Available Updates - Some Plugin Updates disappear after Updating Other Plugins

[bojan (Bojan Katusic)]

Thanks for the update.

We identified an issue when the Elementor plugin gets updated. However, this is not related to MainWP, as the issue also manifests when an update is triggered on the child site itself.

When there is an available update for Elementor and Elementor Pro, and the update for Elementor is performed, an available update for Elementor Pro disappears for some time.
We’ve made a short video depicting the issue: Update bug with Elementor

@eSIlverStrike

The next time I have a bunch of plugin updates I will keep track and report back here. This may take a week or so though just to get enough updates in the list. Note, I don’t necessary think it’s the number of plugin updates is part of the problem.

Please do let us know which other plugins disappear after an Elementor update (or after an update of other plugins), and we will investigate the issue further.

[josklever]

This issue is more general and not at all related to Elementor. I think it has something to do with the feedback child sites give after an update. I guess part of the feedback is what the remaining updates are. Sometimes a host doesn’t give feedback or it’s incomplete. MainWP then doesn’t know what updates are left and removes them from te list.

I can’t prove any of this, but I’ve seen this for years already, but have learned to live with it.

Maybe the feedback after an update could be checked better to act on it based on the quality of that feedback.

[bojan (Bojan Katusic)]

Multiple factors are likely involved in at least some of these instances, and I agree that it is not entirely related to Elementor.

It’s possible that a long time gap between the last sync and the time of running updates can cause discrepancies between what the dashboard shows and the actual status on child sites.

The best practice would be to sync sites right before running updates so the Dashboard has fresh data.

However, other factors may come into play, such as the Elementor bug discussed in the previous post, which may be present in other plugins, or the fact that triggering a plugin update prompts WordPress to check for new ones, causing newly available updates to show up in the Dashboard.

[josklever]

I can confirm this also can happen if the sync was done just before the first update, auto updates are disabled at the client sites and a new sync shows the same updates again that disappeared after the first update.

[wpexpert (Frederic)]

Also, when the license is expired, you updated everything and you get 0 updates but if you sync again, the plugins/themes will reappear…

[bojan (Bojan Katusic)]

Thank you both for the update.

We have not observed this behavior on our test Dashboards, so in order to help us troubleshoot it, please do let us know if you notice which exact plugin update caused the disappearance of available updates on the MainWP Dashboard.

And please make sure to sync sites right before running updates so the Dashboard has fresh data.

[josklever]

I’ve just did a full sync, updated all sites to MainWP Child 4.4.0.3 (and 4.4.0.4) and 4 sites having an available WPBakery Page Builder update (that doesn’t have an active license) didn’t show that update anymore. As soon as I sync again the updates show up again.

Again: this can happen with any plugin (or theme) and will be related to the information that’s received back from the client site after an update. There should be more verification and error handling in the process.

[dennis (Dennis Dornon)]

@josklever

There should be more verification and error handling in the process.

While I’m not a developer, we’ll definitely look at addressing the issue. However, there is a fine line to between being effective and overengineering for edge cases.

For example, if you watched the video on Elemetor update that Bojan posted earlier, I’m honestly not sure what we can do to make that easier for people other than multiple unneeded (in most cases) syncs until the issue is resolved. It’s not so much a MainWP issue as an issue of what information is being returned by the Child sites and the plugins on them.

That being said, it’s definitely something I’ll have the development team look into, and more examples, such as your WPBakery without a license example, will help.

[josklever]

The video is a totally different issue and has nothing to do with MainWP missing available updates. It’s something related to the plugin check process of premium plugins.

What goes wrong in MainWP Dashboard can happen to any plugin X after updating something else. It’s probably caused by the information that’s coming back after the update from the child site. That information might be incomplete or just missing. That’s the thing I would like to see some more verification and error handling about.

This is IMO not a critical issue, as it will resolve after another sync (or two), but when you have lots of sites in your dashboard, a sync takes much more time than when you only have 10 sites or so. Even with 273 sites at the moment, I’ve just accepted is as a known bug and work my way around it.

