Introduction

Update Doctor makes plugin and theme updates checkable and restorable, and explains what went wrong. It runs on your own site. There is no hosted service, and your site’s page bodies are never sent anywhere.

For each update it reads the risk, copies the plugin or theme folder (and the options and tables it owns), records how your key pages look, installs the update with WordPress’s own upgrader, checks the same pages again, restores the exact files if the checks fail, works out the likely cause, and proposes next steps that wait for your approval. Every step is written to a tamper-evident audit log.

It is best at four things:

• Checking more than fatals. Several key pages, including logged-in pages and, with WooCommerce, the cart and checkout.
• Exact, verified restores. Files are put back and checked against SHA-256 hashes.
• Explaining itself. A rules diagnosis always runs after a problem, and an optional AI explanation uses your own provider.
• Approval first. Suggested fixes wait for a person to approve them.

Next steps: read Requirements, then follow the Quick Start.