WordPress plugin updates can be performed in multiple ways. You can update them from WordPress dashboard OR using file transfer (e.g. FileZilla) OR using WP-CLI command OR through version control system if your entire WordPress or wp-content is under version control.
Updating from WordPress dashboard
Login to your WordPress dashboard
Navigate to your website, add /wp-admin to the website URL then enter your username/email and password to enter the WordPress dashboard.
Navigate to Plugins
On the left side navigation menus, locate ‘Plugins’ menu and click on that. It will show you the list of all the plugins installed on your website.
Navigate to ‘Updates Available’
While you are on plugin listing page, you will see ‘Updates Available (X)’ link on top. Here the (X) represents the number of plugins for which the updates are available. Go ahead and click on that link.
Select all plugins to update
If you want to choose all the plugins fro ‘Updates Available’ list, then you can simply click on checkbox appearing at top left of the list. If you want to update some of them, then you will need to select them individually by clicking on a checkbox shown on left side of each plugin name
Select ‘Update’ and hit ‘Apply’ button
Finally, you need to choose ‘Update’ from the ‘Bulk Actions’ dropdown and then click on ‘Apply’ button shown besides it. WordPress would then start updating each plugin one by one in the background.
Updating through WP-CLI
If you are tech savvy, have server access and familiar with WordPress command line interface then you may bulk update plugins using WP-CLI plugin update command as below:
wp plugin update --all
While bulk plugin update is a handy way to update all plugins at once, you should check the release notes before updating the plugin. Also, it is a good practice to backup your site before doing any major updates.
