If you are new to WordPress, make sure you read our introduction to WordPress themes. It explains what themes are and how using themes can save business owners significant time and money.
This tutorial will show you how to easily update your themes with just a few clicks inside the admin area.
Upgrading A WordPress Theme – Best Practices Checklist
Before updating your themes, we recommend going through the “best practices” checklist below to make sure that your update goes smoothly.
1. Back Up Your Site
Backing up your website before making any updates to your site is essential. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore everything to its previous state.
If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of free and paid plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here:
2. Check The Theme Update Notes
Changes made to the WordPress software can affect the functionality of certain themes. Depending on the theme you have installed, there may be some release notes accompanying an update listing new features, improvements, bug fixes or important information pertaining to the new theme version.
If the theme changes seem irrelevant or unimportant, you can skip the update. Otherwise, you should upgrade.
3. Test Your Theme
If you can, it’s a good idea to check the theme before installing it on your site.
Typically, web service providers will set up a test site where they can test the latest version of an installed theme, track any bugs and verify that all plugins are working fine with the new theme before applying and activating it on a live site.
If you manage your own website, you can install a test WordPress site on a subdomain or a separate domain using the same plugins and configuration settings and test new theme versions on your test site before applying it to your live website.
4. Search Online
Before updating your theme, it’s a good idea to search online and see if other theme users have reported any issues with the new theme version.
You can type the theme name and version into Google, and search the theme developer’s support forum (many developers provide forums for premium themes, and even for some free plugins).
5. Use Child Themes For Heavily Customized WordPress Themes
If you have made extensive changes to your existing WordPress theme files, updating your theme could result in your custom modifications being overwritten. To prevent losing your theme modifications, therefore, we recommend you learn how to create “child themes”.
A WordPress child theme is a theme that inherits the functionality of another theme, called the parent theme, and allows you to modify, or add to, the functionality of the parent theme. When you update the “parent theme”, your modifications get preserved through the “child theme.”
If you plan to customize your theme files, then we recommend becoming familiar with the use of child themes, especially if you plan on using a theme that gets regularly updated. You can learn more about child themes by searching online, or visit the WordPress Codex child theme page here:
As you will see below, the actual process of updating a WordPress theme is not complicated at all … a few simple clicks and you’re done! What can feel slightly bothersome is the preparation involved prior to upgrading.
Many people don’t upgrade their themes regularly, while many upgrade without going through some or all of the steps listed in the section above. As mentioned earlier, the above are “best practice” methods to help you avoid problems. Ultimately, as a website owner, it is your responsibility to protect your online assets.
How To Update Your Theme – Step-By-Step Tutorial
Upgrading your themes in your admin dashboard is simple.
Log into your WordPress admin area …
Depending on which theme(s) you have installed on your website, you may receive occasional notifications in your WordPress Dashboard that your theme(s) need updating …
Updating a WordPress theme from your dashboard is easy. You can update your site’s theme via the “Themes” section, or the “Updates” page.
Updating Your Themes From The “Themes” Screen
To see which themes require updating, go to your Themes page.
Choose Appearance > Themes in your WordPress dashboard menu …
This brings you to the “Themes” page …
WordPress Themes that need updating display an “Update Available” message over the theme’s thumbnail image …
Locate the theme that needs to be updated and click on the “Update Available” message.
When the theme details window opens up, click on update now …
WordPress automatically updates your theme …
Your WordPress theme is now up-to-date …
Repeat the process described above to update all of your remaining themes, or use the method below to bulk update multiple themes.
Updating WordPress Themes Using The “Updates” Screen
Update your WordPress themes using the “Updates” page as follows:
To view all themes on your website that require updating, click on Dashboard > Updates …
This brings up the Updates screen. Scroll down to the Themes section …
Select all the themes you want to update and click on Update Themes to complete the update process …
WordPress automatically updates all of your selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to update your theme from your admin dashboard.
***
"I am beyond impressed with what you have put together. I can tell that you put a ton of hard work into building what you have. You have the absolute best content on WordPress I have ever seen!" - Robert T. Jillie