WordPress automatic updates for plugins & themes

Want to use the command line to enable and disable WordPress automatic updates for plugins/themes? Learn how to use the WP-CLI tool to manage auto updates!

How to enable & disable WordPress automatic updates for plugins & themes using WP-CLI

WP-CLI is a command-line tool for managing your WordPress installations.

Prerequisites

• SSH Access: If you are a Liquid Web Cloud client, SSH access is enabled by default.
  
• SSH Credentials: Locating your SSH credentials in managed WordPress and managed WooCommerce hosting.
  
• SSH Client to Use for the Connection:
  • You will need to be using Terminal if on a Mac.
    
  • You will need to be using PuTTY on a Windows PC.

To start, log in to your website server using you4 SSH credentials via the SSH client. Once in, make sure you’re in the valid directory, and in this case, we’ll need to be in the directory of your WordPress installation:

[wpclitesting@host ~]$ cd public_html/

If you can see your WordPress configuration files listed, you’re in the right place: 

[wpclitesting@host public_html]$ ls cgi-bin    license.txt  wp-activate.php  wp-blog-header.php    wp-config.php         wp-content   wp-includes        wp-load.php   wp-mail.php      wp-signup.php     xmlrpc.php index.php  readme.html  wp-admin         wp-comments-post.php  wp-config-sample.php  wp-cron.php  wp-links-opml.php  wp-login.php  wp-settings.php  wp-trackback.php

WordPress automatic updates for plugins

Detailed information about the command we’re going to use for this can be found in the wp plugin auto-updates <command> documentation, but you can also always get help directly in the command line:

[wpclitesting@host public_html]$ wp help plugin auto-updates

To begin with, let’s start by checking the status of the WordPress automatic updates for all our plugins with the following command:

[wpclitesting@host public_html]$ wp plugin auto-updates status –all +———————+———-+ | name                | status   | +———————+———-+ | akismet             | disabled | | hello               | disabled | | pagelayer           | disabled | | popularfx-templates | disabled | +———————+———-+

However, if you wish to check the status of WordPress automatic updates for some particular plugin, you can specify it in the command like this:

[wpclitesting@host public_html]$ wp plugin auto-updates status pagelayer +———–+———-+ | name      | status   | +———–+———-+ | pagelayer | disabled | +———–+———-+

Now, if we would like to enable WordPress automatic updates for some particular plugin, we can do it like this:

[wpclitesting@host public_html]$ wp plugin auto-updates enable pagelayer Success: Enabled 1 of 1 plugin auto-updates. [wpclitesting@host public_html]$ wp plugin auto-updates status pagelayer +———–+———+ | name      | status  | +———–+———+ | pagelayer | enabled | +———–+———+

And, in case we decide to enable the WordPress automatic updates for all our plugins, we can also do it with a single command:

[wpclitesting@host public_html]$ wp plugin auto-updates enable –all Success: Enabled 4 of 4 plugin auto-updates. [wpclitesting@host public_html]$ wp plugin auto-updates status –all +———————+———+ | name                | status  | +———————+———+ | akismet             | enabled | | hello               | enabled | | pagelayer           | enabled | | popularfx-templates | enabled | +———————+———+

Now, if we change our mind and want to disable automatic updates for a single plugin or for all of them, we can easily do that with WP-CLI as well:

[wpclitesting@host public_html]$ wp plugin auto-updates disable pagelayer Success: Disabled 1 of 1 plugin auto-updates. [wpclitesting@host public_html]$ wp plugin auto-updates status pagelayer +———–+———-+ | name      | status   | +———–+———-+ | pagelayer | disabled | +———–+———-+

[wpclitesting@host public_html]$ wp plugin auto-updates disable pagelayer Success: Disabled 1 of 1 plugin auto-updates. [wpclitesting@host public_html]$ wp plugin auto-updates disable –all Success: Disabled 4 of 4 plugin auto-updates. [wpclitesting@host public_html]$ wp plugin auto-updates status –all +———————+———-+ | name                | status   | +———————+———-+ | akismet             | disabled | | hello               | disabled | | pagelayer           | disabled | | popularfx-templates | disabled | +———————+———-+