Automatic WordPress updates: that's why you should disable them

by Aaa Cas Auditors & Business Consultant in Dubai

From version 3.7 WordPress provides automatic updates for both the core and for installed plugins and themes. Maybe you will be thinking that this is a great thing, as it takes away the problem of thinking about the updates of your website. Certainly automatic updates can be valid allies for the safety of those websites whose owners do not pay attention to maintenance, never updating, or rarely doing, installations. Although we have found a small advantage of automatic updates, I want to explain to you why it is better not to use or disable them if they are already set up on your site.

Why disable automatic WordPress updates?

With automatic WordPress updates you don't have full control of what happens to your website and relying on this system could lead you to have some malfunction. There is, in fact, the possibility that during an update of the WordPress components there are incompatibilities between the elements and this translates into technical problems on your site.

I therefore advise you to opt for a manual WordPress update so that you can check what you are doing and prevent some 'damage on your site'.

How to disable automatic updates

You can disable automatic WordPress updates by editing the wp-config.php file. You must proceed using an ftp program such as Filezilla so that you can connect to your hosting and search for the related file. Before doing this, remember to make a backup of your site.

When you are connected with Filezilla you have to look for the root folder of your site and download the wp-config.php file. After open it and at the bottom of the file add this line:

define( 'AUTOMATIC_UPDATER_DISABLED', true )

Now you need to save the wp-config.php file and reload it on your hosting, overwriting the existing file.

Disable automatic WordPress updates with plugins

If you don't feel like putting the wp-config.php file into your hands, you can use the Easy Update Manager plugin to disable automatic WordPress website updates . It is a plugin with many functions that give you the ability to manage all the installations on your site.

After downloading and activating Easy Update Manager click on 'General' - 'Automatic updates' and then select 'Nothing'.

Now your automatic updates are disabled and you can start to personally take care of the maintenance of your WordPress site.