Sometimes every WordPress site owner encounters plug-in updates or conflicts. In this case, one of the easiest ways to debug the problem and confirm that it is updated is to download the previous or older version and test it on your site. Check out the following four simple ways to download older versions of the WordPress plug-in.
how to download old version of WordPress plug-in
from GitHub when it comes to things that may damage your WordPress website Plug-ins are one of the most common things. See the death white screen (WSOD)? This may be due to a plug-in. Why? Well, there are more than 50000 plug-ins available in the WordPress plug-in library, not to mention thousands of advanced plug-ins from 3Rd party providers. Developers try as much as possible, but it is almost impossible for them to test every scenario and conflict. This comes in handy when there are several options to download the old version for testing. In many cases, this allows you to fix your website, notify developers, and wait for the next patch. Remember to always test the stages first!
- Download the old (simple / beginner)
- from the plug-in library
Roll back the WordPress plug-in (simple / beginner) - Download the old (advanced)
- through WP-CLI
Download Legacy (Advanced)
option 1-download Legacy WordPress plug-in
from the plug-in library the first way to download the legacy WordPress plug-in is to simply get it from the plug-in library. We will use the free Yoast SEO plug-in in these examples. The first thing to do is to search for plug-ins in the WordPress plug-in library.
searches the plug-in library for the WordPress plug-in
to scroll down the plug-in page, and then click Advanced View. The
WordPress plug-in Advanced View
scrolls to the bottom of the page, and you will see an option to download the previous version of the plug-in. As you can see below, you can return in time if necessary. As the warning says, keep in mind that previous versions of plug-ins may be insecure or unstable and can only be used for testing purposes. When you click download, it downloads the .zip version of the plug-in.
downloads the historical version of the WordPress plug-in
and then in your WordPress dashboard browse to the plug-in & gt; to install the plug-in and click Select File. This will extract your .zip file. Then activate the old version of the plug-in. If desired, you can also install plug-ins through SFTP.
install the WordPress plug-in .zip file
option 2-roll back the WordPress plug-in to the old version of
your second option is to use the free WP Rollback plug-in. This allows you to roll back (or forward) any WordPress.org plug-in or theme and be compatible with multiple sites. This was created by WordImpress’s team. It currently has more than 30000 active installations. It is important that you always have a backup or use a staging environment when using this backup. But we have used it several times and the effect is very good!
simply installs the WP Rollback plug-in and activates it. Then, you will see a “Rollback” option next to each plug-in installed from the WordPress plug-in library (third-party plug-ins are not supported). Simply click “Rollback” to continue.
rolls back the WordPress plug-in
and then it prompts you for the version you want to roll back to. As you can see below, this mimics the previous version available in “Advanced View” on the WordPress plug-in library page. Starting with version 1.5, you can also view the change log related to the plug-in version. Then click “Rollback”.
selects the WordPress plug-in version
to roll back, which prompts you for a summary of the final confirmation and ongoing changes. Click Rollback when you are ready. okay! You are now running an older version of the WordPress plug-in.
rollback plug-in
option 3-download the old version of the WordPress plug-in
through WP-CLI another option is to download the old version of the WordPress plug-in through WP-CLI. You can check out our more in-depth guide to using WP-CLI. The first thing you may want to do is delete the current version. You can also rename it manually. But first, you need to know the name. The name of the plug-in you use for WP-CLI is just the name of the folder on the plug-in library or Git. So in this case, it’s “wordpress-seo”. The plug-in for the
WordPress plug-in Library URL
to simply remove the plug-in, enter the following. Remember that when you delete the plug-in, it still saves your settings in the database.
wp plugin delete wordpress-seo
removes the WordPress plug-in
through WP-CLI and then runs the following command to download the old version. You can manually enter the version number corresponding to the version you want to return. In the following example, we are installing Yoast SEO version 4.8.
wp plugin install wordpress-seo --version=4.8 --activate
installs the old version of the WordPress plug-in
through WP-CLI option 4-download the old version of
from GitHub. The last option is to download the WordPress plug-in directly from its GitHub library. You should be able to search for your WordPress plug-in and find it easily. Most of them will take advantage of the tagging feature to make it easy for you to find the old version (shown below). The WordPress plug-in
on
GitHub then you can click the “Download Zip” button and upload it to your WordPress site. Note: because of the way they are packaged, this does not always apply to every plug-in. Keep in mind that plug-ins installed from GitHub are not automatically updated. Therefore, plug-ins downloaded from GitHub can only be used for testing purposes, unless you use tools such as WP Pusher to keep them in sync.
Download the WordPress plug-in zip from GitHub
