How to update WordPress plugins and themes with WP-CLI

Keeping WordPress, plugins and themes up to date is the most important thing you can do for your website’s security. WP-CLI lets you check for and install updates in seconds.

New to WP-CLI? Start with getting started with WP-CLI, which shows you how to connect and get to your website’s folder.

Take a backup first. Before making changes, export your database – see how to back up and restore your WordPress database with WP-CLI – or create a manual backup in your Enhance panel.

Update WordPress itself

Check whether an update is available:

wp core check-update

Install it, then update the database if WordPress needs to:

wp core update
wp core update-db

Update plugins

See which plugins have updates available:

wp plugin list --update=available

Update one plugin, using the name shown in the list:

wp plugin update plugin-name

Or update them all at once:

wp plugin update --all

Update themes

wp theme list --update=available
wp theme update --all

Update translations

wp language core update
wp language plugin update --all
wp language theme update --all

After updating

Check your website in a browser, including any important pages such as your contact form or shop checkout. If something has broken after a plugin update, see how to fix a broken WordPress site with WP-CLI.

Premium plugins and themes bought from other companies sometimes can’t be updated this way until you’ve entered their licence key in WordPress.

Need a hand? Please contact our support team. We look after your hosting and WP-CLI; problems inside WordPress plugins and themes are covered in do you support WordPress plugins and themes.