I’m only trying to make clear that it’s not related to 1 or a few certain (premium) plugins, so you shouldn’t focus on that aspect.

[eSIlverStrike (Tom)]

@bojan

When there is an available update for Elementor and Elementor Pro, and the update for Elementor is performed, an available update for Elementor Pro disappears for some time.
We’ve made a short video depicting the issue: Update bug with Elementor

Yeah I don’t want to get to far off topic but this is a different issue than the one I am talking about. I also assume this is an Elementor problem as it happens within the plugins page of the WordPress admin. I have also experienced this problem before and end up having to download the latest version of Elementor Pro instead of waiting for it to be found since multiple refreshes doesn’t work unless you wait a while between them. I also always assumed this issue was some sort of “caching thing” that is done either by the server or website itself… I’ve also had the issue where other plugin updates (like Happy Files) beside Elementor Pro disappear.

[eSIlverStrike (Tom)]

Okay I did some updates this morning. Here is what happened.

By the way, I forgot to synch just before the update. A synch had happened automatically 5 hours earlier. Between that time the Category Order plugin had released an update.

I’ve included a list of all the plugins by website in the list from synchs and after updates. Anything that has an * means it was selected to be updated. I then clicked on the Updated Selected Plugins button.

Also most of these sites are at WP 6.1 with update notices to be updated to 6.2. There are also theme update notifications. (which I left alone during these tests)

Note I did not update Elementor or anything directly related to the plugin.

Synched March 31 1:07am - Plugin Update List in MainWP. Any * means that plugin will be updated next.
BBC

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• MainWP Child

BG

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• MainWP Child

ESS

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• MainWP Child *
• Perfmatters
• WP Compress

ESS - F

• MainWP Child

ESS - M

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• MainWP Child

TH

• Perfmatters *
• MainWP Child*

Updated 3 Selected Plugins March 31 6:35am - Plugin Update List in MainWP after update
BBC

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• MainWP Child

BG

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• MainWP Child

ESS

• Category Order and Taxonomy Terms Order
• Elementor
• WP Compress

ESS - F

• MainWP Child

ESS - M

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• MainWP Child

After Updating. Missing 2 Plugins from list included

ESS

• Elementor Pro
• Perfmatters

Synching Child sites brought back missing plugin updates - Plugin Update List in MainWP after synch

BBC

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• MainWP Child

BG

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• MainWP Child

ESS

• Category Order and Taxonomy Terms Order
• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• Perfmatters
• WP Compress

ESS - F

• MainWP Child

ESS - M

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• MainWP Child

Updated 4 Selected Plugins March 31 6:45am - Plugin Update List in MainWP after update. Any * means that plugin will be updated next.
BBC

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• MainWP Child *

BG

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• MainWP Child *

ESS

• Category Order and Taxonomy Terms Order
• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• Perfmatters
• WP Compress

ESS - F

• MainWP Child *

ESS - M

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• MainWP Child *

After Updating. Missing 4 Plugins from Update list included
BBC

• Elementor Pro

BG

• Elementor Pro

ESS

• Elementor Pro

ESS - M

• Elementor Pro

Final Synch of Plugins - Plugin Update List in MainWP after synch
BBC

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro

BG

• Elementor
• Elementor Pro

ESS

• Category Order and Taxonomy Terms Order
• Elementor
• Elementor Pro
• Perfmatters
• WP Compress

ESS - M

• Elementor

---

Take away

During the 1st update the following went missing but came back after a synch

ESS

• Elementor Pro
• Perfmatters

During the second update Elementor Pro disappeared. Before the resynch I did log into ESS - M to check the plugin list and Elementor PRo didn’t have an update.

