If you are new to WordPress, make sure to read our introduction to WordPress themes. The detailed article explains what themes are and how they can save web business owners significant time and money.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to upgrade a WordPress theme in your dashboard.
Updating Themes – Best Practices
Before updating your WordPress themes, we recommend going through the “best practices” checklist below.
1. Back Up Your Website
Backing up your files and data before making any updates to your site is essential. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore.
If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can 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 included with an update which provides an overview of new features, improvements, bug fixes or any other changes in the new theme version.
If the changes seem irrelevant or unimportant, you can skip the update. Otherwise, it’s best to 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 check to see if the new theme version doesn’t conflict with any existing plugins or settings before installing 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 with the same configuration settings (e.g. plugins) and test new theme versions on your test site before applying it to your live site.
4. Search Online
Before updating your theme, it’s a good idea to do a quick search online to see if other theme users have reported any serious problems 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 offer this for premium WordPress themes, and even for some free plugins).
5. Use Child Themes For Heavily Customized Themes
If you have made extensive customizations to your existing theme files, upgrading your theme may 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”, all modifications are preserved through the “child theme.”
If you plan to customize your theme files, then we recommend becoming familiar with child themes, especially if you use a theme that gets regularly updated. You can learn more about child themes by searching online, or visit the official WordPress child theme page here:
As you will see below, the actual process of updating a WordPress theme is very easy. The bit of the updating process that takes the most time and effort to complete is the preparation involved prior to upgrading.
Some people don’t upgrade their themes regularly, while many upgrade without going through 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 digital properties.
Upgrading Your Themes – Tutorial
Upgrading your theme from the WP dashboard is easy.
Log into your WordPress admin area …
Depending on the theme(s) you have installed on your site, you may receive an occasional notification in your WP Dashboard that your theme(s) need updating …
Updating a theme from the dashboard is very simple and easy. You can update your themes via the “Themes” page, or the “Updates” feature.
Updating Your Themes Using The “Themes” Screen
To see which themes require updating, go to your Themes page.
Select Appearance > Themes in your WordPress admin menu …
This opens up the “Themes” screen …
Themes that need updating display an “Update Available” message over the theme’s thumbnail image …
Locate the theme you want to update and click on the “Update Available” alert.
When the theme details window opens up, click on update now …
WordPress will automatically update the theme in seconds …
Your theme is now up-to-date …
Repeat the above process to update all of your out-of-date themes, or use the method described below to update multiple themes at once.
Updating Your Site’s Theme From The “Updates” Screen
Update your themes via the “Updates” area as shown below:
To view all themes installed on your site that need updating, click on Dashboard > Updates …
This opens 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 bulk update process …
WordPress will automatically update all of your selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade your themes from your admin dashboard.
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