MainWP Dashboard Settings

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General Settings Section

• Daily sync time (H:mm): Sets the start time of the first automatic synchronization run each day.
• Frequency of auto sync (Default: Twice per day): Controls how many automatic sync runs happen per day (1 to 12).
• Timezone: Defines the timezone context used for scheduled tasks and date/time displays in MainWP Dashboard.
• Date format: Controls how dates are displayed across the dashboard interface.
• Time format: Controls how times are displayed across the dashboard interface.
• Sidebar position (Default: Right): Moves the sidebar or tag menu layout to the right or left side.
• Hide the Update Everything button: Hides the Update Everything action from the Updates Overview widget.
• Show widgets: Lets you choose which Operations page widgets are visible.

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Updates Settings Section

• Plugin advanced automatic updates (Default: Disabled): Enables automatic updates for trusted plugins.
• Theme advanced automatic updates (Default: Disabled): Enables automatic updates for trusted themes.
• Translation advanced automatic updates (Default: Disabled): Enables automatic updates for translation packages.
• WP Core advanced automatic updates (Default: Disabled): Enables automatic updates for trusted WordPress core updates.
• Frequency of automatic updates (Default: Daily): Sets whether automatic update runs execute daily, weekly, or monthly.
• Select day (shown for Weekly or Monthly): Chooses the weekday or month day used by the automatic update schedule.
• Select time (Default: 00:00): Sets the time of day when automatic update runs begin.
• Advanced automatic updates delay (Default: 1 day): Delays new updates for the selected number of days before auto-installing.
• Show WordPress language updates (Default: Enabled): Shows translation updates in update management views.
• Update confirmations (Enable, Disable, Disable for single updates): Controls confirmation prompts before update actions.
• Require a backup before an update (Default: Disabled; legacy backup flow only): Blocks updates when a full backup is older than the allowed tolerance.
• Days without of a full backup tolerance (Default: 7): Defines how old the last full backup can be when backup-before-update is enabled.
• Abandoned plugins/themes tolerance (Default: 365 days): Marks plugin and theme items as possibly abandoned if they have not been updated within the threshold.

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Backup Settings Section (on the same page)

• Select primary backup system: Chooses the main backup method (native or an integrated backup method) used by MainWP Dashboard.
• Enable legacy backup feature (Default: Disabled): Enables the legacy native backup settings and related controls.
• Backups on server: Sets how many backup archives are retained locally on child sites.
• Backups on remote storage: Sets how many backup archives are retained on external storage destinations.
• Archive format: Selects backup archive type (zip, tar, tar.gz, or tar.bz2).
• Auto detect maximum file descriptors on child sites: Lets MainWP auto-detect safe descriptor limits for ZIP backup processing.
• Maximum file descriptors fallback value: Provides a manual descriptor value when automatic detection is unavailable.
• Load files in memory before zipping: Uses a memory-first ZIP process for environments that need it.
• Send email when backup fails: Sends a notification when a legacy backup job fails.
• Send email when backup starts: Sends a notification when a legacy backup job starts.
• Execute backup tasks in chunks: Runs legacy backup jobs in smaller chunks to reduce server load spikes.

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Rate Limiting and Concurrency Controls

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Batch Processing Settings

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Frontend Request Settings

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Miscellaneous Settings

• Optimize data loading (Default: Enabled): Caches update-related dashboard data for faster page loading.
• Browser cache expiration time (Default: 10 minutes): Sets how long browser-cached MainWP pages remain valid before refresh.
• Use WP Cron (Default: Enabled): Keeps WordPress scheduled events active for automation tasks; disabling it stops WP-Cron scheduling.
• Verify SSL certificate (Default: Enabled): Verifies child site SSL certificates during connection attempts.
• Verify connection method (Default: OpenSSL): Chooses between OpenSSL and PHPSecLib for connection verification.
• OpenSSL signature algorithm (Default: OPENSSL_ALGO_SHA256): Selects the signing algorithm used with OpenSSL verification.
• Force IPv4 (Default: Disabled): Forces IPv4 for child site connections on hosts where IPv6 causes issues.
• Select data to sync: Chooses which data sets are included in synchronization from MainWP Child sites.
• OpenSSL.cnf location (conditional field): Lets you manually set OpenSSL config path when auto-detection is incorrect.

