If you are new to WordPress, make sure to read our overview of WordPress themes. This detailed article explains what WordPress themes are and how using themes can save online business owners significant time and money.

In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to easily update a theme inside the dashboard.

Upgrading Themes – Best Practices Checklist

We recommend going through the “best practices” checklist below before going through the upgrade process.

1. Back Up Everything

Backing up your site before making any updates to your site is vital. Whenever something doesn’t go as planned, you can always restore.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many free and paid plugins you can use. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can fully automate your backup process here:

• Back Up, Copy And Protect Your WordPress Websites And Blogs With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

2. Check The Changelog

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, bug fixes or any other information pertaining to the new theme version.

If the theme changes seem irrelevant or unimportant, you can skip the update. Otherwise, it’s best to upgrade.

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 the new theme version doesn’t conflict with any existing plugins or settings before applying and activating it on 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 name with the same configuration settings (e.g. plugins) and play with the new theme versions on your test site before applying it to your live site.

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 paid WordPress themes, and even for some free plugins).

5. Use Child Themes For Heavily Customized Themes

If you have made extensive changes to your existing theme files, updating 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”, your customizations are preserved through the “child theme.”

If you plan to customize your theme files, then we recommend becoming familiar with the use of child themes, especially if you use 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:

• WordPress Child Themes

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! What can feel slightly bothersome 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, it is your responsibility as a website owner to protect your online assets.

Updating Themes In WordPress – Tutorial

Updating your theme from the WP dashboard is simple.

Log into your WordPress admin area …

Depending on the theme(s) installed on your website, you may receive an occasional alert in your WordPress Dashboard that new theme versions are available and require updating …

Updating themes in your WP dashboard is easy. You can update your theme from the “Themes” screen, or the “Updates” section.

Updating Your Theme From The “Themes” Screen

You can see which themes need to be updated by going to your Themes area.

Choose Appearance > Themes from your WP admin menu …

This opens up the “Themes” page …

WordPress 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” notice.

When the theme details window opens up, click on update now …

WordPress automatically updates the theme …

Your theme is now up-to-date …

Repeat the above process to update all of your remaining themes, or use the method below to bulk update multiple themes at once.

Updating WordPress Themes Via The “Updates” Page

Update your theme from the “Updates” area as shown below:

To view all themes installed on your site that require 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 upgrade process …

WordPress automatically updates all of your selected themes …

Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade your WP themes from the WP dashboard.

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