If you are new to WordPress, make sure you read our overview of WordPress themes. We’ve written a detailed article that explains what WordPress themes are and how themes can be cost-effective and time-saving for small business owners.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to upgrade a theme in your dashboard.
Upgrading WordPress Themes – Best Practices
We recommend going through the handy checklist below before going through the upgrade process.
1. Back Up Your Website
Backing up your website before making any changes to your site is essential. Whenever something doesn’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 automate your site backups here:
2. Check The Changelog
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 which provides an overview of new features, improvements, bug fixes or any other information pertaining to the new version.
If the theme changes seem irrelevant or unimportant, you can skip the update. Otherwise, you should 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 bugs and make sure that the new theme version doesn’t conflict with any existing plugins or settings before applying it to 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 using the same configuration settings (e.g. plugins) and test 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 type the theme name and version into Google, and search the theme developer’s support forum (many developers offer this for paid themes, and even for some free plugins).
5. Use Child Themes For Heavily Customized WordPress Themes
If you have made extensive changes to your existing WordPress theme files, upgrading 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 the 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 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 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 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 to help you avoid problems. Ultimately, it is solely your responsibility as a website owner to protect your digital properties.
Upgrading Your Theme – Step-By-Step Tutorial
Upgrading your theme in the WP dashboard is easy.
Log into your WordPress admin area …
Depending on the theme(s) installed on your site, you may receive occasional alerts in your WP Dashboard that new theme versions are available and require updating …
Updating a WordPress theme in the dashboard is easy. You can update your WordPress theme via the “Themes” page, or the “Updates” feature.
Updating Your Theme Using The “Themes” Screen
To see which themes need to be updated, go to your Themes page.
Select Appearance > Themes in your WordPress dashboard menu …
This opens up the “Themes” screen …
WordPress Themes that need updating display an “Update Available” message over their thumbnail image …
Locate the theme that needs to be updated and click on the “Update Available” notice.
When the theme details window opens up, click on update now …
WordPress automatically updates your theme …
Your WordPress theme is now updated …
Repeat the process described above to update all of your remaining themes, or use the method below to bulk update multiple themes.
Updating WordPress Themes Using The “Updates” Area
Update your WordPress theme from the “Updates” screen as follows:
To view all themes installed in your website that require 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 upgrade process …
WordPress automatically updates all of the selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to update your themes in the WP dashboard.
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