WordPress Outdated Notices
Tuesday, April 26th, 2016 - Updates
We are sending out WordPress outdated notices to accounts that we show as having an outdated version of WordPress installed. If you are affected by this, you should receive an email from us with the details.
It is important to keep your WordPress (and any script) up to date and practice good, solid security for your account. If you do not, then this can lead to your account being hacked, defaced, or used for abusive purposes. If this happens, then we may have to suspend your account. That is why security is important.
Concerning these outdated script notices, it’s a good idea to ask yourself these three questions:
• Am I using this installed script?
If you aren’t using this script installed on your website, then it may be a good idea to just delete it and remove it from your web hosting account. That way you don’t have to worry about keeping it up to date or it becoming an avenue for malicious users to abuse your site. A lot of people seem to think that if they aren’t using a particular script or section of their website, then malicious users won’t ever find it. This is wrong. Just because you aren’t using it doesn’t mean that malicious users can’t take advantage of it.
• Should I back up my site before attempting an update?
Yes. Backing up your website before any update is always a good idea. For the most part, WordPress updates are fairly uneventful. But if something does go wrong, having a backup is always a good thing.
• Am I keeping all of my plugins and themes up to date?
Yes, you should be. Exploiting of themes and plugins have risen in recent years. Always use reputable themes and plugins and keep them up to date to insure security of your WordPress site.
If you receive a notice from us regarding an outdated WordPress script on your account, that message will contain a section similar to below. I am going to take a moment and explain some of the items.
The email message will contain a section that lists your outdated WordPress scripts, and it will look something like:
Account: %YOURDOMAIN.COM%
Script: WordPress
Installed Path: /home/%USER%/%PATH%
Installed Version: X.X.X
Latest Version: Y.Y.Y
Script Website: http://www.wordpress.org
If you have multiple accounts, then you may see 2 or more of these sections in the email message.
Let’s take a look at this line by line:
Account: %YOURDOMAIN.COM%
This refers to your account. The domain name of the account that contains the outdated WordPress script. This is the main account associated with your web hosting account in our system. The actual WordPress installation might be on a parked or addon domain on the account, but our system can’t differentiate that.
Script: WordPress
This simply refers to the script as being a WordPress script. Similar notices may be sent out for other scripts.
Installed Path: /home/%USER%/%PATH%
This is an important part. This refers to where the WordPress installation is at on the server’s file system. This may be an addon domain path – in which case you would access the WordPress script via the addon domain. Generally speaking if this path looks like /home/%USER%/public_html/%PATH% – then you can access this by using the domain name in the Account section above – http://%YOURDOMAIN.COM%/%PATH% – but not all Installed Paths are going to be under the public_html folder. To access the WordPress admin dashboard for this installation you would typically just add /wp-admin to the end of the path, i.e: http://%YOURDOMAIN.COM%/%PATH%/wp-admin If you don’t know what installed path this installation is referring to in your email message, simply write us back and we can figure it out for you.
Installed Version: X.X.X
This is going to tell you what version of WordPress is installed at the above Installed Path. This can tell you just how outdated that WordPress installation really is.
Latest Version: Y.Y.Y
This will tell you the latest version of WordPress as it applies to your WordPress script. WordPress has different release trees and therefore different latest versions, depending on what version you have installed. For example, if you are using WordPress 4.3, then your latest version might be WordPress 4.3.3. If you are using WordPress 4.4, then your latest version might WordPress 4.4.2.
Updating WordPress is fairly straight-forward. You simply need to log into the WordPress admin dashboard for the installation you are wanting to update. Click on the Dashboard tab on the left side and click on Updates. From there you will see “An updated version of WordPress is available.” and underneath that will be a link to Update Now to the new version. Simply click that link and WordPress will be updated.
You can also update your themes and plugins from this screen.
Matt
AMS Support
