GPL Downloads Auto Updater changelog

2026 26 versions

3.3.4 Latest 18 Aug 2026 4 improved1 removed5 changed

Improved

• Smaller fixes in the same area
• "View details" on a disabled product now shows the original developer's information instead of ours
• Disabled products no longer take up slots in the per-run update limit
• Update injection no longer creates a transient entry for a product that isn't installed on the site, which previously inflated the update count

Removed

• Two separate causes. The auto_update_plugin and auto_update_theme filters vetoed any disabled slug without checking where the pending update came from, and the update transient had its entry removed for disabled slugs unconditionally — deleting a row the original developer's own updater had just written, which also hid the update notice entirely

Changed

• Disabling a product stopped the original developer updating it
• The Disable tab is meant to stop GPL Downloads supplying a product while leaving the original developer's own updates working, exactly as the tab's description promises. Instead it switched updates off for that plugin or theme altogether
• Reported by a customer holding direct licences for Elementor Pro and Rank Math: adding them to the Disable tab left both unable to update from their own vendors
• Every disable rule now establishes ownership first. Entries injected by this plugin carry a gplau_source marker, with a fallback comparison of the package host against the GPL Downloads server so entries written by earlier client versions are still recognised. Updates from GPL Downloads are withheld as before; anything supplied by the original developer passes through untouched
• Scheduled runs never consulted the disable list at all, so a disabled product could still be overwritten with the GPL copy on the next run. update_item() now refuses outright

3.3.0 9 May 2026 1 fixed3 changed

Fixed

• Fix scans transient->checked to find the actual installed plugin file path for each slug before injecting the update, ensuring the correct file path is always used regardless of naming conventions

Changed

• Plugin update injection fails for plugins whose main file doesn't match folder name
• When injecting update entries into the WordPress update transient, the client was assuming the main plugin file matched the folder name (e.g. bb-plugin/bb-plugin.php)
• This caused plugins like Beaver Builder (bb-plugin/fl-builder.php) to show a duplicate update entry with no package URL, resulting in "Update package not available" when updating via the WordPress dashboard

3.2.9 16 May 2026 2 new2 changed

New

• Added Requires PHP: 8.0 to the plugin header so WordPress blocks activation cleanly with a friendly message before any code loads
• Added a runtime version gate as a belt-and-braces fallback for WP-CLI or manual activation — shows a clear admin notice rather than a white screen

Changed

• PHP 7 fatal error on activation
• Plugin was fatalling on activation on sites running PHP 7.x due to PHP 8.0-only syntax (mixed type hints, union return types)

3.2.8 10 May 2026 4 improved

Improved

• Check Now button visible when inactive
• Previously the Check Now button was hidden when the licence was inactive, making it impossible to trigger a re-check after renewing without navigating through tabs
• Button now shows whenever an API key is present, regardless of licence status
• This allows users to click Check Now immediately after renewing their subscription to restore the active state without any page navigation

3.2.7 10 May 2026 4 improved

Improved

• Prominent subscription expired banner
• Replaced the subtle inline text in the status card with a full-width amber banner at the top of the Account tab
• Banner shows "Subscription Inactive" with a direct link to renew on gpldownloads.com (non-white-label) or a message to contact administrator (white-label)
• Much harder to miss than the previous description text

3.2.6 10 May 2026 1 fixed3 changed

Fixed

• Fixed by clearing licence_status on 402/403 responses, so the Account tab now correctly shows the subscription expired message with a link to renew

Changed

• Subscription expired notice not showing
• When a subscription ends on GPL Downloads, the server returns a 403 with "Subscription is no longer active"
• Previously this fell through to a generic error handler that did not clear licence_status, so the Account tab continued showing "Active" even after the subscription lapsed

3.2.5 10 May 2026 8 improved

Improved

• Subscription expired notice
• When a site has an API key but the licence is no longer active (subscription lapsed or cancelled), the Account tab now shows a clear message explaining why updates have stopped
• Non-white-labelled installs: direct link to gpldownloads.com account page to renew
• White-labelled installs: generic message directing the user to contact their administrator
• Invalid home URL notice
• When home_url() returns an empty or invalid value (typically on cloned or manually configured sites missing the home option), a yellow warning banner is now shown on the Account tab
• Explains that automatic check-ins have been paused and directs to Settings > General to resolve
• Previously this failed silently with only an error log entry

3.2.4 1 May 2026 2 fixed2 changed

Fixed

• Character encoding fixes in admin JS
• Fixed garbled characters (âœ", …) appearing in the Auto-Updates page button states — "Updating...", "Updated to v...", "Saved" etc

Changed

• Replaced UTF-8 special characters (✓, …, —) in assets/js/admin.js with HTML entities and plain ASCII equivalents
• Affects the Update button, Update All button, Check Now button, and all confirmation messages

