How to Hide Update Notifications for One WordPress Plugin

Updated November 2026 by Marius: rewritten for current WordPress and tested on WordPress 7.1.4. Originally published by Hardeep Asrani in 2014.

When you hide a plugin from the WordPress Plugins screen, its updates still show up: in the count next to Plugins in the admin menu and under Dashboard > Updates. Sometimes that is exactly what you don’t want, for example for a plugin you changed by hand, or one you only update after testing it on a staging site. This snippet hides the update notice for one plugin and leaves all the others alone.

Hide the update notice for one plugin

add_filter( 'site_transient_update_plugins', 'tp_hide_plugin_update' );
function tp_hide_plugin_update( $value ) {
	if ( isset( $value->response['hello-dolly/hello.php'] ) ) {
		unset( $value->response['hello-dolly/hello.php'] );
	}
	return $value;
}Code language: PHP (php)

Replace hello-dolly/hello.php with your plugin’s folder and main file. You can find it in the plugin’s Deactivate link on the Plugins screen: the link contains plugin=hello-dolly%2Fhello.php, where %2F is the slash.

WordPress checks wordpress.org for plugin updates twice a day and stores the answer. The site_transient_update_plugins filter runs every time WordPress reads that stored answer, and the snippet takes your plugin out of the list of available updates. The stored answer itself doesn’t change, so when you switch the snippet off, the update notice comes back right away. The isset() check is new in this version: it skips the unset() when the plugin has no update waiting.

What it hides (tested on WordPress 7.1.4)

I tested it on a fresh WordPress 7.1.4 site with two outdated plugins: Hello Dolly 1.6 (current version 1.7.2) and Akismet 5.3. Without the snippet, WordPress showed “There is a new version of Hello Dolly available” on the Plugins screen, counted it in Update Available and in the menu count, and listed it under Dashboard > Updates. With the snippet on:

• The update row under Hello Dolly was gone, and so was Hello Dolly under Dashboard > Updates.
• The menu count only counted Akismet.
• Auto-updates skip the plugin too. I turned on auto-updates for both plugins and ran the update job WP-Cron runs. Akismet updated from 5.3 to 5.7.2, Hello Dolly stayed on 1.6. With the snippet off, the same job updated Hello Dolly as well.

That last point is what makes the snippet useful for a plugin you changed by hand, because an automatic update would overwrite your changes. It also means the plugin never gets security fixes by itself, so someone has to keep an eye on it.

For a plugin you changed yourself: Update URI

If you edited a copy of a wordpress.org plugin, there’s a cleaner option than the filter. Since WordPress 5.8, a plugin can say where its updates come from with an Update URI line in its header. Set it to false in the plugin’s main file:

/**
 * Plugin Name: Hello Dolly
 * Version:     1.6
 * Update URI:  false
 */Code language: PHP (php)

I added this line to Hello Dolly 1.6 on the same test site, and after the next update check WordPress didn’t offer the 1.7.2 update anymore, without any snippet. The line lives in the plugin’s own file, so it only makes sense for a copy you maintain yourself.

When not to hide updates

Most plugin updates fix bugs, and many fix security holes. Only hide updates for a plugin that someone really updates by hand, and write down that you did it, so the next person working on the site knows why that plugin never shows an update.

Where to add this code

Add the snippet with a code snippets plugin instead of your theme’s functions.php, so it survives theme updates and you can switch it off without FTP. Here is how to add custom code snippets safely in WordPress with the free Code Snippets plugin. On my own sites I use WPCodeBox, which keeps snippets in a cloud library so the same snippet can go on several sites. Not sure which plugin to choose? I compared Code Snippets, WPCode and WPCodeBox by feeding each one broken snippets. (Marius)

Disclosure: the WPCodeBox link is an affiliate link. If you buy through it, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you.