A few days ago I wrote about WordPress auto-updates, a new feature made available in WordPress 5.5, and said that generally it was a good idea to enable this, especially for non-critical plugins where functionality is not core to your business.

Another scenario has occurred to me though, and that’s disabled plugins, and themes as well.

Generally speaking it is a bad idea to have disabled plugins and themes, as these potentially have security vulnerabilities that may not have been found yet.  However, if you do (such as a debug tool that you only enable when it’s needed) then this is a prime candidate for auto-updates.  They’re not enabled, so there’s no risk of them breaking your website, but at least those security vulnerabilities are getting patched for you.

As I said in my last post, if manually testing and updating your WordPress core, themes and plugins is something that’s taking up your valuable time, contact me to see how I can help.