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Getting started

What you need

  • WordPress 6.7 or newer.
  • PHP 7.4 or newer.
  • A single WordPress site. WP Updates Notifier 2.0.0 does not support multisite networks.

Install

Search for "WP Updates Notifier" under Plugins → Add New and click Install Now, then Activate. The home page lists the other ways to install it.

What you get straight away

On a new install the plugin sets up:

  • A check that runs every hour (Once Hourly).
  • One channel called Email. It is switched on and sends to the email address in Settings → General (the site's administration email address).
  • Notifications about WordPress, plugin and theme updates, all of them.

Because the check is due as soon as you activate the plugin, the first one runs on one of the next page loads of your site. If updates are waiting, you get an email about them.

Open the settings

Go to Settings → Updates Notifier. There are two tabs:

  • General: the Status line, the Check for updates and notify now button, and the settings. See Settings.
  • Channels: where notifications are sent. See Channels.

By default you need the manage_options capability to see them, which administrators have.

Send a test message

Check that the email arrives before you rely on it.

  1. Open the Channels tab.
  2. Find Email in the table and click Send test.
  3. A notice says Test message sent through Email. The subject of the email is "WP Updates Notifier: test message for" followed by your site name.

The notice means WordPress handed the message to your mail system. It does not prove the message was delivered. If it does not arrive, see Why does the email not arrive?.

The channel must be switched on to send a test.

Change where emails go

Click Edit under Email and change Send to. Separate several addresses with commas. The other options are in Channels.

Run a check now

On the General tab, click Check for updates and notify now. The plugin runs the same check as the schedule and tells you what happened:

  • Checked just now. Nothing new to send.
  • Checked just now. Sent to 1 channel.
  • Checked just now. Nothing was sent because no channel is enabled.
  • A message naming the channels that failed and why.

Only updates you were not told about yet are sent. The button does not change the schedule. See How notifications work.

Note

Plugin and theme data can be a few hours old when you click the button. See Why is the update data hours old? for why, and how to refresh it first.