Sets plugin automatic updates to always on, but only happen during specific days and times.

1. Download the .zip file from https://github.com/a8cteam51/plugin-autoupdate-filter/releases
2. Via the wp-admin plugins page on your WordPress site, upload the zip file and activate the plugin

This plugin filters the core auto_update_plugin functionality to always run autoupdates during specific hours. It doesn't respect any toggle settings prior to activating this plugin, and is also respected by Jetpack autoupdate settings (the Jetpack autoupdate toggles may still reflect something different, but are not meaningful if this plugin is activated).

It's a good idea to load this as a normal plugin (rather than an mu-plugin), so that it can be deactivated easily by a site admin, in case autoupdates needs to be paused during troubleshooting, etc.

By default, the plugin always returns true for autoupdates Mon-Thu 6am-7pm Eastern, and Fri 6am-3pm Eastern. The 13 hour days are because the cron event which checks for autoupdates only runs every 12 hours, and so if the window isn't more than 12 hours at least once during the week, we run the risk of missing updates completely.

This plugin is unsupported; use at your own discretion

If you have a problem or suggestion, please make an issue in the repo here: https://github.com/a8cteam51/plugin-autoupdate-filter/issues

Feel free to fork and/or create a PR!

If you'd like to customize the times and days, you can filter them. e.g.:

function custom_autoupdate_hours( $hours ) {
  return array(
    start      => '10', // 6am Eastern
    end        => '23', // 7pm Eastern
    friday_end => '20', // 4pm Eastern on Fridays
  );
}
add_filter( 'plugin_autoupdate_filter_hours', 'custom_autoupdate_hours' );

function custom_autoupdate_days_off( $days_off ) {
  // if you don't want updates to run on Fri, Sat, or Sun at all
  return array(
    Fri,
    Sat,
    Sun,
  );
}
add_filter( 'plugin_autoupdate_filter_days_off', 'custom_autoupdate_days_off' );

If you'd like to set windows of time for no updates, you can filter them. e.g.:

$holidays = array(
  'christmas' => array(
    'start' => '2021-12-23 00:00:00',
    'end'   => '2021-12-26 00:00:00'
  ),
);
add_filter( 'plugin_autoupdate_filter_holidays', 'custom_autoupdate_holidays' );

If you still need to turn off autoupdates for a specific plugin, you can filter auto_update_plugin at a priority greater than 10, and prevent specific plugins from updating. e.g.:

function disable_autoupdate_specific_plugins ( $update, $item ) {
    // Array of plugin slugs to never auto-update
    $plugins = array (
        'akismet',
        'buddypress',
    );
    if ( in_array( $item->slug, $plugins ) ) {
         // Never update plugins in this array
        return false;
    } else {
        // Else, do whatever it was going to do before
        return $update;
    }
}
add_filter( 'auto_update_plugin', 'disable_autoupdate_specific_plugins', 11, 2 );