Title: Plugin_Upgrader::delete_old_plugin
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: February 24, 2026

---

# Plugin_Upgrader::delete_old_plugin( bool|WP_Error $removed, string $local_destination, string $remote_destination, array $plugin ): bool|󠀁[WP_Error](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_error/)󠁿

## In this article

 * [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/delete_old_plugin/?output_format=md#description)
 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/delete_old_plugin/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/delete_old_plugin/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/delete_old_plugin/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/delete_old_plugin/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/delete_old_plugin/?output_format=md#changelog)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/delete_old_plugin/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Deletes the old plugin during an upgrade.

## 󠀁[Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/delete_old_plugin/?output_format=md#description)󠁿

Hooked to the [‘upgrader_clear_destination’](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/upgrader_clear_destination/)
filter by [Plugin_Upgrader::upgrade()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/upgrade/)
and [Plugin_Upgrader::bulk_upgrade()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/bulk_upgrade/).

## 󠀁[Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/delete_old_plugin/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$removed`bool|[WP_Error](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_error/)
required

Whether the destination was cleared.
 True on success, [WP_Error](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_error/)
on failure.

`$local_destination`stringrequired

The local package destination.

`$remote_destination`stringrequired

The remote package destination.

`$plugin`arrayrequired

Extra arguments passed to hooked filters.

## 󠀁[Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/delete_old_plugin/?output_format=md#return)󠁿

 bool|[WP_Error](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_error/)

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/delete_old_plugin/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    public function delete_old_plugin( $removed, $local_destination, $remote_destination, $plugin ) {
    	global $wp_filesystem;

    	if ( is_wp_error( $removed ) ) {
    		return $removed; // Pass errors through.
    	}

    	$plugin = isset( $plugin['plugin'] ) ? $plugin['plugin'] : '';
    	if ( empty( $plugin ) ) {
    		return new WP_Error( 'bad_request', $this->strings['bad_request'] );
    	}

    	$plugins_dir     = $wp_filesystem->wp_plugins_dir();
    	$this_plugin_dir = trailingslashit( dirname( $plugins_dir . $plugin ) );

    	if ( ! $wp_filesystem->exists( $this_plugin_dir ) ) { // If it's already vanished.
    		return $removed;
    	}

    	/*
    	 * If plugin is in its own directory, recursively delete the directory.
    	 * Base check on if plugin includes directory separator AND that it's not the root plugin folder.
    	 */
    	if ( strpos( $plugin, '/' ) && $this_plugin_dir !== $plugins_dir ) {
    		$deleted = $wp_filesystem->delete( $this_plugin_dir, true );
    	} else {
    		$deleted = $wp_filesystem->delete( $plugins_dir . $plugin );
    	}

    	if ( ! $deleted ) {
    		return new WP_Error( 'remove_old_failed', $this->strings['remove_old_failed'] );
    	}

    	return true;
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-admin/includes/class-plugin-upgrader.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/6.9.4/src/wp-admin/includes/class-plugin-upgrader.php#L675)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/6.9.4/src/wp-admin/includes/class-plugin-upgrader.php#L675-L709)

## 󠀁[Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/delete_old_plugin/?output_format=md#related)󠁿

| Uses | Description | 
| [trailingslashit()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/trailingslashit/)`wp-includes/formatting.php` |

Appends a trailing slash.

  | 
| [is_wp_error()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/is_wp_error/)`wp-includes/load.php` |

Checks whether the given variable is a WordPress Error.

  | 
| [WP_Error::__construct()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_error/__construct/)`wp-includes/class-wp-error.php` |

Initializes the error.

  |

[Show 1 more](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/delete_old_plugin/?output_format=md#)
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## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/plugin_upgrader/delete_old_plugin/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [2.8.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/2.8.0/) | Introduced. |

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