I don’t normally do columns or letter-like responses, but I find myself writing one today. And if this is seen, great. If nothing is done, well, at least my thoughts have been shared on the matter. This is in regards to the automatic upgrade feature in WordPress.
For those really new to WordPress, the older version gave you a notice and allowed you to click the button to upgrade. This was a one-click upgrade, and somewhat of a semi-upgrade feature due to the fact it allowed users to upgrade directly from their WordPress backend, rather than via FTP or another means.
WordPress 3.8.1 came up as a true automatic upgrade for some. We were told this was going to happen.
This true automatic upgrade is against the original core values and intentions of WordPress and I can’t believe this was done. This takes the choice out of the user-end side.
Yes, for some, it might be intimidating or confusing when WordPress updates… but for them to assume that 20% of the Internet wants this feature, is presumptuous.
I’m very angry and as a developer who supports both open source and web accessibility (for more than 12 years now), especially giving the user the choice, it’s really important to me. And it’s really important to other developers and users as well.
Getting a lecture from in a shotgun post via Make.WordPress.org was not enough after I posted to the Alpha/Beta forum back in December 2013… correction… November 2013. It really was a response that wasn’t adequate. This was a plan that should not have been considered at all.
WordPress has been tested a lot, but doesn’t always work the same and has been known to glitch on updates. Many of you who’ve been using WordPress and have been around the community, have seen this happen. And I’ve seen countless times when minor update has gone wrong (even on my own server)… so saying it doesn’t is incorrect. It doesn’t matter if you have hundreds of thousands of successful upgrades, you still have to think about the others too. To not think about the people who had problems updating is to cut off those users. I spend a lot of time helping some of those users via All About WordPress, a group I opened on Facebook for users who need support and Facebook is their venue of choice.
The other thing is backups. Not all WordPress users keep their ear to the wall when a new update is about to be released. So, if they aren’t aware, then they get a message saying that their site is updated and they never got a chance to do a back up. And if the site didn’t get a back up, and it actually failed on the upgrade, they have to troubleshoot the problem.
And yes, you can apply a snippet to the wp-config.php file to turn automatic upgrades off, but the majority of WordPress users are NOT developers and a large percentage of them don’t want to touch code because they are intimidated by it.
On the other hand, there are people who will enjoy this feature as they don’t have to fool with it. They will have to rely on making sure they’ve got scheduled backups and hope that the automatic upgrade didn’t mess up if a backup was schedule 2 days before, making them have to roll back to that and lose comments or even posts… depending on how often the site publishes, and how much engagement is done on the site.
I don’t want an automatic update in the middle of the night, and find out my website’s been down because of this. I have put the code snippet in place to prevent the true auto update. I just believe this is one step too far. Why was this thought of? How many other CMS are using this feature?
I’m not against updating and upgrading WordPress. That is not what this column is about. It is about the user’s choice in upgrading. It is making sure they get to choose when it happens. I think even a placing check box field option in the settings to turn this off might be a better solution, giving the choice to any user, and not having to make people who aren’t code savvy have to deal with the code snippet solution. I think this would be a great compromise that I could find myself calmed down about. The definitive guide is great, but taking the initiative in going a step forward will make even the web accessibility fanatics happy.
Whether this is included or not (it would make more sense to offer this in the WordPress backend settings), the plugin Update Control should help you disable automatic updates. Please make sure that if you do disable them, that you keep on top of your upgrades as it will keep your site secure. In most cases, minor updates usually don’t cause problems, but as mentioned, there are those rare cases that they do. AND, aside from updates, make sure you have a WordPress backup plan.
Note: This isn’t a post to attack specific people. This is to address an issue I’ve been trying to make for months because I see it from both the developer and user sides. It’s great if you read this and disagree, as that is what makes the WordPress community great. However, please make sure to know I’m entitled to my opinion as well.
