Tired of Endless WordPress Update Emails? Here‘s How to Turn Them Off (2023 Guide)

If you‘ve been managing a WordPress website for any length of time, you‘re probably well acquainted with the never-ending stream of automatic update email notifications:

"Your site has been updated to WordPress 6.1.1"

"[Plugin Update] Yoast SEO version 19.14 installed successful"

"[Theme Update] Twenty Twenty-Two version 1.3 installed successful"

Keeping your WordPress core software, plugins and themes up-to-date is essential for security, stability and new features. But do you really need an email notification every single time an update happens automatically? Probably not.

For WordPress professionals managing multiple client sites, or anyone else who values inbox zero, the barrage of auto-update emails quickly becomes an annoying distraction. Fortunately, there are simple ways to disable these email notifications so updates still happen silently in the background without cluttering your inbox.

In this hands-on guide, we‘ll cover:

• Why WordPress sends automatic update emails in the first place
• Risks and benefits of disabling update notifications
• How to turn off automatic update emails using code snippets (recommended)
• How to disable update emails with a plugin
• Tips for effective update management without email overload

But first, let‘s look at some eye-opening data on why this issue impacts so many WordPress users.

WordPress Auto-Update Notification Stats

WordPress now powers over 43% of the entire web, with over 830 million total websites as of 2023. Out of those:

• Over 30 million WordPress sites receive automatic updates for the WordPress core software (source)
• The average WordPress site has 20 plugins installed (source)
• WordPress.org currently lists over 60,000 free plugins and 10,000 free themes (source)

If just 1% of those 30 million WordPress sites have automatic plugin and theme updates enabled as well, that‘s potentially over 9 million auto-update email notifications flying around per month (300,000 sites × 20 plugins × 1 monthly update + 300,000 sites × 1 theme × 1 monthly update).

No wonder it feels like update notifications are out of control! With the rapid growth of WordPress‘s market share and plugin/theme ecosystem, auto-update emails have become an epidemic of inbox clutter for many site managers.

Understanding WordPress Update Email Notifications

Before we jump into how to disable them, let‘s clarify what exactly WordPress update email notifications are and why you might want to turn them off.

What triggers update email notifications?

By default, WordPress core is configured to install "minor" updates automatically (e.g. 6.0 to 6.0.1). These minor updates often contain security patches and bug fixes. An email notification is sent after each successful auto-update.

Many plugins and themes also support a feature called "auto-updates" that allows them to be updated to new versions automatically in the background. If you‘ve explicitly enabled auto-updates for any plugins or themes, you‘ll also receive email notifications when those updates complete.

Note that simply installing a plugin or theme doesn‘t necessarily mean that auto-updates are enabled for it. You have to opt-in to auto-updates on a per-plugin/theme basis. We‘ll show you how later on.

What do update notification emails contain?

The content of the update notification emails is fairly basic. They simply state the name of the item that was updated and what version it was updated to. For example:

[WordPress Update] Your site has been updated to WordPress 6.1.1 [Plugin Update] Yoast SEO version 19.14 installed successful [Theme Update] Twenty Twenty-Two version 1.3 installed successful

The sender email address will be whatever you have configured under "Default sender email" in your WordPress General settings.

Types of WordPress update email notifications

To summarize, here are the three different types of WordPress update email notifications you might receive:

The method for disabling each type of notification is a bit different, which we‘ll cover in detail later on.

Reasons to disable email update notifications

So why would you want to turn off these seemingly harmless email notifications? A few common reasons:

• They clutter up your inbox with largely irrelevant information
• They can be overwhelming if you manage multiple WordPress sites
• They may give a false sense of security (just because an update was installed doesn‘t mean it‘s working properly)
• Some plugins and themes update very frequently, generating tons of redundant emails

Ultimately, most WordPress professionals prefer to proactively manage updates on their own schedule using a manual or automated workflow. Getting an email about it after the fact isn‘t necessary or helpful in most cases.

That said, there are some potential downsides to disabling update notifications entirely.

Risks of turning off update notifications

While disabling automatic update emails can certainly clean up your inbox, there are a couple risks to be aware of:

• You may be less likely to notice if an update fails or breaks something on your site
• Critical security updates could be missed if you‘re not regularly logging into the WordPress admin area

We‘ll share some tips for mitigating these risks later in the guide. But first, let‘s walk through how to actually turn off those pesky update notification emails step-by-step.

How to Disable WordPress Update Email Notifications (2 Methods)

There are two main ways to disable automatic update email notifications in WordPress:

1. By adding code snippets to your site‘s functions.php file or a custom plugin (recommended)
2. By installing a plugin that provides options to disable various types of notifications

Let‘s break down each method in detail.

