Using Smart Updates in WP Toolkit

Ever feel like updating your WordPress themes and plugins is a bit like playing Russian roulette? You’re not alone. Keeping your site up-to-date is crucial for security, performance, and compatibility, but it can also bring a host of new problems:

• Dependency Issues: Updates might cause conflicts with other plugins or themes.
• Functionality Breaks: New versions can change or remove features you rely on.
• Visual Discrepancies: Updates can alter the look and feel of your site, messing with your brand’s appearance.

These risks make many site owners hesitant to update, leaving their sites vulnerable to security threats and performance issues. But what if there was a way to avoid this dilemma altogether?

Sure, you could create a staging site—a clone of your live site where you can test updates without any risk.

Sounds perfect, right? But here’s the catch: creating a staging site and running updates is a manual, multi-step process. Great for big, complex updates, but a headache for routine plugin updates. There has to be a better way.

Enter Smart Updates in WP Toolkit.

Imagine having a super-smart assistant that not only updates your site but also checks for any potential issues beforehand.

Here's how it works:

1. Initial Analysis: Before doing anything, Smart Updates scans your current site for existing issues like PHP errors and HTTP response code errors. It’s like having a detective on the case, ensuring no stone is left unturned.
2. Cloning and Further Analysis: Next, it creates an exact clone of your site—a safe sandbox where it can play around without causing any harm. It runs comprehensive checks on this clone to spot any issues that might affect the update.
3. Safe Updating: Updates are then applied to the cloned site. Smart Updates runs another round of automated tests, identifying any new issues introduced by the updates. 
4. Issue Detection: It identifies both pre-existing and new issues caused by the updates and provides a detailed report. You get a clear picture of what’s been fixed and what still needs attention.
5. Manual or Automatic Smart Updates: For manual updates, you get a detailed report and can interact with the test site to verify its functionality. For automatic updates, the live site is only updated if no new issues are detected. If errors are likely, SmartUpdate won’t proceed and you’ll receive an email notification with all the details.

How to Run Smart Updates Manually

Step 1: Accessing cPanel

To begin, please log in to cPanel, the control panel where you can manage various aspects of your website, including WordPress installations.

Step 2: Locating WP Toolkit

Once inside cPanel, click WP Toolkit in the left sidebar.

Step 3: Finding Your WordPress Installation

On the WP Toolkit overview page, you will see a list of all the WordPress installations associated with your hosting account.

If there are no existing WordPress installations added to WP Toolkit, click on the "Scan" button to search for existing WordPress sites on your hosting account.

Step 4: Update WordPress

1. Locate Your Website:
   • Navigate to the specific website you want to update and click on “Updates.”
2. View Required Updates & Toggle On Smart Updates:
   • You’ll see a list of updates that are required, separated into WordPress Core, Plugin, and Theme updates.:
   • At the top right, you’ll see a toggle called “Smart Updates.” Ensure this is toggled to on so that any updates you run are processed using Smart Updates.
     
     
     
     
3. Select Updates and Create Restore Point:
   • Select the items you'd like to update, or use “Select All Updates” to update everything.
   • Creating a restore point is highly recommended so you can revert if an update breaks your site. This will only display if there are core updates.
     
     
4. Start the Update:
   • Click on the "Update" button to start the Smart Update process.
   • WP Toolkit will clone your site, apply the updates to the clone, and perform a series of tests.
5. Review the Report:
   • If the update is successful on the cloned site, you’ll receive a report detailing how the update went.
     
     
   • Access the cloned site to test it, both on the front-end and by logging in as an admin. This allows you to ensure it’s functional.
6. Apply Updates to Production Site:
   • Once you’re happy with the results, proceed to apply the updates to the production site.
   • Check if your WordPress site still functions correctly. If you notice any issues, you can restore the site from the backup.

Enabling Automatic Smart Updates

Updating your website can feel like a tedious chore, and let's be honest, it's easy to put off. 

For many of us, life happens. Deadlines, meetings, and everyday chaos can push site maintenance to the back burner.

That's where Automatic Smart Updates comes in—automating the process to ensure your site stays secure and up-to-date, without you having to lift a finger.

Step 1: Enable Automatic Updates and/or Smart Update

1. Navigate to WP Toolkit:
   • On the WP Toolkit page, scroll to the WordPress site that you'd like to enable automatic updates for.
   • Ensure that the Smart Update toggle is set to “On” if you’d like to use Smart Updates.
2. Access Auto-Update Settings:
   • Click on the “Autoupdate settings” link.

Step 2: Configure Auto-Update Settings

1. Set WordPress Core Updates:
   • Next to “Update WordPress automatically,” select the desired option:
     • Yes, but only minor (security) updates (minimum recommended).
     • Yes, including major updates (if you want all updates automatically).
2. Set Plugin Updates:
   • Next to “Update plugins automatically,” select the desired option:
     • Defined individually, but security updates are autoinstalled (minimum recommended).
     • Yes, all updates (if you want all plugins automatically).
3. Set Theme Updates:
   • Next to “Update themes automatically,” select the desired option:
     • Defined individually, but security updates are autoinstalled (minimum recommended).
     • Yes, all updates (if you want all updates automatically).
4. Save Settings:
   • Click on the “OK” button to save your settings.
5. If you selected “Defined individually” for themes or plugins:
   • Go to the Themes and Plugins tabs.
   • Select which plugins and themes you’d like auto-updates to run on.
6. When reviewing your themes and plugins tabs:
   • If you notice any plugins or themes that you no longer need or use, it's best to remove them. Inactive plugins and themes can still pose security risks and clutter your site. Keeping only the essential ones helps maintain your site’s performance and security.

Step 3: Monitoring and Notifications

• Daily Checks:
  • WP Toolkit will check for updates every 24 hours and install the types of updates that you have enabled.
• Email Notifications:
  • If any issues are detected, the update will not be performed, and you will be notified by email to the contact email defined in cPanel.

By following these steps, you're making sure your WordPress site stays up-to-date and secure without all the hassle. Why stress over updates when Smart Updates can handle it for you? Let it do the heavy lifting so you can focus on what really matters.

And if you ever need help or have questions, our support team is just a click away.