Yeah Nile, I was surprised by that as well!!! I mean, I don’t code…and yes, am intimidated by it. but I really am used to doing the upgrades by myself…and sometimes I want to actually wait, and read up on what the changes are…
…presumptuous at best, of WP to “do it for us*….it really was a bit much…
Leading the life of a very busy pastor, I may miss notifications that come out. But I still like to have the choice of *backing my data up*… and pressing the update button…
…and until you mentioned it, I actually thought *I* had somehow generated the update….
I hope they don’t do that again. It’s actually also very scary. But not going into that big brother stuff here.
It really is kind of scary. One of my clients forwarded their email that was sent to them. It was a notification of their site being updated and they didn’t need to do anything. He was really shocked and wondered if this was a problem. If he was like that, and you were too… how many people between yesterday and in the next couple days are thinking the same thing?
I personally don’t dislike the feature completely, but I do agree with you that they should add a line to the general blog settings where we can choose to make use of the automatic updates or not. Personally, I’m like you and I rather upgrade myself so instead of having to add another line of code to my wp-config file, just checking a box would be perfect.
Thanks Leslie! And I’m not totally against this feature… it’s more of the user’s choice I’m always fighting for. 🙂
I’m with you. I understand the reasoning behind the auto-updates: make it more automated for WordPress installations to be kept up to date and thus keep more blogs secure; but as you pointed out, installations don’t always go according to plan: backups are never NOT good idea, but with auto-updating there’s no option for that, unless WordPress implements that, too. :/
Hi Nile,
I noticed the same thing. I had just gotten an email from WordPress that it was automatically installed for me. That’s the first time that ever happened. Usually, all upgrades are done manually.
So glad you’re speaking out about this Nile. As you said, we were told it was coming but I was still shocked to see the email letting me know the site had been updated (Hey, at least there was a notice!). I normally wait a week or so to update when there’s a new version of WP so I’m (also) hoping that this new process doesn’t end up creating unpleasant surprises.
Nile,
You are right on about this!!!! This auto upgrade is totally wrong!!! Not all themes and plugins are ready when WordPress is updated!!! Shame on WordPress!!!
Thanks for addressing this issue!!!
~ Jupiter Jim
For me, since I have a plugin that automatically backs up my database and emails it to me every 12 hours, plus I keep a copy of the most current version of WordPress, my wp-config.php file, and my theme + plugins on my computer, the auto-updates aren’t that much of an issue for me.
However, I’ve read the definite guide and to someone who is not a developer or at least very code savvy, it is still confusing and something many users who don’t want auto-updates will want to implement. Of course, I suppose WordPress would say that if you don’t understand the snippets, you shouldn’t be turning off the auto-updates.
Plugins are fine – with the exception of the fact that using too many of them slows down your WordPress performance and many of us are already using “too many” plugins as it is. So while the fact that there is a plugin that allows us the option to turn off the auto-updates is wonderful, some of us would rather not have to install another plugin.
What I feel WordPress developers are failing to understand here is that while in recent upgrades, glitches don’t happen as often as they used to, they do still happen. And unlike what I’ve seen some people say in the WordPress forums, they do happen on a “security patch upgrade” because every so often the security patch messes with the functionality of a plugin. I also feel that WordPress is becoming arrogant with their belief that no option to turn off auto-updates is the “way it should be” and they fail to realize there are other platforms out there to explore should the attitude of “we know what is best for your blog” continue.
Great article. I’m someone who likes to tinker with computers quite a bit, both software and hardware. Needless to say, I enjoy having as much freedom and choice as possible when it comes to these things. I completely hate the idea of automatic updates for anything. Let ME decide what I want to do.
Hi Nile,
I agree with your point here, I think it’s user will to upgrade WordPress version. You can’t automatically upgrade the version, as it is considered to be against the user will. I know many WordPress users who still uses the older version and don’t want to upgrade to newer versions. So WordPress should again give the option to upgrade to latest version instead automatic upgrades.
