Selective auto-updating of plugins

1. Copy the code below into a file called plugin_filter.php
2. Change the $pluginsNotToUpdate adding the plugins you want not to update, by using the plugin folder name and plugin filename
3. Upload the file to your wp-plugins directory

<?php
/**
 * @package Plugin_Filter
 * @version 2.0
 */
/*
Plugin Name: Plugin Filter
Plugin URI: https://www.brideonline.com.au/
Description: Removes certain plugins from being updated.
Author: Ben Wise
Version: 2.0
Author URI: https://github.com/WiseOwl9000
*/

/**
 * @param $update bool Ignore this it just is set to whether the plugin should be updated
 * @param $plugin string Indicates which plugin will be upgraded. Contains the directory name of the plugin followed by / followed by the filename containing the "Plugin Name:" parameters.
 */
function filter_plugins_bol($update, $plugin)
{
/*
	// debugging
	error_log(print_r($plugin,true));
	ob_start();
		var_dump(func_get_args());
		$econ = ob_get_contents();
		debug_print_backtrace();
	ob_end_clean();
	error_log($econ);
*/
	$pluginsNotToUpdate[] = "plugin-folder-name/plugin-file-name.php";
	// add more plugins to exclude by repeating the line above with new plugin folder / plugin file

	// Allow all plugins except the ones listed above to be updated
	if (!in_array(trim($plugin),$pluginsNotToUpdate))
	{
//		error_log("plugin is not in list allowing");
		return true; // return true to allow update to go ahead
	}

//	error_log("plugin is in list trying to abort");
	return false;
}

// Now set that function up to execute when the admin_notices action is called
// Important priority should be higher to ensure our plugin gets the final say on whether the plugin can be updated or not.
// Priority 1 didn't work
add_filter( 'auto_update_plugin', 'filter_plugins_bol' ,20  /* priority  */,2 /* argument count passed to filter function  */);