WP-Config – Disabling Update Notices. Is it Possible?

Can you make changes to functions.php? If so, you can try this.

add_filter( 'auto_core_update_send_email', '__return_false' );

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by JanrikV.

Thanks. I don’t want to rely on theme functions as themes change among clients. Which means I have to add a functions.php edit for every theme activated or tried.

There has to be a simple means of toggling email notices wordpress updates on or off, and the most logical place would be a directive in wp-config.

An hopeful for a wp-config directive.

You can add add_filter in wp-config.php, but it is not recommended.

Thanks, but you’re right, adding filters in wp-config is not ideal. I’m hoping there is an actual directive to toggle it on/off, not unlike toggling automatic-updates on/off. The idea of using a plugin for something that should be a simple true/false directive is not exactly appetizing.

You can’t add a filter in wp-config.php, actually. It won’t work from there.

The best you can do is to make a mu-plugin and add it to a PHP file there.

In wp-content, make a subdirectory called mu-plugins. It should be right alongside the plugins and themes directories.

Mu plugins are “must use”. WordPress auto-loads them. So make a new PHP file in there and put this in it:

<?php
/*
 * Plugin Name: Turn off Update Emails 
 */

add_filter( 'auto_core_update_send_email', '__return_false' );

Save it and you’re done.

Samuel, thanks.

Hmm, so in the end, WP does not provide a directive to be added to the wp-config file?

Example:

define( 'AUTOMATIC_UPDATER_DISABLED', false );
define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', false );
define( 'DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true );
define( 'auto_core_update_send_email', false);

Does that not seem logical to place it with other similar directives governing “update” functionlity?

I’d MUCH rather have a fixed directive than a plugin to alter core functionality.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by Rongo.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by Rongo.

Yeah, sorry. It’s a filter, not a define. So no such option exists for a define there.

Realistically, it’s one line of code. You don’t need to think of it as “yet another plugin”. Plugins are not inherently bad. The amount of code that you’re running is all that matters, not the number of plugins.

Thanks. And yes, understood that it’s just one line of code. Would have just been nice (and logical), to have some consistency in the wp-config as it pertains to auto upgrade functionality, since it is related.

I’ll go ahead and use the plugin option. Perhaps at some point the Devs will expand the directives available to wp-config, especially ones related to core functionality and/or behaviour.

Thanks again.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 11 months ago by Rongo.