Advanced Plugin Management

Advanced Plugin Management

Switching between your WordPress admin and your server dashboard just to manage plugins wastes time — especially when you’re managing multiple sites. FlyWP’s Advanced Plugin Management brings plugin installs, activations, deactivations, and deletions into one place, so you can handle everything without ever opening wp-admin. It’s particularly useful when a plugin is breaking your site and you need to deactivate it fast, or when you want to install a specific older version to avoid a known compatibility issue.

Under the hood, FlyWP runs WP-CLI (a command-line tool for managing WordPress) inside your site’s container, giving you the same power as the WordPress admin panel — plus bulk operations and version-specific installs.

Available Operations

Operation	Description
Activate	Enable one or more plugins in bulk
Deactivate	Disable one or more plugins without deleting them
Delete	Remove plugin files from the server entirely
Install	Install a new plugin, optionally specifying a version
Toggle Auto-Update	Enable or disable WordPress auto-updates per plugin

Activating Plugins

To activate one or more plugins at once:

1. Navigate to your site’s plugin management page.
2. Select the plugins you want to activate.
3. Click Activate.

FlyWP activates all selected plugins in a single operation, so you don’t have to repeat the process one by one.

Deactivating Plugins

To deactivate plugins without removing them:

1. Select the plugins you want to deactivate.
2. Click Deactivate.

Deactivated plugins stay installed on the server. Their files remain in wp-content/plugins/ but FlyWP stops WordPress from loading them, so they execute no code.

Tip

Deactivating a plugin is the safest first step when troubleshooting a broken site. It preserves all of the plugin’s settings in the database, so you can reactivate it later without reconfiguring anything.

Deleting Plugins

To permanently remove a plugin from your server:

1. Select the plugins you want to remove.
2. Click Delete.
3. Confirm the deletion.

Deleting a plugin permanently removes its files from the server. Some plugins also store data in the database (the structured store that holds your site’s content and settings) that does not get cleaned up on deletion. If you think you might need the plugin again, deactivate it instead.

Installing a New Plugin

To install a plugin directly from WordPress.org:

1. Click the Install Plugin button.
2. Enter the plugin slug — the short identifier used on WordPress.org (for example, wordfence or woocommerce).
3. Optionally enter a version number to install a specific release instead of the latest.
4. Choose whether to activate the plugin immediately after installation.
5. Click Install.

FlyWP downloads the plugin from WordPress.org and installs it via WP-CLI.

Note

Version-specific installation is useful when a newer release introduces a breaking change and you need to pin a known-good version. This is a common need in production environments where stability matters more than having the latest features.

Managing Auto-Updates

WordPress can automatically update individual plugins whenever new versions are released. You can toggle this behavior per plugin without touching wp-admin:

1. Find the plugin in the list.
2. Click the Auto-Update toggle.
3. WordPress respects your choice immediately — enabled means automatic updates, disabled means you control the timing.

Auto-Update State	Behavior
Enabled	WordPress installs new versions as soon as they are released
Disabled	Updates only happen when you manually trigger them

Tip

Disable auto-updates for business-critical plugins (like your page builder or WooCommerce) so you can test updates in staging before they hit production.

How It Works Under the Hood

All plugin operations run via WP-CLI (a command-line interface for WordPress) inside your site’s container. FlyWP sends the command, waits for the result, and surfaces a success or error response in the dashboard. You get the same power as running commands directly on the server — without needing SSH access (the secure protocol normally used to connect to a remote server through a terminal).

Troubleshooting

• Installation fails — Check that the plugin slug is correct and the plugin exists on WordPress.org. Also verify the server has enough disk space.
• Activation fails — The plugin may have unmet PHP or WordPress version requirements. Check the server logs for specific error messages.
• Delete fails — File permission issues can prevent deletion. Verify that the web server user has write access to wp-content/plugins/.

Related Pages

• Centralized Bulk Updates
• FlyWP Helper Plugin
• WP Config Editor
• WP-CLI