Yes indeed it was kind of scary to roll out of bed and being the first thing I do in the morning is a quick glance at emails, to notice a dozen emails from WordPress announcing they auto updated. Oddly though four sites others did not auto-update and I had not tweeked the code to stop it.
I agree it is perhaps best to leave this in the hands of the individual YET my girlfriend has not updated in two years. This seems like a security issue to me.
Also, I had BackWPup installed to backup everyday and last week changed it to every 3x per week. Am thinking maybe every day IS best after all? Thoughts anyone? Thanks in advance.
Great article. I’m someone who likes to tinker with computers quite a bit, both software and hardware. Needless to say…….., I enjoy having as much freedom and choice as possible when it comes to these things. I completely hate the idea of automatic updates for anything. Let ME decide what I want to do…….
I too dislike the feature. Thanks for letting us know the Issue.
WordPress is overall the best CMS and Upgrading system is getting easy too but am seeing some vulnerability and some bugs too because of which Many plugins are not working.Hope WordPress fox these too.
I think htat upgrading should be only by users’ choice, though if all users knew that there changes won’t be overwritten, they would upgrade more willingly. because upgrade is one of the security guarantees for the site owners, and it’s important not to forget upgrading to the latest version
I think that WordPress should provide built-in plugins. So, new users will have no need for searching main plugins.
Unfortunately, putting a bunch of built-in plugins WILL bog WordPress down. That is why they give everyone the option to install from the repository or download and manually upload them too.
Got your point. Thanks for your good answer. 🙂
Hi Nile thanks for this i have recently created my own website and any help is welcome, as i am not a very tech person.
Thanks
Hi Nile,
Thank you for sharing about the plugin to update these settings. In absence of such an option built-in, the plugin is very handy.
And yes, it is very inconvenient to ask average small business owner to play around with their wp-config.php file. This is also not fair because imposing something on other people takes a toll on the very idea of having a self-hosted website. If their website’s can be broken by an update which was imposed upon them by WordPress, this creates question about the idea of self-hosting using WordPress.
Thanks for posting this.
Regards,
Kumar
For the same reasons i have written a tutorial on automatic update and how to manually update wordpress using FTP, hope you and your readers will love to read this.
HI Rakesh! That is great, but I already posted solutions and have my own tutorials as well. I really don’t tolerate self-promotions in my comments here…. should be pretty obvious since I also run All About WordPress on Facebook. I removed the love as yours isn’t adding anything new to the conversation.
Thank for sharing about the plugin to update these settings. In absence of such an option built-in, the plugin is very handy
Upgrading WordPress would only take less than a minute. Though I haven’t experienced having unsuccessful upgrades, I’ve read in WordPress forum that some experience failure during upgrade resulting to the website being down. This post really makes sense, bloggers should have the option to upgrade or not.
Wow, I have never really paid much attention to this issue. Thank you for sharing. I can see now that actually this is important. But I believe the WordPress team must have done or been trying to do something for the already known glitches and improve it in update by update. Well, I guess as long as we have back up, it would be fine. 🙂
I do agree that they shouldn’t just decide that we all want this update and maybe we wanted to prepare in some way? its kind of unfair to just assume we want it and to just auto-update with out asking the user…
they should add a button that you can choose if you want auto update or not =/
thanks for sharing your thoughts on the matter I was thinking i was the only one who cared about that…
I wouldn’t agree more, also this could be good to follow for Firefox too – I just got an update and everything is on zoom. But WordPress, it is a nightmare if especially it happens when a theme changes like recently happened to me.
Thanks!
That is why I don’t do the auto update… It takes time to redo the site when the changes are not compatible with your apps and codes
Auto update option is not a good choice, but it will keep our blog more secure by getting these updates. you raised a valid point.
Kinda scary really! If you are new to wordpress as i am… the auto updates seem like something i need to be planning for.. I realize that in reality i just need to be smarter in my management of my site… But I jumped in not realizing that the online side of my business would be as big as it has become. Worse, problems to have i suppose. Better get to learning!