If you are new to WordPress, make sure you read our introduction to WordPress themes. We’ve written an in-depth article that explains what WordPress themes are and how using themes can be cost-effective and time-saving for business owners.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to easily upgrade your theme inside your dashboard.
Upgrading WP Themes – Best Practices Checklist
Before updating your WordPress themes, we recommend going through the checklist below to help prevent any problems that could affect your site during the upgrade process.
1. Back Up Everything
Backing up your website before making any updates to your site is essential. If something goes wrong, you can always restore your web site or blog to its previous state.
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:
- Backup, Clone And Protect Your WordPress Websites And Blogs With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress
2. Check The Theme Update Notes
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 which provides an overview of any new features, improvements, security fixes or important changes in the new version.
If the theme changes seem irrelevant or unimportant, you can skip the update. Otherwise, it’s best to update.
3. Test The 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 make sure that the new theme version doesn’t conflict with any existing plugins or settings before applying 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 configuration settings (e.g. plugins) and play with the new theme versions on your test site before applying it to your main website.
4. Search Online
Before updating your theme, it’s a good idea to do a quick search online and see if anyone has 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 paid WordPress themes, and even for some free plugins).
5. Use Child Themes For Heavily Customized WordPress Themes
If you have made extensive customizations to your existing theme files, upgrading 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 that parent theme. When you update the “parent theme”, your customizations 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 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 easy. The part of the upgrade 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 recommended “best practice” methods to help you avoid problems. Ultimately, it is your responsibility as a website owner to protect your online properties.
Upgrading Your Theme – Tutorial
Updating your WordPress themes from the WP dashboard is simple.
Log into your WordPress admin area …
Depending on which theme(s) are installed on your site, you may receive occasional notifications in your WordPress Dashboard that your theme(s) need updating …
Updating WordPress themes from the dashboard is quite simple and easy. You can update your WordPress themes using the “Themes” page, or the “Updates” section.
Updating WordPress Themes Using The “Themes” Screen
You can see which themes need to be updated by going to your Themes area.
Choose Appearance > Themes in your WP dashboard menu …
This brings you to the “Themes” page …
Themes that need updating display an “Update Available” message over their thumbnail image …
Locate the theme that needs to be updated and click on the “Update Available” notice.
When the theme details window opens up, click on update now …
WordPress automatically updates your theme in seconds …
Your WordPress theme is now updated …
Repeat the above to update all of your remaining themes, or use the method described below to upgrade multiple themes at once.
Updating WordPress Themes Using The “Updates” Area
Update your themes from the “Updates” screen as shown below:
To view all themes on your site that require updating, click on Dashboard > Updates …
This brings 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 the selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to update your theme in your dashboard.
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