Install/upgrade latest supported version of plugin, when latest version of plugin is not supported

[Dreamsorcerer]

Expected behaviour

When a user finds a plugin to install and the latest version requires a newer version of WordPress, an older version of that plugin which does support the installed version of WordPress is installed.

When a user goes to the plugins page to update their plugins, the user is prompted to install newer versions of a plugin which still support the installed version of WordPress.

Actual behaviour

User is presented with an error telling them that the plugin doesn't support their version of WordPress and can't be installed.

User is not shown any updates available for plugins where the latest version doesn't support the installed version, even if dozens of newer versions are available which do support it.

Problem

This becomes a particular problem when using something like the Debian packaged version of WordPress (where the version will only be updated every 2 years) when combined with plugins (e.g. Yoast) that, for some reason, keep increasing the minimum version every few months to the latest release.

In the above situation, the user upgrades to a newer version of WordPress, but the plugin has already made a new release that requires an even newer version of WordPress. Thus the user doesn't get any notification or easy way to upgrade a plugin which is now several years old and doesn't work with the installed version of WordPress.

[jorbin]

This becomes a particular problem when using something like the Debian packaged version of WordPress (where the version will only be updated every 2 years) when combined with plugins (e.g. Yoast) that, for some reason, keep increasing the minimum version every few months to the latest release.

A reminder that WordPress only supports the most recent version. I would strongly caution against not updating. Since WordPress does not support older versions, I don't think a feature that aims to help people use these unsupported versions would be helpful.

[Dreamsorcerer]

A reminder that WordPress only supports the most recent version

Again, this is the Debian-managed version of WordPress. Important security updates are backported, thus providing a long-term stable platform (something upstream WP does not provide).

The problem is still a serious issue for those it affects. Why ignore all the available updates to a plugin and pretend there are no updates available? This just results in a broken user experience. With Yoast in particular, the user will never (even after many years) see an update is available...

[mikachan]

I've just noticed a similar issue, although maybe it warrants its own ticket:

On a site that is using an out-of-date version of WordPress (e.g. 6.4), when looking at the plugins dashboard, it looks like plugins (e.g. Woo) are up to date as there is no notice.

However, if you try to reinstall a plugin that has updates, you see this notice:

I'm wondering if it would be better to show this notice on the plugins dashboard instead, so it's clear that there are plugin updates available, but WordPress would need to be updated to install them.