How to disable email notifications from WordPress updates

In this article

• About automatic update notifications in WordPress
• Method 1: Disable Automatic Update Email Notification Using a Plugin
• Method 2: Disable Automatic Update Email Notifications Using Code
• Rollback of WordPress Updates if something goes wrong

Do you want to disable automatic email notifications for updates in WordPress?

By default, WordPress sends email notifications for automatic updates of WordPress plugins, themes, and the WordPress core itself.

In this article, we will show you how to easily disable automatic email notifications for updates in WordPress.

About automatic update notifications in WordPress

WordPress is an open-source content management platform that is regularly maintained and updated. Some of these updates will be installed automatically and you will receive an email notification that the site has been updated.

Similarly, WordPress also allows you to enable automatic updates for WordPress plugins and themes. This means you spend less time updating plugins and more time making adjustments or posting new content!

You can enable automatic updates for plugins you trust by going to the Plugins » All Plugins ( Plugins » All Plugins ) page. Just click the ‘Turn on automatic updates’ link next to the plugin you want to update automatically.

Tip: We always use the interface (Admin environment) of WordPress in English. This is very useful because a lot of information can be found online and it is often in English. This way you can see faster and easier where you need to be or what they mean exactly. The Dutch translation is certainly nice, but also requires more research.

For WordPress themes, you can visit the View » Themes page and click on a theme. This will open a theme information popup where you can click on ‘Turn on automatic updates for that theme.

WordPress will send you an email notification when any of your plugins, theme, or WordPress core has been updated.

This can become especially annoying for users who manage multiple WordPress websites. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could manage and disable these email notifications?

Let’s see how you can easily disable automatic email notifications for updates in WordPress.

Method 1: Disable Automatic Update Email Notification Using a Plugin

This method is easier and you don’t need to add any code to your WordPress site. It also gives you the flexibility to select which notifications you want to turn off.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the email notification manager plugin. For more information, see our step-by-step guide to installing a WordPress plugin.

After activation, you need to visit the Settings » Email Notifications page. Here, the plugin allows you to manage all WordPress notification emails, including automatic update notifications.

Just scroll down to the auto-update options and uncheck the box next to the notifications you want to turn off.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save changes’ button to save the settings.

That’s it, you have now successfully disabled WordPress update email notifications for the website.

Method 2: Disable Automatic Update Email Notifications Using Code

This method requires you to add code to your WordPress files. If you haven’t done this before, check out our beginner’s guide on pasting code from the web into WordPress.

You can use the Code Snippets plugin to add custom code in WordPress or manually add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin. A better approach would be to use the Code Snippets plugin to add custom code in WordPress.

1. Disable automatic update notification emails for WordPress updates

Simply add the following code to disable email notifications for automatic updates of the WordPress core.

add_filter( ‘auto_core_update_send_email’, ‘wpb_stop_auto_update_emails’, 10, 4 );

function wpb_stop_update_emails( $send, $type, $core_update, $result ) {
if ( ! empty( $type ) && $type == ‘success’ ) {
return false;
}
return true;
}
This code adds a filter to disable email notifications after automatic WordPress core updates.

2. Disable automatic plugin update notification emails

Add the following code to disable automatic WordPress plugin update email notifications.

add_filter( ‘auto_plugin_update_send_email’, ‘__return_false’ );

This filter simply disables email notifications for plugin auto-updates.

3. Disable Automatic Update Notification Emails for Themes

Add the following code to disable automatic WordPress theme update notification emails.

add_filter( ‘auto_theme_update_send_email’, ‘__return_false’ );

This filter simply disables email notifications for theme auto-updates.

Rollback of WordPress Updates if something goes wrong

Because WordPress plugins run on different independent WordPress hosting and server configurations, it is possible that sometimes a plugin update causes a feature on your website to be broken or inaccessible.

This is easy to solve and fix. First, you need to find out which plugin caused the problem by disabling all WordPress plugins and re-enabling them one by one.

Once you’ve isolated the plugin that’s causing the problem, you can use the WP Rollback plugin. This allows you to switch (back) to the previous version of a WordPress plugin or theme.

Just make sure you don’t miss any important WordPress emails!

Even if you disable WordPress auto-update emails, there are other WordPress notification emails that you may not want to miss.

For example, if you run a WooCommerce store, you might want to receive notifications when a new order is placed.

Likewise, if you sell an online course or operate a membership website, you may want to receive email alerts when new users sign up.

You would also want to ensure that emails sent to users are also delivered. Such as e-mails about forgotten passwords, payment receipts, or order confirmation.

To send emails, WordPress uses the PHP mail function. This feature is easily abused by spammers, and your emails can end up in spam.

To ensure that all your important WordPress notification emails reach the user’s inbox, you need to use a good SMTP service to send emails.

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