If you are new to WordPress, make sure you read our overview of WordPress themes. The in-depth article explains what WordPress themes are and how they can be cost-effective and time-saving for business website owners.
This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to upgrade your WP theme in the dashboard.
Updating Themes – Best Practices Checklist
We recommend going through the “best practices” checklist below before attempting the upgrade process, to ensure that no theme settings or customizations are lost and your upgrades go smoothly.
1. Back Up Your Files
Backing up your website before making any changes to your site is essential. Whenever something doesn’t go as planned, you can always restore your web site or blog to its former configuration.
If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of free and paid plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here:
2. Check The Theme Update Notes
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 included with an update listing 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 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 an installed theme, track any bugs and verify that the new theme version doesn’t conflict with any existing plugins or settings before installing 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 name using the same configuration settings (e.g. plugins) and play with the 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 type the theme name and version into Google, and search the theme developer’s support forum (many developers offer this for paid WordPress themes, and even for some free plugins).
5. Is Your WordPress Theme Customized? Use A Child Theme
If you have made extensive customizations to your existing WordPress 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 the 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 official WordPress child theme page here:
As you will see below, the actual process of updating a WordPress theme is fairly easy. The step in the upgrade process that takes the most time and effort to complete is the precautionary work involved prior to upgrading.
Many people don’t upgrade their WordPress themes regularly, while many upgrade without going through all of the steps listed in the section above. As mentioned earlier, the above are “best practice” methods for ensuring problem-free upgrades. Ultimately, as a website owner, it is your responsibility to protect your digital properties.
Updating A Theme In WordPress – Tutorial
Updating your themes from the WP dashboard is simple.
Log into your WordPress admin area …
Depending on the theme(s) you have installed on your website, you may receive occasional alerts in your WordPress Dashboard that your theme(s) need updating …
Updating WordPress themes in the WP dashboard is easy. You can update your theme using the “Themes” section, or the “Updates” feature.
Updating WordPress Themes From The “Themes” Section
You can see which themes need to be updated by going to your Themes page.
Choose Appearance > Themes in your WordPress dashboard menu …
This brings you to the “Themes” page …
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 theme is now updated …
Repeat the process described above to update all of your remaining themes, or use the method below to bulk upgrade multiple themes at once.
Updating WordPress Themes From The “Updates” Page
Update your WordPress themes using the “Updates” page as follows:
To view all themes installed on your website 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 update process …
WordPress will automatically update all of your selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to update your theme in the WP dashboard.
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