OptimWise - Web Design & Development Simpsonville/Greenville SC

Note: The No Longer in Directory plugin was, ironically, removed from the WordPress plugin directory in 2018. There's no direct replacement. The Vendi Abandoned Plugin Check plugin will show on your Plugins screen the number of days since a plugin was last updated, which is useful for detecting abandoned plugins. For plugins that aren't in the plugin directory, such as premium plugins, or plugins that are no longer in the directory, it doesn't show when the plugin was last updated. This will let you figure out which plugins have been removed from the directory.

Another option is the Wordfence plugin, which will report abandoned and removed plugins in the WordPress admin and in Wordfence's emails. Wordfence is a resource-heavy plugin, so I don't recommend using it only for this purpose.

If you know of another alternative to the No Longer in Directory plugin, please leave a comment.

The No Longer in Directory plugin is an excellent tool for maintaining the plugins in your WordPress site. It performs two checks:

1. Has the plugin been removed from the WordPress.org plugin directory?
2. If the plugin is in the directory, is it outdated (not been updated in over two years)?

The plugin will check the plugins on your site and list those that match either of those criteria. It only scans plugins that are listed in the WordPress.org plugin directory, so it won't scan premium (purchased) plugins. You should manually check to make sure those are still maintained by visiting the plugin author's site.

How to use No Longer in Directory

1. Install and activate it.
2. In the WordPress admin menu, under Plugins, click No Longer in Directory.

What if it detects plugins?

• If you don't need the functionality that the plugin provides, delete it.
• If you need the functionality that the plugin provides, replace it with an actively maintained alternative. Hopefully you can find one in the directory. If not, you'll need to consider having a developer create and maintain one.

Why is plugin maintenance important?

Plugins that aren’t actively maintained can cause security vulnerabilities and compatibility issues, which could break your site. We've had sites come to us that had been hacked or broken because of outdated plugins.

When to use it

No Longer in Directory only runs when you manually run it; it doesn’t automatically run in the background. So, as a site owner, you should manually run it every few months (unless you're covered by our WordPress Maintenance Service).

When we create a new site and install all the necessary plugins, we run No Longer in Directory to make sure that none of the plugins have been removed from the directory or become outdated since the last time we used those plugins.

When we evaluate a site that wants to sign up for our WordPress Maintenance Service, we run No Longer in Directory to understand what plugin issues we'll need to work through.

Conclusion

Do you use No Longer in Directory? If so, what's your opinion? If not, what do you use instead?

Do you need help evaluating or replacing your plugins? Contact OptimWise!