What does Hold My Updates do?

Hold My Updates lets you pause updates for specific WordPress plugins, themes and core updates. Simply select the plugins, themes or core updates you want to put on hold, and WordPress will no longer offer updates for those items until you remove the hold.

It gives you more control over your site’s updates without disabling updates altogether. You can keep everything else up to date while temporarily holding back a specific plugin, theme or core update.

Who is this plugin for?

Hold My Updates is for WordPress site owners and developers who want more control over when their plugins and themes are updated.

It’s particularly useful if you need to temporarily hold an update while you test compatibility, wait for a bug fix, manage updates across multiple sites, or simply don’t want something updating automatically.

Whether you manage your own website or look after client sites, Hold My Updates gives you an easy way to pause updates for specific plugins, themes or even core without affecting the rest of your site.

Where are the settings?

Go to Settings → Hold My Updates to configure the plugin.

How do I use the plugin?

After activating your license, Hold My Updates adds a settings page under Settings → Hold My Updates, split into a few tabs:

• Held Plugins and Held Themes
  Tick any installed plugin or theme to stop it from showing update notices or updating automatically. Each list is searchable, shows whether the item is currently active or not, and supports select-all/select-none for holding several at once. You can also toggle a plugin’s hold status directly from the main Plugins screen, via the “Hold Updates” / “Resume Updates” link next to each plugin’s other actions.
• Core Updates
  Two separate WordPress-core options: hide the notice for new major versions, and/or disable automatic background installs of minor and security releases (see the two FAQs above for exactly how each one behaves).
• Other Settings
  A reset option that clears every held plugin and theme in one go, if you want to start over.

Unticking a held plugin or theme (or using the quick-toggle link) lets it update again immediately. Nothing is deleted or uninstalled,  and updates are simply hidden from WordPress’s update checks while held.

Hide major version update notices

WordPress core updates come in two kinds: minor releases (which mostly ship security and bug fixes) and major releases (which can introduce bigger changes to core, themes, and plugin compatibility).

This setting only affects the second kind. When it’s on, Hold My Updates removes the “WordPress X.Y is available!” notice and its “Update Now” button from your dashboard whenever a new major version is released, so you won’t be nagged into a version bump before you’re ready to test it.

Minor and security releases are never touched by this setting, and their notices continue to appear exactly as WordPress intends.

Disable automatic minor & security updates

By default, WordPress quietly installs minor and security releases in the background, without asking.

This setting turns that off, and future minor/security releases will wait for you to apply them manually instead of being installed automatically overnight when you’re not present to witness what happens.

Importantly, this only affects the automatic, background install. The “update available” notice and button in your dashboard stay exactly as visible as they normally would, so you’re never left unaware that a security release is waiting.

Because turning this off means security fixes won’t reach your site until you act on them yourself, enabling it requires confirming twice before it takes effect.

Which user roles can see and manage held updates?

By default, only Administrators can access Hold My Updates  This covers the settings page, the license, the “Hold Updates”/”Resume Updates” quick-toggle link on the Plugins screen, the “Updates on Hold” badges, and the global reminder notice. Every one of these is gated behind WordPress’s manage_options capability, which only the Administrator role holds by default on a standard WordPress install.

If you’re a developer and need a different role to manage this (for example, a custom “Site Manager” role on a client site), the required capability can be changed with a single filter:

add_filter( 'hold_my_update_settings_capability', function() {
return 'edit_theme_options'; // or any capability your custom role has
});

Anyone without the required capability won’t see the settings menu, the quick-toggle link, or the held-updates badges at all, and even a direct request to the plugin’s actions is independently checked and rejected server-side, so changing what’s visible is the only thing this filter affects, not the underlying security check itself.

Why is the Hold My Updates plugin excluded from the list?

Hold My Updates leaves itself out of its own plugin list on purpose. If you could hold updates for Hold My Updates itself, you could end up stuck on an old version, including missing any bug fixes to the holding feature itself.

Every other installed plugin can be held, but this one plugin always stays free to update.

Where do I enter my license key?

Go to Settings → Hold My Updates and enter your license key.

Once the license is entered and activated, you will be prompted to continue.

Is the plugin price a one-time payment or an annual subscription?

The choice is yours.

Your purchase includes 12 months of updates and support, giving you ongoing access to the latest features, improvements, and assistance whenever you need it.

After this period, you can optionally renew your license to continue receiving updates and support. Even if your license expires, the plugin will keep working without interruption. However, an active license helps ensure your site remains secure, compatible, and performing at its best.

Without renewal, you won’t receive future updates or have access to support until your license is reactivated.

For the best experience and peace of mind, we recommend renewing your license. Renewal extends your updates and support for a further 12 months from the date of renewal.