If you are new to WordPress, make sure to read our introduction to WordPress themes. It explains what WP themes are and how using themes can save small business website owners time and money.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to upgrade a theme to a new version inside your dashboard.
Updating Your WordPress Theme – Best Practices
We recommend going through the handy checklist below before attempting the upgrade process, to ensure that your upgrades go smoothly.
1. Make A Backup
Backing up your site before making any changes to your site is vital. This way, if something goes wrong, 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. You can read 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 have installed, there may be a changelog file accompanying 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 check if 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 install a test WordPress site on a subdomain or a separate domain with the same configuration settings (e.g. plugins) 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 to see if other theme users have 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 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 the parent theme. When you update the “parent theme”, all 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 visit the official WordPress child theme page here:
As you will see below, the actual process of updating a WordPress theme is very simple. What can feel slightly bothersome is the preparation involved prior to upgrading.
Many people don’t upgrade their WordPress themes regularly, while others 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 solely the website owner’s responsibility to protect their online assets.
Updating A Theme In WordPress – Step-By-Step Tutorial
Updating your theme from the WP dashboard is easy.
Log into your WordPress administration area …
Depending on what theme(s) are installed on your site, you may receive occasional notifications in your dashboard that your theme(s) need updating …
Updating WordPress themes in the dashboard is a simple process. You can update your site’s theme using the “Themes” screen, or the “Updates” screen.
Updating Your Theme From The “Themes” Screen
You can see which themes need to be updated by going to your Themes page.
Select Appearance > Themes from your WordPress admin menu …
This opens up the “Themes” screen …
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” alert.
When the theme details window opens up, click on update now …
WordPress automatically updates the theme in seconds …
Your theme is now up-to-date …
Repeat the above to update all of your out-of-date themes, or use the method below to bulk update multiple themes at once.
Updating Your Theme Via The “Updates” Section
Update your WordPress themes from the “Updates” screen as follows:
To view all themes installed on your site that need updating, click on Dashboard > Updates …
This opens 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 will automatically update all of the selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade your themes in the WP 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