If you are new to WordPress, make sure you read our overview of WordPress themes. We’ve written a detailed article that explains what WP themes are and how using a theme can be cost-effective and time-saving for web business owners.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to upgrade a theme in the dashboard.
Upgrading Themes – Best Practices Checklist
Before updating your WordPress themes, we recommend going through the “best practices” checklist below to help prevent any problems occuring during the upgrade process.
1. Back Up Your Site Fully
Backing up your website before making any changes to your site is vital. Whenever something doesn’t go as planned, you can always restore things back to their former state.
If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here:
2. Check The Changelog
When WordPress upgrades its software to a new version, this can affect the functionality of certain themes. Depending on the theme you are using, there may be some release notes accompanying an update listing new features, improvements, bug fixes or any other changes in the new version.
If the theme 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 the theme, track any bugs and check 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’re managing your own website, you can set up a test WordPress site on a subdomain or a separate domain name with the same plugins and configuration settings and play with the 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 and see if other theme users have reported any serious problems with the new theme version.
You can enter the theme name and version into Google, and search the theme developer’s support forum (many developers provide forums for paid themes, and even for some free plugins).
5. Is Your Theme Customized? Use A Child Theme
If you have made extensive changes to your existing WordPress theme files, updating 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 that 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 using child themes, especially if you use a theme that gets regularly updated. You can learn more about child themes by searching online, or just 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 precautionary work involved prior to upgrading.
Many people don’t upgrade their WordPress 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 properties.
Upgrading Themes In WordPress – Step-By-Step Tutorial
Updating your theme from your dashboard is easy.
Log into your WordPress administration area …
Depending on which theme(s) are installed on your site, you may receive an occasional notification in your WordPress Dashboard that your theme(s) need updating …
Updating WordPress themes in the dashboard is simple and easy. You can update your site’s theme using the “Themes” area, or the “Updates” section.
Updating WordPress Themes Using The “Themes” Section
To see which themes need to be updated, go to your Themes area.
Choose Appearance > Themes in your WP admin menu …
This opens up the “Themes” screen …
WordPress Themes that need updating display an “Update Available” message over their thumbnail image …
Locate the theme you want to update and click on the “Update Available” message.
When the theme details window opens up, click on update now …
WordPress automatically updates the 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 update multiple themes at once.
Updating Your Theme From The “Updates” Area
Update your WordPress theme from the “Updates” page as follows:
To view all themes in your website that need updating, click on Dashboard > Updates …
This opens up the Updates screen. Scroll down to the Themes section …
Check the box next to 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 WordPress theme from the WP dashboard.
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