MainWP Updates

Every pending WordPress update across your client sites, on one screen, ready to run in one pass. MainWP Updates lists the core, plugin, theme and translation updates for every site you manage, runs them from your MainWP Dashboard, and installs updates for the plugins you trust on a schedule you set. It’s part of the free MainWP Core, built for agencies, freelancers and developers who look after many WordPress sites.

Keeping client sites current one site at a time means logging in to each wp-admin, working through its Updates screen, updating the same plugin again on the next site, and loading each site afterward to see that it responds. MainWP Updates brings that work to one page on your MainWP Dashboard.

What does MainWP Updates include?

MainWP Updates runs from your MainWP Dashboard. The MainWP Child plugin on each site reports its available updates every time the site syncs, and your MainWP Dashboard tells it which updates to install.

How do you update every WordPress site at once with MainWP?

To update every site at once, open Sites > Updates on your MainWP Dashboard, choose a tab and click Update All Plugins, Update All Themes, Update All WP Cores or Update All Translations. To run every pending update on every site, use Update Everything in the Updates Overview widget or the Manage Sites bulk actions.

Three views help you pick the order:

• Show updates per Site: work through one client site at a time.
• Show updates per Item: update one plugin or theme on every site that has it.
• Show updates per Tag: update a group of sites together, such as your e-commerce clients.

With the MainWP Staging add-on, switch the Updates page to Staging sites and test updates on staging copies before they reach your production sites.

Can MainWP update WordPress plugins automatically?

Yes. MainWP Advanced Auto Updates installs updates for the plugins and themes you mark as trusted, on the schedule you set in your MainWP Dashboard. Mark plugins on Sites > Plugins > Advanced Auto Updates and themes on Sites > Themes > Advanced Auto Updates, then turn on automatic updates in Updates Settings.

• Schedule: run automatic updates daily, weekly or monthly, on the day and at the time you choose.
• Delay: let each new release wait 1 to 30 days before it’s installed. The default is one day.
• Core and translations: update WordPress core on the sites you pick with Auto update WP Core, and update translations for your trusted plugins and themes.
• Ignored updates: automatic updates leave every update you’ve ignored where it is.
• Backups first: with MainWP Built-In Backups and the backup requirement on, MainWP takes a full backup of any site that’s due before its automatic updates run.
• Summary email: after each run, the Auto Updates Email lists the updates it installed, grouped by site.

How does MainWP help you update WordPress sites safely?

MainWP adds checks around each update, so you can back up each site first and confirm it responds afterward.

• Backups before updates: turn on Require a backup before an update, and when you update from Manage Sites, MainWP checks each site for a recent backup and offers Backup all for the sites that are due. The Updates page marks each covered site as Backup ready.
• Safe Updates: on sites running WordPress 6.3 or later, MainWP works with WordPress rollback on the Updates page, Manage Plugins, Manage Themes and add-on pages. An orange icon marks any plugin or theme that WordPress rolled back, until its next update completes.
• Response check after updates: turn on Check site HTTP response after update in Monitoring Settings, and MainWP checks that each site responds once its updates finish, then emails you the results.
• History: click History on a plugin or theme row to see who changed it, when, whether from your MainWP Dashboard or wp-admin, and the version change.
• Confirmations: Update confirmations asks you to confirm before updates run, either for every update or for bulk updates alone.

For more checks, MainWP Regression Testing compares each site before and after its updates, and MainWP Cache Control clears each site’s cache after its updates run.

Can you hold back updates and spot abandoned plugins with MainWP?

Yes. MainWP lets you hold back any update you want to wait on, and flags plugins and themes that look abandoned, across all your sites.

To hold back every core, plugin or theme update on one site, use Ignore core updates, Ignore plugin updates or Ignore theme updates on the site’s Edit page. View Ignored Updates lists everything you’ve held back, with an Unignore button for each.

The Abandoned Plugins and Abandoned Themes tabs flag items whose last release on WordPress.org is older than your tolerance, 365 days by default. Since MainWP 6.3, Abandoned check by local file date covers premium, custom and private plugins and themes too, using the file date of each plugin’s main file or each theme’s style.css.

Does MainWP update premium WordPress plugins and themes?

Yes. Since MainWP 6.2, your MainWP Dashboard updates many premium plugins and themes automatically, from the same Updates screens. For other premium products, add the plugin file or theme folder under MainWP Settings > Premium Updates > Custom Identifiers, and MainWP checks for its updates on every site. Each site uses its own vendor license, the same as when you update from wp-admin.

Can AI assistants and scripts run MainWP updates?

Yes. MainWP registers over 10 update abilities in the WordPress Abilities API, so you can ask an AI assistant which sites need updates, or script your update runs, with the same actions as your MainWP Dashboard.

• AI assistants: Claude and other AI tools connect through MainWP MCP to list pending updates, preview an update run and start it once you confirm. Updates you’ve ignored stay ignored.
• Scripts: MainWP Control runs mainwpcontrol abilities run list-updates-v1, the MainWP REST API has endpoints to list, run and ignore updates, and WP-CLI lists them with wp mainwp updates --available-updates.
• Your browser: the MainWP Browser Extension shows available updates for your sites in your browser toolbar.

Is MainWP Updates right for your sites?

MainWP Updates works on every MainWP Dashboard. Here’s what you need:

How do you set up MainWP Updates?

Setting up MainWP Updates takes five steps in your MainWP Dashboard:

1. Install the free MainWP Dashboard plugin and connect your sites with the MainWP Child plugin.
2. Sync your sites, then open Sites > Updates to review and run the available updates.
3. Go to Sites > Plugins > Advanced Auto Updates, click Show Plugins, select the plugins you trust and choose Mark as Trusted from Bulk Actions, then click Apply. Do the same for themes under Sites > Themes.
4. Open MainWP Settings > General Settings > Updates Settings, set the plugin, theme, translation and WP Core advanced automatic updates to Install Trusted Updates, pick the frequency, time and delay, and click Save Settings.
5. For WordPress core, edit each site in Manage Sites and set Auto update WP Core to Yes.

The MainWP Manage Updates guide covers every update screen and setting.

MainWP Updates FAQ