Update Control

Which setting should I use?

Core Updates:

• If you want minor versions to update automatically (default WordPress core behavior): leave “Automatic Core Update Level?” set to “Minor”.
• If you want both minor and major versions to update automatically: set “Automatic Core Update Level?” to “Major”.
• If you want bleeding-edge nightlies: set “Automatic Core Update Level?” to “Development”
• If you want to disable core updates altogether: set “Automatic Updates Enabled?” to “no”

Plugin/Theme/Translation Updates:

• If you disable updates globally, Plugin, Theme, and Translation updates will also be disabled.
• Configure “Automatic Plugin Updates” and “Automatic Theme Updates” via the radio buttons: “Auto-update all”: forces all plugins or themes to update automatically (hides individual core toggles).
• “Disable all”: prevents all automatic updates for plugins or themes (hides individual core toggles).
• “Choose individually”: lets you manage them per-item on the Plugins page or Themes page using standard WordPress core toggles.

Permit Translation updates via the checkbox. What are advanced settings?

Enable updates for VCS installations

• By default, WordPress will check for the existence of VCS (version control system) files, and if any are found, will not perform automatic updates. Selecting “Enable updates for VCS installations?” will force WordPress to bypass this check, and perform updates regardless of the existence of VCS files.

Update Result Emails

• By default, WordPress sends an update result email for successful, failed, and critically failed updates
• Selectively disable emails for each result type via the appropriate checkboxes

Debug Email

• This email is sent by default when an update is performed on a site that is running a development version of WordPress. Enable this option to override the debug email, and prevent it from being sent.

Why don’t automatic updates happen right away?

You may find that you receive an update notification, but automatic updates don’t happen right away. That’s okay! WordPress performs automatic updates according to timing based on certain transient values, and it is possible for the update check to happen some time before the automatic update routine executes. The Plugin doesn’t modify the timing of the automatic update routine; rather, it just tells WordPress which update types are enabled.

Also, core now has two separate types of updates: manual updates and automatic updates. When you see the manual upgrade notice, WordPress has received the manual update offer, but has not yet received the automatic update offer. The two offers are fetched based on two different transients, and do not happen at the same time. Automatic core updates are served on a staggered rollout, which means that it may take up to 36 hours for the automatic update to execute after receiving the manual upgrade notice. For Plugins and Themes, you should normally see the automatic update routine execute within 12 hours of receiving the manual upgrade notice.