A Quick Reference Guide for WordPress Maintenance

To maintain a self-hosted WordPress site, keep its software current, check that important features work, and make sure you can recover the site if a change fails. A complete backup includes both the site’s files, such as themes, plugins, and uploads, and its database, which stores content and settings. Your managed host may handle some maintenance. Confirm which tasks it handles and how you would restore a backup.

The practical rule is simple: back up before making changes, apply updates with a recovery plan, and check the site afterward. The steps below show you how to do that and spot problems with scheduled tasks or server compatibility.

Make sure you can restore the site

Before an update or other significant change, back up the current files and database. A backup of the files does not preserve posts and settings. A database backup does not preserve themes, plugins, or uploaded media. WordPress’s backup guidance recommends keeping copies in different locations.

Check what your host backs up, how often it does so, and how you would restore the backup. WordPress suggests weekly backups for smaller sites and daily backups for sites with more activity. Choose a schedule based on how much recent content or transaction data you could afford to lose, and keep several recent copies rather than relying on a single backup. A backup helps only if you can restore it. Verify how you would recover the site, rather than assuming your host’s backup covers everything.

Run a short maintenance pass

Use this checklist as a starting point. Adjust the site-function tests to match what visitors actually use.

• Review Site Health. In WordPress, open Tools → Site Health → Status. Address critical issues first, then investigate recommended improvements. Open the Info tab to inspect versions, installed themes and plugins, server details, and permissions. The Site Health screen shows information and flags issues, but it does not change your settings.
• Check for WordPress, plugin, and theme updates. Keep software current to address security issues and maintain compatibility. Take a backup before updating. For a complex or business-critical site, test changes on a separate copy of the site before applying them live.
• Check the site after updates. Visit the live site and test the features visitors depend on, such as contact forms, sign-in, checkout, search, or booking. If a feature stops working, record what changed and when before you try other fixes.
• Remove software you no longer use. Deactivate a plugin before deleting it. Before deleting a plugin, read its instructions and check how it handles data, especially if it stores information the site needs. Delete themes you no longer plan to use.
• Investigate failed scheduled tasks. If scheduled posts or other timed features stop running, look for loopback errors in Site Health. A loopback is a request WordPress sends to its own site. WordPress uses this request to start WP-Cron, which runs scheduled events. The loopback documentation explains why a failed request can disrupt those tasks.

Update promptly and check the result

WordPress lists keeping software current as a core security practice in its security guidance. If you delay updates indefinitely, known issues remain unaddressed. At the same time, an update can affect site behavior, so back up first and inspect the site afterward.

WordPress lets you enable automatic updates separately for plugins and themes. When enabled, those updates normally run twice daily, and WordPress sends notifications about update attempts, according to its auto-update documentation. You still need to monitor the site when automatic updates are enabled. Make sure someone receives the notifications and can investigate a failed update or a change to a feature.

Check server compatibility before changing versions

WordPress currently recommends PHP 8.3 or later. For databases, it recommends MariaDB 10.11 or later or MySQL 8.0 or later, along with HTTPS. WordPress may change these recommendations. Check the WordPress requirements before planning a server upgrade. Some older PHP and database versions still run WordPress, but they have reached end of life.

Ask your host about server changes before making them. A newer PHP version can expose compatibility problems in older plugins, themes, or custom code. Check that the plugins, themes, and custom code your site relies on support the target version, then back up the site and test the change before updating the live environment.

Respond to a failed update

If WordPress remains on a scheduled-maintenance message after an update fails, a temporary .maintenance file may still be present. WordPress’s common-error guidance describes removing that file during recovery. If you are unsure which file to change, ask your host or a qualified administrator. Do not delete unrelated files.

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