Method 1: Disable update emails using code snippets

The simplest and most reliable way to completely disable all types of WordPress update email notifications is by adding a few lines of code to your site.

We recommend using the free WPCode plugin, which allows you to safely add custom code snippets to your site without directly editing theme files. This protects you from accidentally breaking your site.

Here‘s how to set it up:

1. Install the WPCode plugin:

   • From your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins → Add New
   • Search for "WPCode Insert Headers and Footers"
   • Click "Install Now" then "Activate"

2. Add a new snippet:

   • From your WordPress dashboard, go to Code Snippets → Snippets
   • Click on the "Add Snippet" button
   • Enter a snippet name and description, e.g. "Disable Auto-Update Emails"

3. Paste in the following code:

   add_filter( ‘auto_core_update_send_email‘, ‘__return_false‘ );
   add_filter( ‘auto_plugin_update_send_email‘, ‘__return_false‘ );
   add_filter( ‘auto_theme_update_send_email‘, ‘__return_false‘ );

4. Activate the snippet: Click the "Activate" toggle and then "Update"

That‘s it! The code snippet will now prevent WordPress from sending any automatic update email notifications.

If you only want to disable certain types of update emails, simply remove the corresponding line from the code snippet. For example, to only disable theme update notifications, your code snippet would look like this:

add_filter( ‘auto_theme_update_send_email‘, ‘__return_false‘ );

The code approach is effective because it directly taps into WordPress‘s built-in hooks for update notifications. The __return_false function essentially tells WordPress to skip sending the email.

This method is also easy to undo. If you ever want to re-enable update notifications, simply deactivate the code snippet.

Method 2: Disable update emails with a plugin

If you prefer a graphical interface, there are also WordPress plugins that can disable various types of email notifications with the click of a checkbox.

We‘ll demonstrate using the free Disable Email Notifications plugin. Here‘s how to set it up:

1. Install the Disable Email Notifications plugin:

   • From your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins → Add New
   • Search for "Disable Email Notifications"
   • Click "Install Now" then "Activate"

2. Configure notification preferences:

   • From your WordPress dashboard, go to Settings → Disable Email Notifications
   • Check the box for "Plugin auto-update emails" and/or "Theme auto-update emails"
   • Leave the "WordPress automatic core update emails" box unchecked to continue receiving WordPress core update notifications
   • Click "Save Changes"

The Disable Email Notifications plugin provides a simple interface for enabling/disabling different types of update emails.

One advantage of this method is that it allows you to selectively disable plugin and theme update emails while still allowing core update emails, which tend to be higher priority for security reasons.

However, this plugin hasn‘t been updated in a few years, so it may not be fully compatible with the latest versions of WordPress. The code snippet method is more future-proof.

Both of these methods will prevent WordPress from generating the actual email notifications. But what about making sure you don‘t miss any truly critical updates? Let‘s discuss some best practices.

How to Keep Your WordPress Site Up-to-Date Without Email Notifications

Whether you choose to completely disable auto-update emails or simply filter them a bit, it‘s important to have a system in place for staying on top of important updates.

Here are a few tips:

• Schedule regular maintenance: Set aside dedicated time each week or month to manually check for and install any available updates. This could be as simple as logging into the WordPress admin area and reviewing the updates page.

• Use an update management plugin: Tools like Easy Updates Manager can automate the update process according to your preferred schedule and parameters, no email notifications required.

• Consider a managed WordPress host: Providers like WP Engine and Flywheel handle core updates and security patches for you automatically behind the scenes.

• Keep an eye out for news and changelogs: Stay informed about major updates and new releases for your most essential plugins and themes. Subscribe to their newsletters or follow them on social media.

• Run updates in a staging environment first: Before updating your live site, consider running updates on a test version of the site first so you can check for any issues or incompatibilities proactively.

The key is to find the update workflow that aligns with your schedule, technical comfortability and risk tolerance. Just don‘t let disabling email notifications turn into ignoring updates entirely, because that‘s a recipe for a hacked or broken website.

Conclusion

To recap, the two main ways to stop WordPress automatic update email notifications are:

1. Adding code snippets to your site‘s functions.php file or a custom plugin (recommended)
2. Installing a dedicated plugin like Disable Email Notifications

While disabling these emails can help keep your inbox clutter-free, it‘s still vitally important to stay on top of WordPress core, plugin and theme updates using your preferred manual or automated workflow.

Some best practices include scheduling regular maintenance time, using an update management plugin, and testing updates in a staging environment before deploying to production.

With a solid update system in place, you can confidently turn off those annoying auto-update emails and let your WordPress site run like a well-oiled machine in the background.

Happy updating!