How to prevent or control WordPress 5.5 automatic updates of plugins and themes

From WordPress 5.5 you`ll can disable/enable automatic updates for plugins and themes, which is good for security but surely drives crazy to developers and system admins.

If you are concerned about this issue and prefer to control the automatic updates yourself, I recommend you to keep reading.

How to control automatic plugin updates

If you just don’t want to be able to turn automatic plugin updates on or off, add this to the active theme’s (preferably child theme) functions.php file or to your utility plugin:

/* Hide automatic plugin updates */
add_filter( 'plugins_auto_update_enabled', '__return_false' );Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

For change from this:

To this:

How to control automatic theme updates

If your concern is about themes then the code would be this one:

/* Hide automatic themes updates */
add_filter( 'themes_auto_update_enabled', '__return_false' );Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

You will go from this:

To this:

How to control all automatic updates for WordPress plugins and themes

If you already got it, just add the two filters, like this:

/* Hide automatic plugin and themes updates */
add_filter( 'plugins_auto_update_enabled', '__return_false' );
add_filter( 'themes_auto_update_enabled', '__return_false' );Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

What these filters do is hide the possibility of activating automatic updates, it does NOT prevent those plugins or themes for which you have already activated automatic updates from being updated.

You should also know that, by default, when you`ll upgrade to WordPress 5.5 all themes and plugins with automatic updates will turned off by default, so it’s up to you to decide right away if and how you want to control them.

So, if that’s what you want, my recommendation is that you add these filters before you upgrade to WordPress 5.5, or if you’ve already upgraded check first what you have activated or not, because what was already active for updates will still be active even if you apply the filter, and vice versa.

Of course, this trick serves one purpose and the opposite, so that no one turns on or off automatic updates for plugins or themes.