How can I disable WordPress plugin updates?

Question

I've found a great plugin for WordPress under GPLv2 license and made a lot of changes in source code, plugin does something else now. I modified author (with original plugin author's credits), URL, version number (from xxx 1.5 to YYY 1.0).

Everything works great, but when WordPress checks for plugin updates it treats my plugin YYY 1.0 as xxx 1.0 and displays notification about available update.

My changed plugin YYY 1.0 was installed by copying files from my computer, not from WP repository.

What else do I have to change?

Related: https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/20580/disable-update-notification-for-individual-plugins — Jesse Nickles, Dec 15 '22 at 10:59

score 72 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 12 '16 at 18:44

72

Disable plugin update

Add this code in your plugin root file.

add_filter('site_transient_update_plugins', 'remove_update_notification');
function remove_update_notification($value) {
     unset($value->response[ plugin_basename(__FILE__) ]);
     return $value;
}

edited Nov 12 '16 at 18:44

benomatis

5,536
7
36
59

answered Nov 22 '14 at 06:30

Kishan Chauhan

1,216
1
12
19

5

This method removes the notification only if the plugin is activated. Still shows update notification is the plugin is deactivated. – aniskhan001 Oct 27 '15 at 01:32
4

@aniskhan001 in function.php add above code and disable specific plugin like `unset($value->response["akismet/akismet.php"]);` – Kishan Chauhan Apr 09 '16 at 05:35
1

this is the best solution since uses platform hooks. – loretoparisi Jun 22 '16 at 14:16
2

As of 2019, this is the correct answer that effectively works. – Kevinleary.net Oct 22 '19 at 17:44
As of June 2020, this STILL works AWESOME! Thank you! – KoolPal Jun 08 '21 at 14:11
As of November 2021, WP 5.8.1, this still works! Thank you! – Uwe Schmelzer Nov 07 '21 at 21:31
[this](https://gist.github.com/ebetancourt/89b105d7334495535415799832511938) link helped me for multiple plugins – Em.MF May 09 '22 at 20:26

score 45 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 21 '18 at 07:27

Put this code in the theme functions.php file. This is working for me and I'm using it. Also this is for specific plugin. Here you need to change plugin main file url to match to that of your plugin.

 function my_filter_plugin_updates( $value ) {
   if( isset( $value->response['facebook-comments-plugin/facebook-comments.php'] ) ) {        
      unset( $value->response['facebook-comments-plugin/facebook-comments.php'] );
    }
    return $value;
 }
 add_filter( 'site_transient_update_plugins', 'my_filter_plugin_updates' );

Here:

"facebook-comments-plugin" => facebook comments plugin folder name

"facebook-comments.php" => plugin main file.this may be different like index.php

Hope this would be help.

score 33 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 27 '16 at 11:40

33

The simplest and effective way is to change the version of the plugin which you don't want to get update. For an example if I don't want wptouch to get updated, I open it's defination file, which is like:

/*
    Plugin Name: WPtouch Mobile Plugin
    Plugin URI: http://www.wptouch.com/
    Version: 4.0.4

*/

Here in the Version change 4.0.4 to 9999 like:

/*
    Plugin Name: WPtouch Mobile Plugin
    Plugin URI: http://www.wptouch.com/
    Version: 9999

*/

answered Apr 27 '16 at 11:40

Abhinav bhardwaj

2,657
25
21

It doesn't work with some paid plugins – Dean Oakley Jun 07 '22 at 01:04
this doesnt work with newer plugins or themes. – Pushkraj Jori Feb 14 '23 at 07:17

score 23 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 12 '16 at 18:40

In the plugin file, there will be a function that will check for updates. The original author could have named this anything, so you will have to go through the code and check each function and what it does. I would imagine the function will be quite obvious as to what it does.