BBC

• Elementor Pro

BG

• Elementor Pro

ESS

• Elementor Pro

ESS - M

• Elementor Pro

I then synched the child sites and ESS - M was the only site that did not have Elementor Pro find an update. I have no idea if me logging in to check caused this update not to be found…

I’ve had updates in the past were many more plugin updates have disappeared. For my next test I will make sure that all Elementor plugins are updated to remove this plugin from possible being the issue (which I don’t think it is when dealing with the other missing plugins)

[eSIlverStrike (Tom)]

Here is my next set of updates. It also shows the issue when a few Plugin updates are missing from the list after an update so a resynch is required.

MainWP Plugin List After Synch

BBC

• WPVivid *

BG

• WPVivid *
• WSForm

ESS

• Category Order and Taxonomy Terms Order *
• Perfmatters
• WP Compress *
• WPVivid

ESS - F

• WPVivid

ESS - Ma

• WPVivid *

ESS - Mo

• WPVivid *

TH

• WPVivid

MainWP Plugin List After updating 6 plugins (marked with *)

ESS

• WPVivid

ESS - F

• WPVivid

TH

• WPVivid

So missing from Plugin List

BG

• WSForm

ESS

• Perfmatters

MainWP Plugin List After next Synch

BG

• WSForm *

ESS

• Perfmatters *
• WPVivid

ESS - F

• WPVivid *

TH

• WPVivid *

MainWP Plugin List After updating 4 plugins (marked with *)
ESS

• WPVivid

---

Take away… Issue of disappearing plugin updates seems to happen only to websites that have a plugin that gets update.

Will post more results again when I have the next bunch of plugin updates.

[eSIlverStrike (Tom)]

@bojan Do you need any more info on this issue or have I provided enough details you can start looking into it?

[bojan (Bojan Katusic)]

Hi @eSIlverStrike

Thank you for the details.

We are already working on the changes which should help with this issue. We already see some positive results.

The changes will be included in the next release, and we believe they will be beneficial.

[bogdan (Bogdan Rapaić)]

Hi @eSIlverStrike,

I want to share more details about the updates we are working on.

In the upcoming release, we will have better error detection, so if an update for premium plugins fails, we will be able to catch more details about the error, so the response in MainWP Dashboard will show the same error WP shows when you attempt to update the plugin.

Also, after the update process, we will send information back to the Dashboard before the Update transients are cleared and rebuilt by WordPress, so the problem with Updates that get removed and show again after resyncing process should be resolved for all the plugins that don’t have some internal problem with the update mechanism.

Unfortunately, in the case of the Elementor Pro, we still have no relevant feedback from the Elementor team. The problem with their update mechanism, presented in the video we shared earlier, is still pending. This is out of our control at the moment. I tried to reach the Elementor team through their support channels, and the only answer I got so far is that I should download the latest version from the Elementor account and reinstall it.

[bogdan (Bogdan Rapaić)]

We just published MainWP 4.4.1-Beta1 version here:

MainWP 4.4.1 Beta [RELEASED]

The MainWP team has tested this update thoroughly on internal development servers and confirmed that the version works properly. However, it’s impossible to test every configuration. That is why I am asking if you could install the Dashboard and Child plugins on some of your test sites and let us know if you find any issues. DOWNLOAD MainWP Dashboard 4.4.1-beta1 MainWP Child 4.4.1-beta1 UPDATE INSTRUCTIONS New Testing Environment This update should be stable and not cause any significant …

I believe that this version will solve the reported problem. If you get a chance to run some test, please let us know how it goes.

[kwsim (Ken Sim)]

Looks like I’m not the only one having this issue. I reported this bug back in January https://managers.mainwp.com/t/child-sites-plugin-update-bug/6312 and Jos Klever tried telling me the cause was my inferior hosting without knowing anything about my hosting resources.

[josklever]

@kwsim If you want to quote me, please do it correctly:

I recognize this behavior and it’s probably related to the response a child site gives back after an update. It might be caused by inferior hosting.

This is based on my own experience and you didn’t even respond to that (now closed) topic. And I never said anything about resources, just about the feedback that’s given. That can also be related to timeouts or security or something.

[eSIlverStrike (Tom)]

Thanks Bogdan. Super busy at the moment but I’ll try to get to testing it but it may not happen for a bit.