Sometimes an idea sounds good. Really Good. After thinking about it, it starts to be not so good.
Remember New Coke? OK – maybe that was NEVER a good idea!
The good folks over at WordPress decided to make updates to WordPress automatic. That is right – you may no longer have to upgrade WordPress manually. Sort of.
When WordPress released version 3.7,聽 automatic updates became um, automatic. Again, Sort of.
Why have automatic updates to begin with? Well, 73% of the 40,000 most popular websites that use WordPress software are vulnerable to attack (You can read more about the investigation) ! That is a huge number – something had to be done!
Let me discuss what will be updated and what won’t be automatically updated.
To start, releases come in different shapes and sizes.
- There are MAJOR releases which take version 3.6 to version 3.7
- There are MINOR releases which take version 3.6 to version 3.6.1 or 3.6.1 to version 3.6.2
- There are SECURITY release which fixes up any security holes.
I have to tell you – when I first heard about auto-updates I nearly freaked out! I do not want updates to automatically be made since there are so many other ‘parts’ that could break becuase of the update! I do not want any of my sites (or my clients’ sites) to be updated when I am not ready to check for incompatibilities.
Now, the good news is that automatics updates WILL NOT OCCUR on Major updates. Only the minor updates along with the security updates will automatically get updated on your site. Typically, these do not break things (but beware – they still can cause incompatibilities to occur!)
By the way, updates are ONLY to the WordPress programs and NOT themes and plugins. I do not recommend it, but you can have all your themes and plugins get updated via the automatic updates. But, oh my gosh! I would never have that happen. Ever. Again, I want to be ready and available to fix things should something break due to an upgrade. Imagine what would happen if your site goes down while you are away when your site was automatically updated! Not a good thing in my book!
If you do not want to have updates applied without, you can disable this feature from happening. All you need to do is add this line of code in your wp-config.php file:
/* Turn off Auto Updates */ define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', false );
When you add this link, you will be disabling the WordPress automatic updater. You will still be notified when there is a new update or a new version available so that you can upgrade when the time is right for you!
Now that you know a little about automatic updates, what are your thoughts about them? Do you think you will have your site updated automatically, or do you think you might think about disabling this feature. Leave a comment below and let me know what you think!
I am okay with the automatic updates, so far at least. 馃檪
Make sure you are taking regular backups, just in case! Thanks, Betsy!
Automatic updates freak me out! I always back up before I go and apply updates. I guess I’m okay with the minor security ones but other than that – I want the control. Great post – thanks!
I agree with you, Amanda! (Can you tell by the tone of my post?!?!)
I’m not sure how I feel about automatic updates for WordPress. I see the pros and cons. On the other hand, I remember exactly how I felt about New Coke and how glad I was when Coke Classic returned.
Cindy
http://scribler.us
Not many people liked New Coke… Let’s see how many people like auto updates!
Right now I feel that it is good for sites that people forget about or for sites that only house sales pages. But I will not auto-update my main sites.
Nope. Not a fan. Maybe I’ll change my mind after I have a few weeks to see how it goes, but for right now, I’m turning them off.
After chatting yesterday, I had a feeling you would say that, Cindy!
And a quick shout out – anyone that wants to attend a free training, check out: Expert Business Training Online – Make sure you sign up so you get access to the replay!
Hummmmm…I can’t seem to locate the config file in editor. It’s my understanding not every WP site has it, correct?
Every WordPress installation has a config file, Doreen. It is not going to be found within your regular theme or plugin editor. The file will be in your root directory of where WordPress is installed and is called wp-config.php. You will need to use the File Manage in your cPanel or an FTP program to access it.
There are literally thousands of insecure wordpress installs left on web servers across the world, what people dont understand is that leaving it without the latest updates leaves everyone on that server at risk.
WordPress Auto updates are a fantastic product and potentially a revenue stream for developers, when the customer calls to ask why the website isnt working correctly you can quote them for a theme update to meet the latest software requirements !
I think its a big win win for everyone and contributes greatly to the security of web servers everywhere.
I think that auto-updates are goof for those sites that remain mostly dormant. There are a lot of folks that have tens or hundreds of sites! Many of these are what I call, “Set them and forget them” sites. Think of the micro niche sites are are used to sell an eBook, or a site that is only a sales page. Normally, these sites do not have a lot of content added to them on a regular basis. I think that these type of sites will benefit from the auto-updates.
But… remember that the auto-update will NOT update major releases… That is still the responsibility of the site owner!