaWP (while your site uses the InstaWP Connect plugin) is much more convenient.
Should I enable auto-updates for minor or major WordPress core releases?
You should enable auto-updates for minor releases, as these updates often include critical security patches and bug fixes that protect your site from vulnerabilities. For major releases that introduce new features, it’s advisable to wait and test the update in a staging environment (like InstaWP) to ensure compatibility with your themes, plugins, and customizations before applying it to your live site.
How often should I schedule updates for my WordPress site?
It’s best to schedule updates weekly for the core, plugins, and themes to stay current with security patches while reducing the risk of conflicts. If your site is stable, consider a bi-weekly schedule. For major updates, manually review and test them in a staging environment before applying them to your live site.
How do I know if my hosting supports automatic updates?
You can check with your hosting provider or install the InstaWP Connect plugin to add this support so that you can manage/schedule updates via InstaWP Dashboard > Connects. FYI, if your WordPress site is hosted with InstaWP Live, your hosting supports automatic updates already.
What happens if a WordPress Core update fails? Can I revert the changes?
If you are using the InstaWP Connect plugin on your site, you will get an email telling you if the core update failed. Your site will automatically be restored to its original state. However, if you still want to roll back, you must save your site’s version in InstaWP’s staging environment in advance or host your site with the native managed hosting service, InstaWP Live, which allows automated as well as on-demand backups.
Does InstaWP handle plugin and theme updates as well as core updates?
Yes, InstaWP allows you to manage bulk as well as one-by-one 1-click updates or auto-updates for plugins, themes, and the WordPress core, making site maintenance seamless across all components.
What happens if I choose “Minor” Core Auto-Updates for my WordPress site?
“Auto-update core: Minor” means that the platform will automatically apply minor updates, which usually include security fixes and bug fixes (e.g., from 6.0.1 to 6.0.2). These updates happen without user intervention to keep your site safe and stable. However, major updates (e.g., from 5.9 to 6.0) must be updated manually unless you’ve enabled auto-updates for major versions as well.
