If you are new to WordPress, make sure you read our overview of WordPress themes. This in-depth article explains what WP themes are and how using themes can save business owners significant time and money.
This tutorial will show you how to upgrade your theme inside your dashboard.
Upgrading WP Themes – Best Practices Checklist
Before updating your themes, we recommend going through the handy checklist below to make sure that your upgrades go smoothly.
1. Make A Backup
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.
If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many 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 have installed, there may be a changelog file included with an update listing any new features, improvements, security fixes or important information pertaining to the new 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 an installed theme, track bugs and verify that the new theme version doesn’t conflict with any existing plugins or settings before applying it to 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 configuration settings (e.g. plugins) and test 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 issues 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 provide forums for premium WordPress themes, and even for some free plugins).
5. Use Child Themes For Heavily Customized Themes
If you have made extensive customizations to your existing 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 modifications get preserved through the “child theme.”
If you plan to customize your theme files, then we recommend becoming familiar with child themes, especially if you use 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 bit of the upgrade process that takes the most time and effort to complete is the preparation involved prior to upgrading.
Some 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, as a website owner, it is solely your responsibility to protect your digital assets.
How To Update Your WordPress Theme – Step-By-Step Tutorial
Updating your theme in the WP dashboard is easy.
Log into your WordPress administration area …
Depending on the theme(s) you have installed on your site, you may receive an occasional notification in your WordPress Dashboard that your theme(s) need updating …
Updating a WordPress theme in the dashboard is easy. You can update your WordPress theme from the “Themes” screen, or the “Updates” page.
Updating Your Site’s Theme From The “Themes” Area
To see which themes require updating, go to your Themes area.
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 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 will automatically update your theme …
Your theme is now updated …
Repeat the above to update all of your out-of-date themes, or use the method below to upgrade multiple themes.
Updating WordPress Themes Using The “Updates” Section
Update your WordPress themes via the “Updates” section as shown below:
To view all themes 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 upgrade process …
WordPress automatically updates all of the selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade your WordPress themes from your admin dashboard.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group