Plugins and themes add functionality and presentation to WordPress, but they are also frequent sources of compatibility issues.
Fleet views
The Plugins and Themes views help you compare software across multiple instances.
Use them to review:
- Installed versions
- Active status
- Available maintenance
- Version differences
- Compatibility or review signals
Instance plugin actions
Where your permissions and the plugin state allow it, plugin actions can include:
- Search
- Upload
- Activate
- Deactivate
- Update
- Delete
Instance theme actions
Theme actions can include:
- Search
- Inspect
- Activate
- Update
- Delete
Understanding update availability
Do not assume that the absence of a detected update proves an extension is on its latest vendor version.
Premium, vendor-managed, private, custom, or otherwise non-public extensions may not expose the same update metadata as WordPress.org assets.
When CanaryWP cannot verify an update with sufficient evidence, the documentation and UI should treat the result as unknown or requiring review, rather than making an unsupported “up to date” claim.
Safe update workflow
- Confirm the target test instance.
- Create or verify a backup.
- Run a baseline.
- Update one component or a controlled group.
- Confirm the site still loads.
- Check WP Admin.
- Review logs.
- Run Site Testing.
- Review visual differences.
- Investigate failures before applying the same update elsewhere.
Activating and deactivating plugins
Activation state can change site behavior immediately.
After changing it, verify:
- Public pages
- WP Admin
- Forms
- Scheduled jobs
- Integrations
- Ecommerce functionality where applicable
Themes
Theme changes can produce functional as well as visual effects.
Do not validate a theme update solely by confirming that the homepage loads.
Review:
- Header
- Footer
- Navigation
- Templates
- Responsive layouts
- Forms
- WooCommerce templates where applicable
- Visual regression results
Deleting software
Deletion is destructive.
Confirm that the plugin or theme is not needed by the environment and that any relevant backup exists.