Can not Update WordPress on GoDaddy Host

Why does the gd-system-plugin Impacts WordPress Auto Updates on GoDaddy?

1. Managed WordPress Hosting Features

GoDaddy’s managed WordPress hosting is designed to relieve users of some administrative tasks, including core updates. The gd-system-plugin plays a role in this by controlling and managing updates on GoDaddy’s terms, ensuring that they are tested and rolled out in a manner that reduces the chances of site breakage.

2. Staging and Production Environment

The gd-system-plugin ensures that updates (especially major ones) don’t automatically get applied to live websites without going through a testing phase in a staging environment. This reduces the potential of a live site encountering errors due to a WordPress core update.

3. Customized Experience

The gd-system-plugin also allows GoDaddy to offer a customized WordPress experience, including special dashboard widgets, notifications, or even performance enhancements tailored to their hosting environment.

4. Update Rollouts

Even if WordPress releases an update, GoDaddy might choose to review it first. This ensures compatibility with their hosting environment. After thorough testing, GoDaddy then rolls out the update in batches to their users. The gd-system-plugin can help manage this phased rollout.

5. Potential Conflicts

On the downside, this control over updates can occasionally lead to conflicts, especially if a user tries to force an update or if there’s a miscommunication between the gd-system-plugin and the WordPress core.

Recommendations for GoDaddy Users:

  1. Patience: Wait for GoDaddy to roll out the update. This might take some time after WordPress officially releases an update, but it’s often for compatibility and stability reasons.
  2. Manual Updates: If you’re comfortable with it and understand the risks, you can bypass the gd-system-plugin and manually update WordPress. Always ensure you back up your site before doing this. Read here how to disable the gd-system-plugin and force updating your WordPress site.
  3. Seek Support: If you’re unsure or encounter issues, contact GoDaddy’s support. They can provide guidance, especially if there are known issues or delays with an update.
  4. External Management: Consider using external management tools or services if you want more control over updates, but weigh the pros and cons related to stability, compatibility, and ease of management.

Conclusion: While GoDaddy’s gd-system-plugin aims to simplify and stabilize the WordPress experience for users on their platform, it does mean that auto-updates won’t always align with the official releases from the WordPress team. Users should be aware of this and make informed decisions based on their needs and comfort level.

Author: Rene Hermenau

I'm René Hermenau, founder of WP STAGING. I've been building WordPress infrastructure software since 2013 and writing code on GitHub since 2011. My repos live at github.com/rene-hermenau. WP STAGING started as a small developer project solving the same problem I kept hitting on client work: there was no fast, safe way to clone a WordPress site for staging or migration without breaking serialized data, file paths, or media references. Today we are a team of more than 10 people. The free plugin runs on hundreds of thousands of WordPress installations, and the Pro version powers backup, migration, and staging workflows for agencies, hosting platforms, and ecommerce stores. I'm still hands-on with the codebase and technical architecture. Our releases are built as a team, but many of the core architectural decisions are ones I helped design, test, and evolve over the years: how we handle large database exports, how we keep memory usage flat on multi-GB sites, and how we make migrations atomic against partially written tables. "When you touch code, leave it 10% better than before and write a test." If you're stuck on a WP STAGING question, the docs are at wp-staging.com/docs. If you hit a bug, file it on GitHub at github.com/wp-staging. Our team reads everything that lands there.