WordPress is ever-evolving and we at WP Engine strive to provide a platform that’s secure. We want the experience of updating WordPress, which is a necessity for a successful WordPress site, to be as easy and trouble free as possible.
Our top priority is the stability, security, and functionality of your sites, and we want to give you time to test the new version against your current configuration. In accordance to our WordPress Update policy for non-security releases, we begin updating our customer’s sites two weeks after a core release (4.0, 4.1, 4.2, etc).
About Automatic Updates
If you’re not already familiar with how WP Engine performs WordPress updates, here’s a brief rundown: our system will send out two notices before the process starts; one notice will be sent seven days prior to your scheduled update, and the second will be sent four hours before the update begins.
Should you find, as the date gets closer, that you need more time to prepare your site(s) for the next version of WordPress, you can request a deferral for up to 60 days. Here’s a great talk given at WordCamp from our Director of Customer Experience Operations on how to ensure you’re ready for a WordPress update: WordPress Upgrades: Ready, Set, Go!
Deferring Updates for an Environment
Note: This does not include security upgrades.
Log into the WP Engine User Portal and visit the Overview page for the environment you would like to implement update deferral. You’ll see the WordPress Version box on the right. This contains information about your current version of WordPress. It will also let you know if your site is currently up to date, or out of date. You’ll also see a checkbox which allows you to put your environment into deferred upgrade mode.
How Update Deferral mode works
When you set your environment(s) into update deferral mode, we will not upgrade your environment(s) in our first round of WordPress core upgrades. This gives you 60 extra days to test your site(s) against the new version of WordPress. You will get a 7 days notice before we attempt to upgrade your deferred environment(s).