3.2.3 1 May 2026 3 changed

Changed

• Character encoding — test release
• Version bump to verify push update mechanism working end to end
• No functional changes from v3.2.2

3.2.2 1 May 2026 2 fixed3 changed

Fixed

• Fixed push updates silently failing with "The plugin is at the latest version" error
• Fixed by switching to Plugin_Upgrader->install() with overwrite_package: true — bypasses all transient version checking and installs directly

Changed

• Push update install mechanism
• Root cause: Plugin_Upgrader->upgrade() internally refreshes the WordPress update transient, overwriting our custom transient and concluding the plugin needs no update
• This is the same mechanism used for initial plugin installs, ensuring reliable delivery

3.2.1 1 May 2026 1 fixed3 changed

Fixed

• Fixed garbled characters appearing throughout the admin UI on some server configurations

Changed

• Character encoding sweep
• Replaced all UTF-8 special characters (✓, →, —, …, ×, smart quotes) across all PHP tab files and class files with HTML entities or plain ASCII equivalents
• Affected: Auto-Updates tab, Update Log tab, White Label tab, Settings tab, admin class

3.2.0 1 May 2026 4 fixed1 changed

Fixed

• Character encoding fixes
• Fixed âœ" Auto garbled text in the per-item auto-update dropdown on the Auto-Updates tab
• Fixed garbled arrow character in "Skip major versions (3.x → 4.x)" safety rule description
• Fixed garbled box character in "Next run" / "Last run" timestamps

Changed

• Replaced UTF-8 ✓, →, —, … with HTML entities throughout Auto-Updates tab

3.1.9 30 Apr 2026 3 changed

Changed

• Phantom domain prevention
• Replaced WP-CLI guard with home_url() validation — check-ins are now skipped when home_url() returns an empty or invalid URL rather than blocking all WP-CLI contexts
• This allows wp cron event run to work correctly on real sites while still preventing phantom domain registrations from broken CLI contexts

3.1.8 30 Apr 2026 1 new1 changed

New

• Added guard to skip check-ins when running in WP-CLI context where home_url() returns empty/invalid values, causing phantom domain entries (blank domain, domain = "0") in the server DB

Changed

• Phantom domain registrations

3.1.7 30 Apr 2026 4 fixed1 changed

Fixed

• Push update transient fix
• Fixed force_install_client() failing with "The plugin is at the latest version" by populating checked[] with the current version in the update transient alongside the new version in response[]
• Fixed garbled arrow character in "Skip major versions" safety rule description
• Fixed BEL character (x07) in Next run / Last run date format strings

Changed

• Character encoding

3.1.6 30 Apr 2026 1 fixed

Fixed

• Fixed API key display showing garbled bullet characters on some server configurations

3.1.6 30 Apr 2026 1 fixed

Fixed

• Fixed API key display showing garbled bullet characters on some server configurations — replaced UTF-8 bullet with plain ASCII asterisk in masked key display.

3.0.6 28 Apr 2026 3 improved1 removed

Improved

• Check Now button moved to tab bar
• Moved the Check for Updates Now button into the tab navigation bar, right-aligned, visible on every tab when licence is active
• Shows ✓ Done / ✗ Failed inline then reloads the page

Removed

• Removed from Account tab footer (no longer needed there)

3.0.5 28 Apr 2026 4 improved

Improved

• Check for Updates Now — also on Account tab
• The Check for Updates Now button is now shown on the Account tab as well as the Auto-Updates tab
• Only visible when the licence is active
• Reloads the page after a successful check so version badges and update counts refresh immediately

3.0.4 28 Apr 2026 4 new

New

• Check for Updates Now button
• Added a Check for Updates Now button to the Auto-Updates tab
• Immediately contacts the GPL Downloads server, busts the update cache, and processes any queued push updates without waiting for the next scheduled cron run
• Shows a confirmation message on completion and reloads the page if a client self-update was installed

3.0.3 28 Apr 2026 1 fixed2 changed

Fixed

• Fixed by using add_submenu_page with a non-existent parent — pages remain routable for the redirect but are completely invisible in the menu

Changed

• Hidden legacy menu pages
• V3.0.2 registered dummy pages for legacy v2 slugs using add_menu_page which caused blank gear icon entries to appear in the WordPress admin sidebar

3.0.2 28 Apr 2026 1 fixed3 changed

Fixed

• Post-update redirect (improved fix)

Changed

• V3.0.1 attempted to catch the legacy gpluc-settings redirect via admin_init but WordPress rejects unregistered page slugs before admin_init fires
• V3.0.2 registers dummy menu pages for all legacy v2 slugs (gpluc-settings, gpluc-auto-settings, gpluc-notify-settings, gpluc-health, gpluc-update-log) with a callback that immediately redirects to plugins.php
• Users upgrading from v2 will now land cleanly on the Plugins page instead of seeing an access denied error

