If you are new to WordPress, make sure you read our overview of WordPress themes. It explains what WordPress themes are and how using themes can be cost-effective and time-saving for online business owners.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to upgrade a WordPress theme inside your admin area.
Updating A WordPress Theme – Best Practices
We recommend going through the checklist below before attempting the upgrade process, to reduce any problems occurring during your upgrade process.
1. Make A Full Site Backup
Backing up your site before making any changes to your site is vital. Whenever something doesn’t go as planned, you can always restore things back to their previous state.
If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here:
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 included with an update which provides an overview of new features, improvements, bug fixes or important changes in the new theme version.
If the 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 a theme, track any bugs and verify that 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 set up a test WordPress site on a subdomain or a separate domain with the same plugins and configuration settings and test new theme versions on your test site before applying it to your main site.
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 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 premium 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”, all modifications 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 simple. The part that takes the most time and effort to complete is the preparation involved prior to upgrading.
Many people don’t upgrade their 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 A Theme In WordPress – Tutorial
Upgrading your theme from the WP dashboard is easy.
Log into your WordPress admin area …
Depending on which theme(s) you have installed on your website, you may receive an occasional notification in your WordPress Dashboard that new theme versions are available and require updating …
Updating themes from the WP dashboard is easy. You can update your theme using the “Themes” screen, or the “Updates” area.
Updating Your Site Themes Using The “Themes” Screen
You can see which themes need to be updated by going to your Themes area.
Select Appearance > Themes from your WP dashboard menu …
This opens up the “Themes” page …
Themes with new versions display an “Update Available” message over their 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 automatically updates the theme in seconds …
Your theme is now updated …
Repeat the process described above to update all of your remaining themes, or use the method below to upgrade multiple themes at once.
Updating Your Site’s Theme Using The “Updates” Page
Update your themes from the “Updates” section as follows:
To view all themes on your website 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 upgrade your theme in your dashboard.
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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum