You’ve got to stay on top of all software upgrades if you’re going to administer your own personal WordPress installation. That includes not just the underlying WordPress software but also any plugins that you’ve added. Since so much of WordPress functionality is deployed in the plugins, it’s crucial that you check your dashboard regularly so that your code stays up to date.
I learned several important lessons about WordPress software upgrades after encountering an error message when trying to upgrade one of my plugins. The error messages read:
Unpacking the update.
Installing the latest version.
Removing the old version of the plugin.
Could not remove the old plugin.
Plugin upgrade Failed.
I could just cut to the chase and say that the best way to do upgrades is to check the WordPress dashboard, where there is a special Updates section, accessible from the drop-down menu immediately beneath the Dashboard icon in the upper left corner of the screen, directly beneath the blog title. But it’s more instructive to run through the actual trouble-shooting process I went through (as it was to me, when I was actually trying to solve the problem).
Having googled the offending error messages, I discovered that this is a pretty common situation. Some of the “answers” I discovered suggested that the solution had to do with changing file permissions, though that seemed unnecessary, given that *NIX usually does not require that kind of insecure kludge for a simple software update.
Other comments pointed to the possibility (or certainty) that the problem lay not with the filesystem, but with a bug in the underlying WordPress software that makes plugin upgrades difficult.
Those comments pointed me to one possible solution: make sure I have the latest version of WordPress up on my server.
I am able to upgrade WordPress through my hosting provider, using a utility that upgrades software installed on my server. Which I proceeded to do for all my blogs.
Then, I could upgrade my plugins through the WordPress dashboard using the Plugins panel to check each plugin individually.
It wasn’t until I’d finished upgrading all my blogs that I finally noticed the “Updates” menu item in the Dashboard drop-down menu (upper left corner of the dashboard screen). Using that, I realized that I could upgrade WordPress as well as all plugins much more easily, from a single panel and without all the extra logging in and out of various systems.
The take-away: use a systematic approach to problem-solving with any software, and you will undoubtedly learn more about how to use your software more effectively. And while you may find a solution quickly, it should lead you to better solutions as well as helping refine your understanding of the nuances of your software.