Automatic Updates – Quick Hacks

Welcome. You’ve reached the middle of this series. I plan to complete the rest shortly. Please leave a comment if you have anything you’d like me to cover.

Disable Update Notification Emails

The following will disable all update notification-related emails:

// Disable core update emails. We'll be sending our own.
add_filter( 'auto_core_update_send_email', '__return_false', 10 );
add_filter( 'send_core_update_notification_email', '__return_false', 10 );
add_filter( 'automatic_updates_send_debug_email', '__return_false', 10 );
add_filter( 'auto_theme_update_send_email', '__return_false', 10 );
add_filter( 'auto_plugin_update_send_email', '__return_false', 10 );
Code language: PHP (php)

Hide the Automatic Updates Update Panel

Do you want to hide the automatic updates column on the plugins and themes area? This one will do the trick, albeit a bit hacky.

/**
 * Remove the auto-update columns on the appropriate screens.
 */
class Remove_Auto_Update_Columns {
	/**
	 * Class runner.
	 */
	public function __construct() {
		add_action( 'current_screen', array( $this, 'maybe_remove_update_columns' ), 100 );
	}

	/**
	 * Force remove the auto-updates interface on certain screens.
	 */
	public function maybe_remove_update_columns() {
		// Double-checking we're in the admin.
		if ( ! is_admin() ) {
			return;
		}
		// Skip on Ajax and Cron requests.
		if ( ( defined( 'DOING_AJAX' ) && DOING_AJAX ) || ( defined( 'DOING_CRON' ) && DOING_CRON ) ) {
			return;
		}

		// Try to get the current screen.
		$screen = get_current_screen();
		if ( ! isset( $screen->id ) ) {
			return;
		}

		// Force remove the auto-updates interface on certain screens.
		// todo - get all the multisite screens.
		switch ( $screen->id ) {
			case 'site-themes-network':
			case 'plugins':
			case 'themes':
			case 'site-health':
				add_filter( 'plugins_auto_update_enabled', '__return_false' );
				add_filter( 'themes_auto_update_enabled', '__return_false' );
				break;
		}
	}
}
new Remove_Auto_Update_Columns();
Code language: PHP (php)

Hide the Autoupdate Notice on the Updates Screen

This one is currently only targetable via CSS.

.auto-update-status {
  display: none;
}
Code language: CSS (css)

Force the Automatic Update Cron Attached to another Cron Process

This one is just in case your host has disabled wp_version_check and you can latch the actions onto another cron process.

<?php
/* Enable auto-updates of plugins/themes with cron */
add_action(
	'wp_update_plugins',
	function() {
		if ( wp_doing_cron() && ! doing_action( 'wp_maybe_auto_update' ) ) {
			do_action( 'wp_maybe_auto_update' );
		}
	},
	20
);
Code language: PHP (php)

Disable Auto Updates

The following will disable auto updates period.

add_filter( 'automatic_updater_disabled', '__return_true' );
add_filter( 'auto_update_core', '__return_false' );
add_filter( 'auto_update_plugin', '__return_false' );
add_filter( 'auto_update_theme', '__return_false' );
add_filter( 'auto_update_theme', '__return_false' );
add_filter( 'auto_update_translation', '__return_false' );
Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Conclusion

If you have your own tips, please add them below in a comment. Please leave a gist. I’ll update this lesson periodically. Cheers.