Title: plugin preventing update checks?
Last modified: June 17, 2025

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# plugin preventing update checks?

 *  Resolved [nosilver4u](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nosilver4u/)
 * (@nosilver4u)
 * [10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-preventing-update-checks/)
 * I’ve recently discovered that Apocalypse Meow is somehow involved in an issue
   where plugin updates do not show up in the wp-admin for most of my sites hosted
   at WP Engine (all but one of them). If I disable A.M. and force a check for updates(
   and sometimes clear the cache), then updates will show up. Re-enable A.M. and
   the updates disappear.
 * Is there anything in Apocalypse Meow that could interfere with plugin update 
   checks or that hooks into that process at all? I kind of wonder if it’s connected
   to the stable tag (trunk) thing we discussed previously, but their support asked
   me to check with you on the issue.
 * Thanks!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Blobfolio](https://wordpress.org/support/users/blobfolio/)
 * (@blobfolio)
 * [10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-preventing-update-checks/#post-18516877)
 * Hi [@nosilver4u](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nosilver4u/) ,
 * The “Anonymize User Agent” setting can cause issues with custom update systems
   that rely on the data WP normally leaks when making requests.
 * Does disabling that make any difference? (WPE makes it hard to ever see realtime
   updates, but if you clear all their caches and hit reload a dozen times it should
   get there eventually.)
 * That hasn’t historically affected updates _host-wide_, so I’m concerned there
   might be a conflict with FAIR or similar. If that’s the case, I’ll push an update
   to remove the feature entirely.
 *  Thread Starter [nosilver4u](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nosilver4u/)
 * (@nosilver4u)
 * [10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-preventing-update-checks/#post-18516891)
 * Aha, that’s the ticket! Interestingly, I have that option enabled pretty much
   everywhere except for one site. That was really throwing me for a loop as to 
   how all my WPE sites were affected except for one!
 * I rather like that feature, given recent events, so I hate to lose it. If you
   like, I can check with WPE to see if they can work around it?
    -  This reply was modified 10 months ago by [nosilver4u](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nosilver4u/).
 *  Thread Starter [nosilver4u](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nosilver4u/)
 * (@nosilver4u)
 * [10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-preventing-update-checks/#post-18516950)
 * I chatted with WPE about the feature and what it does (in the core_anonymize_user_agent
   method). They’re looking into it, so I’ll let you know what happens.
 *  Plugin Author [Blobfolio](https://wordpress.org/support/users/blobfolio/)
 * (@blobfolio)
 * [10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-preventing-update-checks/#post-18516974)
 * Thanks [@nosilver4u](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nosilver4u/) !
 * I don’t have any WPE-hosted sites to test, but from what I can tell, that feature
   isn’t causing host-wide issues anywhere else, and thankfully it doesn’t look 
   like there are any conflicts with the FAIR plugin either. Every site I’ve looked
   at is displaying/fetching updates as usual, so that’s good.
 * If the WPE devs need more details, all Meow is doing is using the [http_request_args](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/http_request_args/)
   hook — at priority 500 — to make three changes to the “parsed args”:
 *     ```wp-block-code
       if (isset($parsed_args['user-agent'])) {    $parsed_args['user-agent'] = 'WordPress/0';}if (isset($parsed_args['headers']['wp_install'])) {    unset($parsed_args['headers']['wp_install']);}if (isset($parsed_args['headers']['wp_blog'])) {    unset($parsed_args['headers']['wp_blog']);}
       ```
   
 *  Thread Starter [nosilver4u](https://wordpress.org/support/users/nosilver4u/)
 * (@nosilver4u)
 * [6 months, 1 week ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-preventing-update-checks/#post-18665748)
 * Well, I don’t know if WPE will actually get this “fixed”, but they did add the
   ability to change which mirror(s) we are using. We can either use wp.org with
   the anonymize option enabled, or use the WPE mirror with no anonymize. Not thrilled
   with that, but it’s better than nothing.
 *  Plugin Author [Blobfolio](https://wordpress.org/support/users/blobfolio/)
 * (@blobfolio)
 * [6 months, 1 week ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-preventing-update-checks/#post-18666064)
 * Haha. Probably not at this point…
 * I think what I’ll do is leave the feature but change the default status to off
   for new installations, and add a note about hosting providers potentially being
   weird about it.
 * Thanks again for digging into the issue!

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The topic ‘plugin preventing update checks?’ is closed to new replies.

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 * 6 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [Blobfolio](https://wordpress.org/support/users/blobfolio/)
 * Last activity: [6 months, 1 week ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-preventing-update-checks/#post-18666064)
 * Status: resolved