ExertSwitch – Disable Updates

ExertSwitch – Disable Updates is a lightweight toolkit for switching off the WordPress features you don’t want, all from one clean settings page with independent on/off toggles. Turn off update checks and notices (core, plugins, themes, automatic and email, premium plugins included), disable comments and post revisions, hide admin and PHP nags, and disable the built-in WordPress Sitemaps.

Unlike simple “activate and everything turns off” plugins, this plugin gives you a clean settings page with independent toggle switches, so you decide exactly what to disable and what to leave on. Turn off plugin update nags while keeping core security updates, disable sitemaps without touching updates, whatever fits your site.

Full control, one toggle at a time

Each of the following can be switched on or off independently:

• Disable WordPress core updates: Stop core version checks and update prompts.
• Disable plugin updates: Silence plugin update checks and notices for every plugin.
• Disable theme updates: Stop theme update checks and notices.
• Disable automatic (background) updates: Turn off WordPress’s silent auto‑updates.
• Disable update email notifications: No more “your site has been updated” / auto‑update emails.
• Hide admin update & maintenance nags: Clean up the dashboard and admin bar.
• Hide PHP version notice: Remove the Site Health “outdated PHP” nag (note: this hides the notice; it does not change your server’s PHP).
• Disable comments: Close comments and pingbacks site-wide, hide existing comments, and remove the Comments admin menu, dashboard widget and toolbar item.
• Disable revisions: Stop storing new revisions for all content types (posts, pages and custom post types) to reduce database bloat; autosaves and existing revisions are kept.
• Disable WordPress Sitemaps: Disable the WordPress core auto‑generated sitemaps and remove the sitemap line from the virtual robots.txt.

Covers premium & third‑party plugins too

Most “disable updates” plugins only block requests to api.wordpress.org, so premium plugins that check their own update servers for example Slider Revolution, and other commercially licensed plugins keep nagging you to update. This plugin is designed to suppress update notices for all installed plugins, so no plugin is skipped.

Why disable sitemaps?

Many sites already generate sitemaps through a dedicated SEO plugin or custom code. When WordPress adds its own sitemaps on top of that, you can end up with duplicate or conflicting sitemaps, which can confuse search engines. Disabling the built‑in WordPress Sitemaps keeps your SEO setup clean and authoritative.

A note on staying secure

Keeping WordPress core, plugins and themes up to date is important for security. This plugin is intended for situations where you manage updates deliberately (staging/production workflows, managed hosting, client sites, etc.). When you want to check for updates, simply toggle the relevant option back on, no need to deactivate the whole plugin.

Features

• Dedicated settings page with individual on/off toggles
• Separate controls for core, plugin, theme, automatic, and email updates
• Suppresses update notices for premium/third‑party plugins (e.g. Slider Revolution), not just wordpress.org‑hosted ones
• Hides update/maintenance admin nags and the PHP version Site Health notice
• Disable comments site-wide and stop new post revisions (less database bloat)
• One‑click Disable WordPress Sitemaps (plus robots.txt sitemap line)
• Lightweight and settings‑driven — enable only what you need
• No data collection, no cookies, no third‑party connections

Credits

Developed and maintained by Exertlogics.