WordPress core updates on Flywheel

By default, Flywheel automatically updates customer live sites and staging sites to the latest version of the WordPress® core – although you may opt out of major version updates.¹

Updates schedule

Maintaining a current and up-to-date core is one of the most important things you can do to keep your site free from malicious activity and malware, and Flywheel has you covered!

FLYWHEEL UPDATES THE WORDPRESS CORE ON THE FOLLOWING SCHEDULE:

In the case of a security release, we install the release as soon as possible due to the often-critical nature of the fixes. You will receive an email when this update is complete. Again, due to the critical nature, we cannot defer these installations or allow you to remain on the previous version.

Major WordPress releases are rolled out roughly two weeks after their official release. As these are typically much more invasive and often involve breaking changes. We want to be sure to give users plenty of time to test and try out this version to ensure that it works.

How it works

Because Flywheel handles updates for you, you cannot run updates from within the WordPress backend like you might on other hosts or on a local setup. Instead, you can check to see if you’re running the most recent version of WordPress by going to the “Advanced” tab for your site in the Flywheel dashboard:You’ll know you’re good to go if you see the version in green.

When an updated version is available, we will send an email to let you know, and will also let you know on what date your site will be updated automatically.

If you’d like to manually upgrade your site during this period, you may do so by visiting the “Advanced” tab for your site in the Flywheel control panel:Click the “Upgrade” button and your site will be queued for upgrade. This process typically takes a few minutes, during which time your site may be unavailable.

Opt out

If you would rather make major version changes on a site manually, just head to the “advanced” tab of the site’s Flywheel dashboard. Hover over the ellipsis icon next to the WordPress version number, and a dropdown menu will appear. Select “Manage Updates” from that menu:

From here, you can choose to continue allowing Flywheel to make all WordPress core version updates on the site as soon after they become available (the default setting); or to opt out of major version releases and only have Flywheel automatically update the site when minor upgrades are available, by selecting “Minor updates only.”

Just click the “Submit” button once you’ve made your selection.

Any site with major updates disabled will be left out of batch WordPress major core version updates, and will remain on its current major version, only receiving security updates.

Opt back in

If you’ve chosen to opt out of major version releases for a site, you’ll see a message in the “advanced” tab of the site’s Flywheel dashboard saying “Major updates disabled”:

Clicking the “Change Settings” button here will allow you to change back to All Updates.

Need help?

If you have any questions our Happiness Engineers are here to help!