If you are new to WordPress, make sure you read our overview of WordPress themes. We’ve written an in-depth article that explains what themes are and how they can be cost-effective and time-saving for website owners.
This tutorial will show you how to easily upgrade your theme to its newest version inside your dashboard.
Updating Themes – Best Practices Checklist
We recommend going through the handy checklist below before going through the upgrade process, to reduce any problems happening during the updating process.
1. Make A Backup
Backing up your website before making any updates to your site is vital. If something goes wrong, you can always restore.
If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your site backups here:
2. Check The Changelog
Changes made to the WordPress software can affect the functionality of certain themes. Depending on the theme you have installed, there may be a changelog file accompanying an update listing any new features, improvements, bug fixes or important information pertaining to the new theme version.
If the 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 a theme, track any bugs and check if 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 play with the 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 anyone has 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 offer this for paid 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 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 that parent theme. When you update the “parent theme”, all customizations 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 plan to use 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 fairly simple. The part of the upgrade process that takes the most time and effort to complete is the preparation 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 recommended “best practice” methods to help you avoid problems. Ultimately, it is the website owner’s responsibility to protect their digital assets.
Upgrading WP Themes In Your Admin Dashboard – Tutorial
Updating your theme from your admin dashboard is easy.
Log into your WordPress admin area …
Depending on which theme(s) are installed on your site, you may receive occasional alerts in your dashboard that your theme(s) need updating …
Updating WordPress themes in your dashboard is a simple process. You can update your themes using the “Themes” area, or the “Updates” section.
Updating Your Themes Using The “Themes” Section
You can see which themes need to be updated by going to your Themes page.
Choose Appearance > Themes in your WP admin menu …
This brings you to the “Themes” page …
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 will automatically update your theme in seconds …
Your 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.
Updating Your Theme From The “Updates” Screen
Update your theme via the “Updates” page as shown below:
To view all themes installed on your site that require 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 automatically updates all of your selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade your WP theme from your admin dashboard.
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