There is a time if every of the WordPress site owner will run to a problem with a plugins conflict or update. In this situation, one of the easy way to debug the issue and confirm it and which is the update is to download the older or previous version and test it on the site. The following are some of the simple ways about how to download the older version of WordPress plugins.
If it comes to things that which can break the WordPress site, plugins are one of the common. Seeing white screen of death(WSOD)? It is possibly due to plugins, why? There are more than 50000 plugins are available on the WordPress repository.
Most of the developers will try as best as they can, however it is almost not possible for them to test each conflict and scenario. This is if having a few options to download the old version for testing. Most of the times this will allow you to fix the site, inform the developer and wait for the next one. Do not forget that to test always on staging first.
Download old versions WordPress from the Repository
The beginning method to download the old version of the WordPress plugins is to simply grab from the repository. We can use the free yoast SEO plugins as the example. The first thing that you have to do is search for the plugins in the repository of WordPress. Scroll down the page of the plugins and click on the advanced view icon.
Then scroll down to the bottom of the plugins page and you can see an option to download the old versions of the plugins. If needed you can go way back in time. As the warning alert remember that the old versions of the plugins amy not be stable or secure and which are available for testing uses only. While you click on Download option it will download as a zip file of the plugins.
Then in the WordPress dashboard, browse the plugins>Add New and then click on Choose file. This will unpack the zip file. Then activate the previous version of the plugins. It can be also done by using SFTP if needed.
Download current versions WordPress from the Repository
One of the ways to download the current version of the WordPress is using Github. It is a project hosting service and is used by number of developers and source projects. As a WordPress use, sometimes you can come across themes or plugins hosted in Github. Since it is not particular to WordPress development, it will be hard for a new user to figure how to download and install the plugins from Github. Before you are going to install the WordPress plugins from Github, ensure that you will be able to receive the updates for it. Installing the themes and plugins from Github will be super easy. It is lust like to install the WordPress plugins normally.
Initially you have to go the plugins/theme’s repository of Github. In the main page of the Github repository, click on the download or clone button and then click the download zip button. Then head over to the WordPress admin area and go the option plugin>>Add New page. You will want to normally upload the plugins from the computer. For that, click the upload button. This will give you the option of the zip file of upload button. You have to click on the choose file icon and then choose the Zip file from the computer.
After that, you have to click in to the install new button. WordPress will then upload the zip file archive from the computer to the website, then unzip it and install the plugins for you. When it done, you can see a success message. Then you can click on to the activate plugins button for activating the plugins on your website.
