Our WordPress Autoupdate Just Got Better

If you have a WordPress website and you’re a SiteGround customer, you’re most likely taking advantage of the SiteGround WordPress auto-update service. Having your WordPress installation up-to-date is crucial for a stable and secure website. To make auto-updates hassle-free, we have developed our own WordPress Autoupdate Tool, which is included in all SiteGround hosting plans.

The tool just got upgraded with some new useful features:

More control of your auto-update schedule

The WordPress Autoupdate Tool now supports auto-update scheduling at different intervals after a new WordPress release is available. You can choose whether you want to get a new WordPress version scheduled for an update immediately after release or set an interval of 24, 48 and 72 hours after. With any postponed auto-update option, you will also get an email notifying you of the upcoming auto-update. 

The best thing is that you can specify different update schedules depending on the type of WordPress release available for an update – minor (security and bug fixes) or major (WordPress core updates). The default update schedule for minor security updates is immediately after release and for major core updates – 24 hours.

Have in mind that if there’s a critical vulnerability discovered, which can only be fixed with a security update, we may update your WordPress regardless of your settings. The vulnerability fixes do not affect functionality, thus your site should be safe.

Plugin update option

You can also specify whether you want to update your plugins along with the new release or only update the WordPress installation. Note that premium plugins may not be updated due to their specific update mechanisms, key validation, etc.

Backup included for an extra peace of mind

We make a full WordPress backup before any update – major or minor. If a plugin or a theme you have doesn’t work with the new version or something goes wrong, you can easily restore to the version you had before the update.

For detailed instructions how to use the tool please see our WordPress Autoupdate Tutorial.

author avatar
Monika Dimitrova

Project Manager

Monika is passionate about user experience and design that’s beautiful and functional. Addicted to video games and British shows. Loves to troubleshoot, analyse and organise stuff.

WordPress

Comments ( 20 )

author avatar

satrix

Mar 17, 2018

great information and awesome update

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christopher sam

May 19, 2018

WOW

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author avatar

WE WP YOU

May 21, 2018

Great blog about WordPress auto update..thanks for sharing, keep updating.

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Lisa Norman

Jun 22, 2018

I'm curious - on the smaller plans that have to pay for the restore, do they still have to pay if it is restored due to a WordPress update problem?

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Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team

Jun 25, 2018

There's a separate backup done right before the update, which is free for restoration.

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Aki @Lightsome Solutions Ltd

Jun 26, 2018

This is really great news, hats up to you!

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Phil

Jul 03, 2018

This is indeed a cool feature. It's great to know that my client's sites will be updated, even if they ignore all the update notifications (which a lot of them do!) I hope you're ready for lots of fun when all hosted sites update to WP 5.0 with Gutenberg :D

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Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team

Jul 04, 2018

I guess 5.0 will be a very special release and we will do an exception for it in our system, still contemplating on that...

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Ripta

Jul 07, 2018

This is really great news thanks

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Ian

Jul 09, 2018

Please set plugins to 'off' by default - auto updates has broken a couple of sites where we manage updates.

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author avatar

Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team

Jul 09, 2018

Our goal for the AutoUpdate system is to have by default everyone using tha latest possible software. I am sorry that in your case that caused issues. Note, that you can disable plugin updates during WordPress udpates at any time for each installation.

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Melanie

Sep 02, 2020

I would also like to set all auto-updates to off and can't find a setting for that. It has broken sites for us as well.

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Marina Yordanova Siteground Team

Sep 03, 2020

Hello, you could try to disable WP core autoupdater by adding a line of code to your wp-config.php file: https://www.siteground.com/tutorials/wordpress/auto-updates/#How_to_completely_disable_the_WordPress_autoupdates But please note that the SiteGround autoupdater is a separate tool than then WP core autoupdater, and it cannot be disabled entirely (you can skip only an immediately upcoming update) due to security reasons.

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Marcela

Aug 28, 2018

SiteGround is simply fantastic. I've gone from being terrified and ignorant of the world of websites, to having 3 self hosted accounts (on SiteGround) and now I am making my own website with my own premium wordpress theme. i feel so confident to do things myself now because I know SiteGround is there to support me if I get stuck. I love your service and won't tire of telling everyone about it! many thanks!

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Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team

Aug 29, 2018

Thanks for the kind words!

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author avatar

Uldis

Sep 27, 2018

Thank you very much for one more good feature. Happy customer ; )

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Jerry

Feb 12, 2019

Here we are in 2019 just getting up to date with this great service - really appreciate it. However, being newcomers to all this how do we decide whether to allow plug-ins to update or not. Is there a standard protocol we can follow? Thanks

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Hristo Pandjarov Siteground Team

Feb 15, 2019

In cPanel -> WordPress AutoUpdate you will find a switch you can enable that will update your plugins when WP itself is updated.

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Chris

Mar 13, 2019

Thanks for the extra touches like this... miles ahead of my previous host. So glad I switched!

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Bhaskar Paulan

Oct 06, 2019

That's awesome news guys!

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