Running a Scan
Start a scan#
- Go to Tools → Editor Readiness (the Plugins and themes tab).
- Click Run scan.
The button is disabled while a scan is running. Only administrators can start, advance or cancel a scan.
What you see while it runs#
- First the progress text reads scanning the editor for “post” (and so on for each post type). This is the runtime check.
- Then the progress bar moves through each plugin and theme, showing the percentage done and the number of files read so far.
- When it finishes, the page reloads with the new results.
Keep the page open, or not#
The scan runs in short chunks of about 4 seconds, driven by the open page over AJAX. This is the fastest way to run it.
If you close the tab or navigate away, the scan does not stop. A background chunk has already been queued (through Action Scheduler if it is installed, otherwise WP-Cron), and the scan continues from where it left off until it completes. Reload Tools → Editor Readiness later to see the result. If you open the page while a scan is running, the page picks it up and shows live progress again.
The runtime check (editor simulation) can only run inside an admin request, so it only happens while the page is open. If you start a scan and leave immediately, the background runner waits up to 60 seconds for the page to come back, then continues using editor data recorded earlier (see How the Scan Works).
Cancel a scan#
Click Cancel. The scan stops at the end of its current chunk and is recorded in History and exports as Cancelled, keeping whatever it had found so far. A cancelled scan is not used as the latest result on the summary page.
Scan that stopped on its own#
If a scan makes no progress for 15 minutes (for example because the server killed the request), the next Run scan click marks it as Stopped and starts a fresh scan. A file that stops the scan twice in a row is skipped on the next attempt and listed under files could not be scanned on the summary page.
After the scan#
The summary line under the scan box tells you when the scan ran, on which WordPress version, how many files were read across how many plugins and themes, and how many files were skipped for being too large. If any files could not be scanned, a collapsible list shows why.