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Uptime Monitoring

• Enable Uptime Monitoring (Default: Disabled): Enables or disables global uptime checks for child sites.
• Monitor Type (HTTP(s), Ping, Keyword Monitoring): Selects the uptime check method used for global monitors.
• Method (HTTP-based monitoring): Chooses request method used when monitor type relies on HTTP checks.
• Monitor Interval (Default: 60 minutes): Sets how often uptime checks run.
• Timeout (Default: 60 seconds): Sets maximum response time before a check is treated as failed.
• Down Confirmation Check (Default: Enabled): Requires additional confirmation before flagging a site as down.
• Up HTTP Codes for HTTP Response and Uptime Monitoring: Defines which status codes are treated as healthy.
• Monitoring Data Retention (Default: 180 days): Controls automatic cleanup window for stored monitoring history.

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HTTP Response Check

• Check site HTTP response after update (Default: Disabled): Runs a post-update HTTP check to verify the site still responds.
• Check site HTTP response method (Default: Head): Selects whether that post-update check uses Head or Get.
• Uses the same Up HTTP Codes selection as uptime monitoring for pass/fail evaluation.

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Site Health Monitoring

• Enable Site Health monitoring (Default: Disabled): Enables or disables WordPress Site Health score checks.
• Site health threshold (Default: Should be improved): Sets the threshold (Should be improved or Good) used to evaluate site health status.

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Manage Email Notifications

• Enable/Disable each notification: Controls whether a specific notification type sends email.
• Recipients: Defines destination addresses for each notification (multiple recipients supported).
• Subject and heading: Lets you customize the email subject line and heading content per notification.
• HTML template management: Lets you copy template files to uploads for customization or revert to default templates.

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Currency and Format

• Currency (Default: USD): Sets the base currency used for tracked costs.
• Currency symbol position (Default: Left): Controls symbol placement before or after the amount.
• Thousand separator (Default: ,): Sets the character used for thousands grouping.
• Decimal separator (Default: .): Sets the character used to separate decimal values.
• Decimal places (Default: 2): Defines numeric precision used when displaying cost amounts.

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Cost Taxonomy Management

• Default product categories: Lets you customize icon and color styling for built-in categories.
• Custom product categories: Lets you add your own categories for classifying tracked products/services.
• Custom payment methods: Lets you create reusable payment method labels for cost records.

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Logging Controls

• Enable Network Activity logging (Default: Enabled): Turns Network Activity and Dashboard Insights data collection on or off.
• Automatically archive logs: Moves older log entries out of active logs into archived storage automatically.
• Data retention period (Default: 3 years when archiving is used): Defines how long active logs are kept before auto-archiving.
• Select events to log: Lets you choose which dashboard and non-MainWP child-site events should produce log entries.

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Provider Tabs

• Cloudways, GridPane, Vultr, Akamai (Linode), DigitalOcean, cPanel (WP Toolkit), Plesk (WP Toolkit), Kinsta: Each tab enables API integration for that host/provider.
• Enable Provider API toggles: Activates or deactivates each provider integration without removing saved credentials.
• Provider credentials: Stores provider-specific authentication values such as API keys, account email/ID, URL, username/password, and site path fields where required.
• Enable WP Toolkit API: Controls WP Toolkit integrations used for cPanel/Plesk backup automation flows.
• Overwrite Global Settings options (provider-specific): Allows per-site provider overrides instead of shared global credentials where supported.

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Backup API Provider Settings

• Provider selection: Defines which provider a child site backup mapping uses.
• Instance/environment selection: Stores provider instance identifiers required to target the correct site/server context.

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Available Tools

• Select MainWP Dashboard theme: Chooses the dashboard UI theme. Light and Dark are always available. With default Light/Dark and no custom theme files, the header uses direct sun/moon quick switching; otherwise the header opens the theme selection modal. Legacy options appear when currently selected, and custom .css files uploaded to the MainWP themes uploads directory are listed.
• Re-establish connections: Forces MainWP Dashboard to reconnect with child sites and rebuild active sessions.
• Reset OpenSSL key pair: Generates a new OpenSSL key pair for child site communication.
• Start Quick Setup Wizard: Launches the MainWP onboarding wizard again.
• Export child sites: Downloads connected child site data as a CSV file.
• Import child sites: Opens the child-site import workflow.
• Disconnect all child sites: Breaks all child connections while leaving MainWP Child active on those sites.
• Delete Add-ons API activation data: Removes Add-ons activation metadata without deleting add-on settings.
• Delete archived Network Activity data: Permanently removes archived activity logs.
• Restore all info messages: Re-enables dismissed informational notices across MainWP Dashboard.
• Privacy and third-party service permissions: Controls optional integrations for Usetiful guided tours, Chatbase support chat, and YouTube tutorial embeds.