Alternatively you can add this to your plugin file:

add_filter( 'http_request_args', 'dm_prevent_update_check', 10, 2 );
function dm_prevent_update_check( $r, $url ) {
    if ( 0 === strpos( $url, 'http://api.wordpress.org/plugins/update-check/' ) ) {
        $my_plugin = plugin_basename( __FILE__ );
        $plugins = unserialize( $r['body']['plugins'] );
        unset( $plugins->plugins[$my_plugin] );
        unset( $plugins->active[array_search( $my_plugin, $plugins->active )] );
        $r['body']['plugins'] = serialize( $plugins );
    }
    return $r;
}

Credits: http://developersmind.com/2010/06/12/preventing-wordpress-from-checking-for-updates-for-a-plugin/

Trvial, but I suspect Pete original code for this from Mark: http://markjaquith.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/excluding-your-plugin-or-theme-from-update-checks/ — jb510, Jan 31 '14 at 04:20

score 18 · Answer 5 · answered May 10 '16 at 08:53

18

add_filter('site_transient_update_plugins', '__return_false');

in function.php add above code and disable all plugins updates

answered May 10 '16 at 08:53

victor

181
1
2

This hide the available updates even on WP 6.0.2, just what I was looking for without install another plugin. Thanks. – junihh Sep 02 '22 at 15:11

score 6 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 27 '19 at 12:20

6

Add this line to wp-config.php to disable plugin updates:

define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS',true);

answered Jan 27 '19 at 12:20

Tanto Prihartanto

61
1
3

1

Cleanest and Perfect solution, wonder why there are non-working solutions ? – Hammad May 02 '22 at 11:08

score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Jun 21 '20 at 16:26

6

One easy solution was to change the version of plugin in plugin file. For example if plugin version is 1.2.1. You can make it like below (100.9.5 something that plugin author will never reach to )

<?php
/*
 * Plugin Name:       Your Plugin Name
 * Description:       Plugin description.
 * Version:           100.9.5 
*/

answered Jun 21 '20 at 16:26

Patrick S

490
5
17

This really is not the correct solution. This means the system still thinks you are using the other plugin, just a newer version. You should rename the plugin to something unique. – Laurence Cope Jul 25 '22 at 15:38

score 3 · Answer 8 · answered Aug 30 '16 at 00:49

Here's an updated version of Mark Jaquith's script:

WP Updates have switched to HTTPS
Unserialize was blocked on my shared hosting
This uses json_decode and json_encode instead
Credit: Block Plugin Update

.

add_filter( 'http_request_args', 'widget_disable_update', 10, 2 );

function widget_disable_update( $r, $url ) {
    if ( 0 === strpos( $url, 'https://api.wordpress.org/plugins/update-check/' ) ) {
        $my_plugin = plugin_basename( __FILE__ );
        $plugins = json_decode( $r['body']['plugins'], true );
        unset( $plugins['plugins'][$my_plugin] );
        unset( $plugins['active'][array_search( $my_plugin, $plugins['active'] )] );
        $r['body']['plugins'] = json_encode( $plugins );
    }
    return $r;
}

It's 2019 and the [Block Plugin Update](https://wordpress.org/plugins/block-specific-plugin-updates/) plugin is still doing fine :-) (Can only be installed manually as it seems to be too old to be found in the plugin repo search from within WordPress.) — tanius, Jun 21 '19 at 21:49

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Apr 20 '23 at 14:21

1

As of WordPress v5.8, all you need to use is the Update URI field in your plugin header. Set it to anything that does not match these patterns (where {$slug} is your actual plugin's slug):

https://wordpress.org/plugins/{$slug}/
w.org/plugin/{$slug}

answered Apr 20 '23 at 14:21

Walf

8,535
2
44
59

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Sep 18 '18 at 18:59

Disable plugin updates manually:

Open functions.php file (go to your activated themes folder)
Copy and paste the following code:

remove_action( 'load-update-core.php', 'wp_update_plugins' );

add_filter( 'pre_site_transient_update_plugins', create_function( '$a', "return null;" ) );

Save changes, and you’re done

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 21 '19 at 21:51

0

Just for completeness, here is one more plugin meant to block updates of selected other plugins:

https://github.com/daggerhart/lock-plugins

Some information about its background and mode of function can be found here (in German).

answered Jun 21 '19 at 21:51

tanius

14,003
3
51
63

How can I disable WordPress plugin updates?

11 Answers11