If you are new to WordPress, make sure to read our introduction to WordPress themes. It explains what themes are and how using a theme can save website owners significant time and money.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to easily upgrade your themes with just a few clicks inside your dashboard.
Updating A WordPress Theme – Best Practices
We recommend going through the handy checklist below before going through the upgrade process, to help prevent any problems affecting your site during the upgrading process.
1. Back Up Your Site Files And Data
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 things back to their former configuration.
If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many plugins you can use. Learn 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 have installed, there may be a changelog file accompanying an update listing any new features, improvements, security fixes or any other information pertaining to the new version.
If the changes seem irrelevant or unimportant, you can skip the update. Otherwise, you should 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 the theme, track bugs and verify that all plugins are working fine with the new theme before applying it to 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 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 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 provide forums for premium themes, and even for some free plugins).
5. Use Child Themes For Heavily Customized Themes
If you have made extensive customizations 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”, your customizations get 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 plan on using 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! The step 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 “best practice” methods for ensuring problem-free upgrades. Ultimately, it is the website owner’s responsibility to protect their digital assets.
How To Update A Theme In WordPress – Tutorial
Updating your themes in the WP dashboard is simple.
Log into your WordPress admin area …
Depending on what theme(s) are installed on your site, you may receive occasional alerts in your WP Dashboard that your theme(s) need updating …
Updating themes in your WP dashboard is easy. You can update your WordPress theme using the “Themes” page, or the “Updates” section.
Updating Your Site’s Theme Via The “Themes” Screen
You can see which themes require updating by going to your Themes page.
Choose Appearance > Themes from your WordPress dashboard menu …
This brings you to 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” notice.
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 outdated themes, or use the method described below to upgrade multiple themes at once.
Updating WordPress Themes Using The “Updates” Page
Update your WordPress themes via the “Updates” screen as follows:
To view all themes on your site that need 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 bulk upgrade process …
WordPress automatically updates all of your selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade your WP theme in your dashboard.
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"If you're new to WordPress, this can stand on its own as a training course and will stay with you as you progress from beginner to advanced and even guru status." - Bruce (Columbus, Ohio)