Have you recently upgraded your WordPress blog and found that you can no longer automatically update your plugins? There can be many different reasons for the upgrade or update plugins not to work but here are two plugins to check for if you recently upgraded to WordPress version 2.7.
With the release of WordPress version 2.7 or any new release for that matter, there are usually a few plugins that get sent to obsolescence. Some are or can be replaced by others and some are absorbed into the core of WordPress. One such plugin is the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin. If you were using it prior to version 2.7 then you no longer need it. Since it is now integrated into WordPress you can deactivate it and remove it.
Another plugin that can make you loose your hair is called One Click Plugin Updater. This plugin does a few things and one is like the name, it updates plugins, but it can update multiple plugins with one click. I emphasize can because it’s a bit fickle on some hosting accounts or should I say some hosting accounts are fickle. The security settings it needs can cause this plugin to fail, and I have found that the core WordPress plugin update works more often than this plugin. You can, however, configure this plugin to use the core WordPress plugin update settings.
To configure the (activated) One Click Plugin Updater to use the WordPress core settings go to Plugins, Upgrade Settings. Select the WordPress core radio button and uncheck the Show global update notices box. This should revert to the WordPress core plugin update settings.
Why then even use this plugin if you are using the WordPress core settings and not updating multiple plugins at once? Well because the One Click Plugin Updater plugin is also used to upload new plugins and themes from within the WordPress dashboard. When activated you should see options under the Appearance and Plugins modules to Install A Theme and Install A Plugin. Choosing these options will allow you to upload new themes and plugins from the URL or a zip file from your computer.
If the One Click Plugin Updater plugin causes issues when active you can always deactivate it and just activate it when you want to upload new themes and plugins. If you can’t update plugins with or without it then it can be permission settings on the plugins folder or access to the tmp folder is blocked by your hosting account. In fact, there are many different reasons for these types of plugins not to work, too many in fact for me to elaborate on in this post.