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Wordpress Multisite HUB activation all over subdomains

Hey Guys,
first, you have an amazing hub, wow.
I use a wordpress multisite and I will use the hub an all the plugins for all subdomains. I have activated all of network but I'm unsure what I must do to have all plugins really running at all subdomains, e.g. the defender plugin I can see it at the main domain but not at the subdomains.
So, what must I do to have it all. Must I set up all subdomains and my backend at wimp dashboard online?
May you will help me :slight_smile:
happy eastern time to all and kind regards, Sascha

  • Atkotech

    Hi Sascha,
    Welcome to the forum. If you Network Activate a plugin it will appear on all sites providing the plugin is designed for Network use. If not then to use a plugin on all sites you will need to activate it manually for each site by accessing each sites plugin page. You can also do this via the Hub in your account for this site. The defender plugin is designed for Network use so to locate it's settings you need to switch to Network Admin backend and you should find it there. It won't be available on a site by site basis.

    For plugins designed solely for multisite you will only find them in Network admin. If you are having trouble with any multisite actions you might want to check out the blog section on this site and search multisite and you will find a ton of multisite how to's and best practices which you can read for hours :slight_smile:

    Hope this helps,
    Mark

  • Adam Czajczyk

    Hello Sascha

    I hope you're well today and thanks for the question!

    In case of Multisite you only "register" the main site (which actually means entire multisite) with The Hub. This is actually related to the way the Multisite Wordpress works: it's still one install, with the same single "copy" of WordPress core files and themes and plugins. It's just the "special kind" of configuration :slight_smile:

    The WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin - which is used to "maintain connection" to The Hub - will only be network-enabled, visible in Network Admin on your site and available for super-admin accounts there.

    As for installing/enabling/updating plugins.

    Like Mark explained above (thanks Atkotech ), each plugin on multisite is installed only once. There's just one central copy of its files. Then, the activation depends on the specific plugin.

    There are plugins (like Defender) that can only be network-enabled, there are some that might be enabled both for entire network or per-site.

    Furthermore, in both cases the plugin can work differently. For example, some plugins that can only be network-enabled will still work like "separate" plugins on each site (with separate settings etc) but others will work for entire network (with centrally managed, common settings and features). I"m afraid there's much more "complexity" into this and a thing that's sort of "tricky" is that WordPress itself doesn't provide any tools/mechanisms for you to easily recognize how given plugin works depending on how it is activated :slight_smile: So, that mostly is a matter of digging into plugins' descriptions to get to know better how they work or asking support/developers if there's no information in the docs or, in the end, just experimenting :slight_smile:

    Best regards,
    Adam