WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE ignored

  • Resolved redbullpeter

    (@redbullpeter)


    2 weeks, 3 days ago

    Hi,

    We have auto update for WordPress disabled with:

    define( 'WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', false );

    However this was completely ignored on the latest update with many sites that needed to be pinned to a specific version being updated and causing them to crash.

    We’re also seeing this in error logs:

    [22-May-2026 11:27:57 Europe/Dublin] PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function add_filter() in /home/w596929/public_html/wp-config.php:92
    Stack trace:
    #0 /home/w596929/public_html/wp-load.php(50): require_once()
    #1 /home/w596929/public_html/wp-blog-header.php(13): require_once('/home/w596929/p...')
    #2 /home/w596929/public_html/index.php(17): require('/home/w596929/p...')
    #3 {main}
      thrown in /home/w596929/public_html/wp-config.php on line 92

    This is what triggered it:

    /* Disable plugin auto-updates */
    add_filter( 'auto_update_plugin', '__return_false' );

    So not sure what’s going on.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Thread Starter redbullpeter

    (@redbullpeter)

    2 weeks, 3 days ago

    Closing this. After a lot of to and fro. A lot weird things were happening on our hosting platform….

    • This reply was modified 2 weeks, 3 days ago by redbullpeter.
    Moderator threadi

    (@threadi)

    2 weeks, 3 days ago

    Even if you’ve already marked this as resolved for yourself, here’s a quick note: You can’t use add_filter() in wp-config.php because the function isn’t recognized there yet. It won’t be recognized until later. If you want to define a hook like this, do so via a child theme, a code snippet plugin, or a custom plugin. The latter can also be set up as a “Must Use” plugin.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

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