3.0.1 28 Apr 2026 1 fixed4 changed

Fixed

• Fixed "Sorry, you are not allowed to access this page" error that appeared after the client plugin updated itself via Push Update or manual update

Changed

• Post-update redirect
• WordPress was redirecting to the old gpluc-settings page slug after update, which no longer exists in v3
• The client now intercepts the post-update redirect and sends the user to plugins.php instead — a safe, always-accessible page
• No other changes from v3.0.0

3.0.0 25 Apr 2026 56 new4 improved1 changed

New

• Account tab
• API key and username/password authentication
• Live subscription status display
• Beta updates toggle
• Disable Updates tab
• Per-plugin and per-theme toggle to disable GPL Downloads updates
• Select all / Deselect all controls
• White Label tab
• Custom plugin name, description, author, author URL
• Custom logo (URL-based)
• Custom colour scheme (primary, menu, header) with live colour pickers
• Hide settings page from admin menu (with lockout protection on activation)
• Hide plugin from plugins list
• Disable all admin notices
• Full reset to defaults
• Auto-Updates tab
• Master enable/disable toggle
• Schedule frequency: daily, weekly, or custom days
• Time picker with WordPress timezone support
• Safety rules: minor-only updates, skip beta versions, require backup first
• Email notifications on success and/or failure
• Per-item auto/manual mode per plugin and theme
• Plugins and themes shown in separate sections
• Next run / last run timestamps
• Settings tab
• Visibility toggles for each tab (hide from end users)
• Rollback settings: enable/disable, backup retention days, max backups per item
• Allow manual rollbacks toggle (hide rollback button from end users)
• Export settings as JSON
• Import settings from JSON (drag and drop)
• Reset all settings (preserves API key, re-verifies automatically)
• Disconnect and deactivate
• Update Log page
• Full history of all updates (auto and manual)
• Status badges: Success, Failed, Skipped
• Source column: Auto / Manual
• Rollback button per entry (when rollback enabled and backup available)
• Clear log button
• Pagination (20 entries per page)
• Rollback system
• Automatic ZIP backup of plugin/theme before each update
• Backups stored in wp-content/gplau-backups/{slug}/
• Backup filenames include version and timestamp
• Automatic pruning to max backups per item
• One-click rollback from Update Log page
• Theme rollback support
• Internationalisation
• 86 translatable strings
• Textdomain: gpluc
• Languages included: de_DE, es_ES, fr_FR, it_IT, nl_NL, pt_BR, ru_RU, zh_CN
• Option prefix: gplau3_ (no conflict with v2)
• Scheduler: wp_schedule_single_event with DateTime/wp_timezone() — rescheduled after each run
• Served slugs stored as union (never shrinks) — populated from server /check response served array
• Server plugin updated to return served array listing all matched slugs regardless of update availability
• Vanilla JS for toggle handlers (jQuery conflicts with Elementor avoided)
• LiteSpeed / Object Cache Pro compatible via version-busted asset URLs

Improved

• Update Now button per item with live status feedback
• Update All Now sequential queue
• Update log summary with entry count and View full log link
• Updates installed via Plugin_Upgrader->install() with overwrite_package: true — bypasses WP update transient

Changed

• Complete rewrite of the GPL Downloads Auto Updater client plugin. v3 introduces a modern admin UI, full white label support, per-item control, rollback backups, and a detailed update log.

3.3.3 7 Jun 2026 7 new3 improved

New

• Server-controlled Hide Settings Page
• The "Hide this settings page" toggle has been moved from the local White Label settings to the GPL Downloads account domain dashboard
• This prevents the client from accidentally locking themselves out — only the developer controlling the GPL Downloads account can hide or show the settings page
• When hidden, the client polls the server on every admin page load (max once per 2 minutes); when the server signals "show", the page reappears immediately with an automatic redirect — no cron delay
• Remote Trigger Endpoint
• New gplau3_remote_trigger AJAX action (available with and without login) allows the GPL Downloads server to signal an immediate check-in
• Validated via HMAC-SHA256 token derived from the stored API key — only gpldownloads.com can trigger it

Improved

• White Label tab — Hide Settings Page toggle removed
• The local toggle has been replaced with an info bar explaining the setting is controlled from the GPL Downloads account dashboard
• The "Hide from plugins list" toggle remains as a local option

3.3.2 7 Jun 2026 4 new

New

• Hide Settings Page — server-controlled via domain dashboard
• Added hide_settings and force_show_settings flags to the server-side domain record
• Client reads hide_settings from /check response and stores it locally
• Force_show_settings flag ensures unhide is picked up immediately on next check-in

Undated 1 version

2.1.3 1 changed

Changed

• See v2 readme for changelog.