WP Maintenance Manager

Sharing WP-CLI tips, plugin update gotchas, and what I learned shipping a maintenance tool for 50+ WordPress sites. Builder of WP Maintenance Manager. 🇯🇵 #bui

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

I run WordPress sites professionally —
obsessed with what makes maintenance
actually reliable at scale.

What you'll get here:
WP-CLI quirks. Plugin update gotchas.
SSH update strategies. DB backup tactics.

If WP ops is your day job, follow along.

One of my favorites 👇

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

Our blog posts on X were all showing the same sales image as the OGP card.

Fix: a PHP GD generator that renders 1200×630 cards from each WP post title + disk cache.

The card on this post is what we wrote about:
https://t.co/Gz91XsLcum

#WordPress #PHP

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

`home_url('/')` and `site_url('/')` return different values
when WP is installed in a subdirectory.

home_url = the front page URL
site_url = the WP install URL

Took me an hour to find this bug once.

#WordPress

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

Most WordPress maintenance tools break on staging sites behind HTTP Basic auth — the login page never loads.

Fix: Playwright `http_credentials` + urllib `Authorization` header + encrypted storage.

Full story:
https://t.co/8DAzBbDlXJ

#WordPress #Playwright

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

paramiko's connect() defaults to look_for_keys=True + allow_agent=True.

It tries every key in ~/.ssh/ + ssh-agent — failed attempts trip fail2ban and silently get your IP banned.

Fix: look_for_keys=False, allow_agent=False.

Full story:
https://t.co/IOt01jvS5V

#SSH #Python

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

Cross-site WordPress dashboards block on cold SSH fetches across 30+ sites.

Our design: show the cache first, fetch on click, keep the worker running if the user closes the modal.

Cache-first + closes-but-keeps-running.

Full story:
https://t.co/hilv2moJG9

#WordPress

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

Every 6 months WordPress shows admins an "Is this email correct?" screen.

It silently breaks wp-admin automation — auto-updates for ACF Pro / Yoast / WP Rocket drop.

Selector: `input[name="correct-admin-email"]`.

Full story:
https://t.co/IffsJ080YJ

#WordPress

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

`wp-content/debug.log` keeps growing forever
when WP_DEBUG_LOG=true. No rotation. No size limit.

Multi-GB files I've found in client setups: more than I'd like to admit.

`logrotate` it. Or symlink to /dev/null on dev.

#WordPress

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

If your site shows "Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance"
forever after an update — WP probably crashed mid-update
and left a `.maintenance` file in the WP root.

`rm .maintenance` over SSH. Site comes back.

#WordPress #WPCLI

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

WPMM v1.6.2 shipped.

Pro plugin update fix (skip-plugins scope: ACF/Elementor/WP Rocket)
Cross-site update dashboard
Scoped Maintenance: per-plugin update, full safety net
HTTP Basic Auth support
Thumbnails + Core/PHP filters

https://t.co/NmHYcVfwfP

#WordPress #WPCLI

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

Surveyed ManageWP, MainWP, WP Umbrella, InfiniteWP.

Three things none of them do:
→ Per-plugin updates with HTTP checks
→ Pinpoint rollback (only the broken one)
→ No Worker plugin on the client site

Structural choices, not feature gaps.

https://t.co/xoJGSNOdKf

#WordPress

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

WP-CLI's worst irony:

You opened it to fix a broken plugin. WP-CLI booted WordPress. WordPress loaded the broken plugin. WP-CLI fataled.

`--skip-plugins --skip-themes` skips that load. File ops still run.

https://t.co/kuhkI5EncI

#WordPress #WPCLI

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

"wp-cli not working" usually isn't a bug.
It's a setup mismatch with your host.

No php on PATH. No ~/bin on PATH. No wp at all.
4 hosts, 4 architectures.

`wp --info` is the only health check that doesn't lie.

https://t.co/RTFjnZbfRf

#WordPress #WPCLI

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

Every WordPress maintenance tool fits a different operating style.

ManageWP wins if your team needs:
→ Cloud dashboard, any device
→ 60-second uptime monitoring
→ Integrated SEO + analytics
→ Role-based team permissions

→ https://t.co/Xb2jijNlsR

#WordPress

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

Most rollbacks revert the whole site.

Real rollback is per-plugin: keep safe updates, undo only what broke.

`wp plugin install X --version=Y --force --skip-plugins --skip-themes`

Hosts covered: WP Engine/Kinsta/SiteGround/Cloudways.
https://t.co/TrqN5vZC6j

#WordPress #WPCLI

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

`wp plugin install --version=X --force` doesn't
just downgrade — it overwrites the entire plugin dir.

Custom translations? Gone.
.htaccess in the plugin folder? Gone.

Backup `wp-content/plugins/<slug>` first
when you really care.

#WordPress #WPCLI

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

If `WP_DEBUG=false` but you still see PHP notices in prod,
check `php.ini` → `display_errors`.
WP can't override that one. Server config wins.
#WordPress

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

HTTP 200 doesn't mean WordPress is healthy.

Some plugins catch fatals, return "200 OK".
Monitoring green. Site broken.

What works:
→ `wp option get blogname` over SSH
→ Visual diff before/after
→ WP_DEBUG in HTTP headers

Status codes lie. WP-CLI doesn't.

#WordPress #WPCLI

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

Most "rollback" scripts break when a plugin fatals.

Why: `wp plugin install --version=X --force`
boots WP, loads the broken plugin, fatals.

Fix: `--skip-plugins --skip-themes`
File ops still run. Site recovers from any broken state.

#WordPress #WPCLI

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

I run WordPress sites professionally —
obsessed with what makes maintenance
actually reliable at scale.

What you'll get here:
WP-CLI quirks. Plugin update gotchas.
SSH update strategies. DB backup tactics.

If WP ops is your day job, follow along.

One of my favorites 👇

[WP Maintenance Manager @wpmm_team]

HTTP 200 doesn't mean your site looks fine.

A plugin update can break the layout
and still return a 200.

WP Maintenance Manager takes screenshots
before and after every update.
If the pages look different, it flags it.

#buildinpublic #WordPress