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The abandoned tolerance setting controls how long a plugin or theme must go without updates before MainWP flags it as “Possibly Abandoned.” The default is 365 days, but you can adjust this based on your needs.

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What You’ll Learn

  • Adjust the abandoned tolerance threshold
  • Understand when to increase or decrease the value
  • Choose whether to use the local-file-date fallback
  • Turn off abandoned data collection during synchronization

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Prerequisites

  • MainWP Dashboard installed and activated
  • Access to Dashboard settings

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Configure Abandoned Tolerance

1

Navigate to Settings

Go to top-right user menu > MainWP Settings > General Settings (/wp-admin/admin.php?page=Settings).
2

Find Update Settings

Open General Settings and locate the Updates Settings section.
3

Set tolerance

Find Abandoned plugins/themes tolerance and enter your preferred number of days.
4

Save

Click Save Settings.Sync the affected sites before running another abandoned check so MainWP Child receives the new tolerance.

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When to Adjust

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Use a shorter tolerance (180-270 days) if:

  • You prioritize security and want early warning
  • You manage high-profile or sensitive sites
  • You prefer proactive plugin/theme replacement

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Use a longer tolerance (500+ days) if:

  • You use stable plugins that update infrequently
  • You receive too many false positives
  • Your plugins are intentionally feature-complete without frequent updates

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Turn Off Abandoned Data Collection During Sync

Setting the tolerance to 0 does not disable this feature; the General Settings save handler uses 365 when the submitted value is empty or zero. To stop collecting abandoned data during regular synchronization, open top-right user menu > MainWP Settings > Advanced Settings > Select data to sync (/wp-admin/admin.php?page=SettingsAdvanced), clear Abandoned plugins information and Abandoned themes information, and save settings. This may suit a workflow where:
  • You manually track plugin/theme status
  • The alerts are not useful for your workflow

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Enable the Local File Date Fallback

Dashboard 6.3 adds Abandoned check by local file date beside the tolerance in General Settings > Updates Settings. Enable it to apply the same tolerance to a plugin’s main file or a theme’s style.css when WordPress.org has no usable last-updated date. Save settings and sync the affected sites; MainWP Child 6.3 or later is required. The fallback is disabled by default. Read the detection limits before relying on a local file date.

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Self-Check Checklist

  • Tolerance is set to your preferred value
  • Settings are saved
  • Abandoned items appear in Updates page