{"id":168056,"date":"2017-09-26T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/premium.wpmudev.org\/blog\/?p=168056"},"modified":"2018-07-18T04:12:13","modified_gmt":"2018-07-18T04:12:13","slug":"introducing-automate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/introducing-automate\/","title":{"rendered":"Say G\u2019day to Automate! Never Manually Update WordPress Plugins or Themes Ever Again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When was the last time you logged into WordPress and didn\u2019t have to update your plugins, themes or WordPress itself? I\u2019m gonna to bet your answer is &#8220;never&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s face it. People don\u2019t log in to WordPress every day. So when you do log in and you\u2019re confronted with notifications galore nagging you to update your plugins, themes, and core to access new features and fix security issues, bugs and fixes, well, it\u2019s just unacceptable. This, in my opinion, is one of the worst aspects of the WordPress UX.<\/p>\n<a class=\"general_big_button\" href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/new-hub-tabs\/\"><span class=\"text\"><strong>WPMU DEV UPDATE\u00a0 &#8212; OCTOBER 2020<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"button-a-b\">CHECK OUT THE NEW HUB TABS!<\/span><\/a>\n<p>I mean, I\u2019ve been using WordPress for 10+ years so I\u2019m used to pushing buttons and updating settings to get my website just right. But for admins who run multiple WordPress sites like a lot of WPMU DEV members, manually updating WordPress each and every time you log in is a bloody nightmare!<\/p>\n<p>So we decided to do something about it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Today, I\u2019m excited to announce <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/updates\/\" target=\"_blank\">Automate<\/a>, the newest and coolest feature to join the WPMU DEV WordPress toolkit!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Basically, Automate does two very simple but absolutely essential things for your WordPress site automatically:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Updates for your plugins, themes and WordPress core files, and<\/li>\n<li>Runs scheduled backups.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let\u2019s go over these features in more detail.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"wpdui-pic-large   \" >\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-1050x1050 size-1050x1050\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/automate-first-screen.png\" alt=\"Automate\" width=\"1050\" height=\"565\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Simply enable Automate for auto-updates and auto-backups of your WordPress site.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2>How Automate is Going to Change Your (Admin) Life<\/h2>\n<p>If you manage a bunch of WordPress sites like I do, staying on top of all the updates is time consuming (or as we say in Australia, hard yakka!). The fact is, keeping your site up-to-date is one of the most important things you can do to keep WordPress secure. After all, more than 50% of all hacked WordPress sites is because a plugin or theme was not updated to the latest version.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to Automate, you\u2019ll never have to worry about manually updating WordPress ever again.<\/p>\n<p>Automate automatically detects when your website is running out-of-date plugins, themes or a major or minor version of WordPress, and automatically updates your website to run the latest versions of all software that\u2019s available.<\/p>\n<p>BUT before Automate does its thing, it can automatically and safely backups your site for you. So if you run into any issues, you can simply restore your site. Too. Easy.<\/p>\n<h2>Automatically Run Updates for Plugins, Theme and WordPress Core<\/h2>\n<p>One of Automate\u2019s greatest strengths is that you can choose which plugins and themes you want to automatically update, as well as whether you want to enable WordPress core updates.<\/p>\n<p>Or, you can simply auto-update all plugins, themes and core files!<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t want to update WordPress core files automatically? No worries mate! Just turn it off.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"wpdui-pic-large   \" >\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-1050x1050 size-1050x1050\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/automate-updates.png\" alt=\"Automate configuration\" width=\"1050\" height=\"991\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">You can choose which plugins and themes you want to auto-update.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Automatically Run Scheduled Backups<\/h2>\n<p>Automatically running backups before you auto-update files is as easy as switching it on in Automate\u2019s settings.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"wpdui-pic-large   \" >\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-1050x1050 size-1050x1050\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/automate-settings.png\" alt=\"Automate settings\" width=\"1050\" height=\"499\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Switch on auto-backups and Automate will automatically back up your site before it runs any updates.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>And if you like being across all activity on your site, we\u2019ve got you covered there too! With Automate, you can enable update reports so you get an email each time Automate runs or daily or as a weekly digest. Or not at all. It\u2019s entirely up to you.<\/p>\n<p>If you do choose to get email updates, you\u2019ll receive links to all updates, readmes and your website, so if you can double-check everything has gone smoothly.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"wpdui-pic-regular  \">\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-600x600 size-600x600\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/automate-email.png\" alt=\"Automate email\" width=\"350\" height=\"600\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Automate will email you the moment it carries out an update or backup on your site, or you can choose to receive updates daily or weekly, or even not at all.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>We\u2019re even working on automating email reports too. Coming soon :)<\/p>\n<h2>Automate Activity Logs<\/h2>\n<p>As we well know down here this \u2018aint no Terra nullius. And neither are your Automate logs.<\/p>\n<p>Automate records every single thing that it does on your site like our lives depend on it. Just check your activity log and there\u2019s a positive swag bag of info there so you can see all the good things we\u2019ve been doing for ya.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"wpdui-pic-large   \" >\n<figure class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-1050x1050 size-1050x1050\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/automate-activity-log.png\" alt=\"Automate activity log\" width=\"715\" height=\"1050\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Get a detailed activity log of what Automate has updated on your website.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Yep, we\u2019ve got you covered with automated updates and backups, which you can use on unlimited sites as often as you like, completely free with your WPMU DEV membership<\/p>\n<h2>Never Waste Time on Manual Updates Ever Again!<\/h2>\n<p>Ready to get started? Automate is available right now in The Hub. Just click the Automate icon to configure the basic settings for auto updates and auto backups.<\/p>\n<p>Give it a miss and you\u2019re a flamin\u2019 galah!<\/p>\n<p>Give it a go and you\u2019re a bloody legend!<\/p>\n<p>Translation: Try<a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\" target=\"_blank\"> Automate out now!<\/a> It\u2019s awesome and works a treat on my own WordPress websites :)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When was the last time you logged into WordPress and didn\u2019t have to update your plugins, themes or WordPress itself? I\u2019m gonna to bet your answer is &#8220;never&#8221;. Let\u2019s face it. People don\u2019t log in to WordPress every day. So when you do log in and you\u2019re confronted with notifications galore nagging you to update [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":168166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"blog_reading_time":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_tutorials_categories":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4161,11260],"tags":[10770,10772,10771],"tutorials_categories":[],"class_list":["post-168056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wpmudev","category-wpmu-dev-products","tag-automate","tag-wordpress-backups","tag-wordpress-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168056"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":218945,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168056\/revisions\/218945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168056"},{"taxonomy":"tutorials_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tutorials_categories?post=168056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}