Troubleshooting Easy Updates Manager: Common Issues and Solutions

Easy Updates Manager is a powerful tool for controlling the update process on WordPress sites. However, like any plugin, users can sometimes encounter issues. Based on community discussions, here are some of the most common problems and their potential solutions.

1. Plugin Settings Are Locked or Ineffective

The Problem: You've configured Easy Updates Manager, but updates are still happening, or the plugin's settings page appears locked and cannot be modified.

Why It Happens: This is most often caused by a hosting provider or another configuration file overriding your settings. Many managed hosts enforce their own automatic update policies. This is typically done by defining the WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE constant in the wp-config.php file.

The Solution:

1. Check your wp-config.php file for a line like define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', true );. If it exists, your host is likely controlling updates.
2. Contact your hosting provider's support to ask if they allow customers to opt-out of their automatic core update management. Some hosts, like Flywheel, have specific policies documented.
3. If your host does not allow changes to the wp-config.php file, using filters in your theme's functions.php file is not a viable workaround, as the host's defined constant will take precedence.

2. Conflicts with Other Plugins

The Problem: Easy Updates Manager appears to break functionality in another plugin, such as a visual editor or a rollback feature.

Why It Happens: Plugin conflicts can be tricky to diagnose. In one case, a user reported that the WooCommerce product short description editor broke only when Easy Updates Manager was active. In another, a user suspected a conflict with the WP Rollback plugin. Often, the conflict is not directly caused by Easy Updates Manager's front-end operations but by how it hooks into the WordPress core.

The Solution:

1. Isolate the Conflict: Deactivate all other plugins except Easy Updates Manager and the one you suspect is conflicting. If the issue disappears, reactivate your other plugins one by one to identify the specific combination causing the problem.
2. Check for Confirmation: Search the support forums for your specific combination of plugins. For example, one user confirmed that Easy Updates Manager and WP Rollback worked fine together, suggesting the original issue may have been caused by a different factor.
3. If a conflict is confirmed, check if either plugin has settings that can be adjusted to ensure compatibility.

3. Inability to Delete the Plugin

The Problem: After deactivation, you receive a fatal error (Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function delete_site_optio()) and cannot delete the plugin.

Why It Happens: This is a confirmed bug in the plugin's uninstallation script. The code contains a typo, calling a function named delete_site_optio() instead of the correct delete_site_option().

The Solution:

1. Manual Deletion (Recommended): Use your hosting control panel's file manager or an FTP/SFTP client to connect to your site. Navigate to /wp-content/plugins/ and manually delete the stops-core-theme-and-plugin-updates folder. This will immediately remove the plugin and its faulty uninstall script.
2. Always ensure you have a recent backup of your site before manually modifying files.

4. General Update Failures

The Problem: No updates (core, theme, or plugin) are working on your site, regardless of whether Easy Updates Manager is active or not.

Why It Happens: This is usually a server-level issue unrelated to Easy Updates Manager. Common causes include incorrect file permissions, a lack of server disk space, or a conflict with another plugin that deeply affects WordPress functionality.

The Solution:

1. Conflict Test: Deactivate Easy Updates Manager and all other plugins. Try running an update. If it works, reactivate your plugins one by one to find the culprit. One user found that the 'WPBakery Visual Composer' plugin was blocking all updates.
2. File System Method: Add define('FS_METHOD', 'direct'); to your wp-config.php file. This can resolve update issues related to file ownership and permissions by forcing WordPress to use direct file system access.
3. Contact your hosting provider to check for server-side restrictions on writing files or making external connections, which are required for updates.

When troubleshooting, remember to clear your site and browser cache after making changes. If problems persist, searching the WordPress.org support forums for your specific error message can often lead to community-generated solutions.