Auto-Updates is a WordPress feature that has been around quite a while now. It is the respective plugin author’s own choice to conform with this feature. We have recently enabled the possibility in Complianz as per many requests, but there are some exceptions and things to consider.
How can I enable Auto-Updates?
If you want to enable auto-updates; go to your plugin overview, and in the last column, you can choose to enable auto-updates.
If you can’t find this specific column try “screen options” in the top-right corner and check “Automatic Updates”. If that doesn’t work you might have a security plugin or other plugins that might block this feature.
Why do we ‘force’ auto-updates on TCF
If you have TCF enabled (Transparency & Consent Framework) you will get a notification to enable auto-updates. We ‘force’ enabling auto-updates in this instance, because you, as a publisher, and Complianz as a CMP (Consent Management Platform) must adhere to the guidelines by IAB. These guidelines change frequently and therefore frequent updates are required. Most guidelines and new updates have an implementation deadline. If a website does not adhere to these guidelines they can lose vendors, revenue and us as a CMP, because we are forced to deactivate your license.
To circumvent this, enabling auto-updates is the easiest way.
Auto-Updates vs Manual Updates
Although auto-updates seem a great way to remove the manual effort to update all plugins, there’s a rather important downside to enabling auto-updates. Especially when you are running many plugins. An update might break something in the front or back-end or conflict with another plugin. When done automatically; finding out which is the culprit and how to fix it might take a bit longer. And you don’t know how long this might have been live.
We suggest enabling auto-updates only if necessary and take the time to update and check your website regularly.
