How to Update WP Engine Plugins Including Delicious Brains and Genesis

ByMaAnna Stephenson
How to Update WP Engine Plugins Including Delicious Brains and Genesis

See a list of plugins affected by WP Engine being cut off from WordPress.org, and how to get updates for those plugins.

Plus, see the video tutorial on how to install the WPE Secure Updater plugin below this list, if you need it.

Clarification and Updates

The free plugins that are affected by this change are still listed in the WordPress Plugins repository. But, they are connected to the WP Engine repository for delivery and updates. So, if you install anew, you don’t need the WPE Secure Updater plugin

But, if you already had any of these plugins on your site prior to the cutoff, you will need to either:

  • download from WP Engine and manually install
  • get the WPE Secure Updater plugin and let it auto detect and switch over to the WPE repository – this is the recommended method, and the one shown below

UPDATE 10/13/24: Matt Mullenweg has done a hostile takeover of the free ACF plugin. It is now called Secure Custom Fields. If you have already taken the steps below, you are likely getting your plugin updates from WP Engine, but you may want to contact them directly, if you can, for clarification. Check to see if the name of your plugin has changed as that might be an indication of where your updates are coming from. I’ll keep updating this post as I get more info.

WP Engine Plugins

These are plugins that are made by WP Engine and will require the WPE Secure Updater plugin if you already have these plugins installed on your site.

NOTE: You will have to download the zip file, then upload to your site via Add New Plugin interface. See the video tutorial below.

  • Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) – free version (see this post for a special way to update the paid version)
  • Atlas Content Modeler
  • Better Search and Replace
  • Faust.js
  • Pattern Manager
  • PHP Compatibility Checker
  • WP Engine GeoTarget
  • WP Migrate Lite

Other WP Engine Tools

  • Frost – theme
  • Local – for developing sites in a local environment

Delicious Brains

The following plugins still have Delicious Brains listed as the developer, but are owned and served by WP Engine. You will need WPE Secure Updater plugin for them.

  • WP Offload Media Lite for Amazon S3, DigitalOciean spaces, and Google Cloud Storage
  • WP Offload SES Lite

Genesis

  • Genesis Framework is delivered via StudioPress, as are the updates – no change
  • Genesis child themes – no updates – no change
  • 3rd-party Genesis plugins required by certain 3rd party themes – delivered from the 3rd party – no change

The following plugins still have StudioPress listed as the developer, but are owned and served by WP Engine. You will need WPE Secure Updater plugin for them.

  • Genesis Blocks
  • Genesis Connect for WooCommerce
  • Genesis Custom Blocks
  • Genesis Portfolio Pro

WPE Secure Updater Tutorial

Info from WP Engine

See this post from WP Engine that is being updated with the latest changes.

MaAnna is a geek who can still speak in plain English. She helps DIY site owners plus webmasters and designers create sites that are secure, perform well, and get noticed by search engines and readers.

9 Comments

    1. Matt put out an X post asking for folks to step up and create mirrored locations. Akshat did and I heard that Cloudflare offered to do one as well.

      But neither will help with this situation. They are just mirrors, not workarounds. So they will have the same info and restrictions as WP.org

  2. Thank you MaAnna

    I am always astonished and impressed by the free and comprehensive support you provide to us, your readers.

    Bill

  3. Thank you so much for the helpful information! I’m wondering if anyone’s been able to confirm that WP Secure Updater is actually working? For example I know WP Migrate Lite has an update to 2.7.0 that was released 4 days ago according to the plugin’s github. I installed WP Secure Updater on a site that has WP Migrate Lite on it (version 2.6.11) several days ago but I’m still not seeing that an update is available.

    1. I was finally able to speak to support at WP Engine. The WPE Secure Updater plugin will auto detect the affected plugins you have, and will connect them to WP Engine’s repository to notify you when an update is available and pull it from there.

      As for GitHub, if there is a new release there, it is a beta, and not yet available to the public. When they do a final release, it should show in your plugins page and/or updates page that an update is available.

  4. Today, Sunday, I found the latest news in this ongoing “war” between WordPress and WP Engine:
    now WordPress has taken possession of “Advanced Custom Fields” and released it under a new name!

    This very public fight won’t help either side to retain or gain customers. In the long run it’ll hurt both sides (but that’s only my humble opinion).

    But thanks for the list as I wasn’t aware that “Better Search and Replace” is also affected by this mess. I had used it in the past quite often.

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