If you are new to WordPress, make sure to read our introduction to WordPress themes. It explains what WP themes are and how themes can be cost-effective and time-saving for small business owners.
This tutorial will show you how to easily upgrade themes in your dashboard.
Updating Your WordPress Theme – Best Practices
Before updating any WordPress themes, we recommend going through the “best practices” checklist below to help prevent any problems occuring during the process.
1. Make A Complete Backup
Backing up your files and data 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 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 are using, there may be a changelog file accompanying an update listing new features, improvements, bug fixes or important changes in the new version.
If the 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 the theme, track any bugs and check to see if all plugins are working fine with the new theme before installing and activating 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 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 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 changes 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 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 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 just visit the WordPress Codex child theme page here:
As you will see below, the actual process of updating a WordPress theme is very easy. The part 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 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 the website owner’s responsibility to protect their online properties.
Upgrading Your Themes – Step-By-Step Tutorial
Upgrading your WP themes from your admin dashboard is simple.
Log into your WordPress administration area …
Depending on the theme(s) installed on your website, you may receive occasional alerts in your dashboard that new theme versions are available and require updating …
Updating WordPress themes from your dashboard is easy. You can update your WordPress themes via the “Themes” page, or the “Updates” section.
Updating WordPress Themes Via The “Themes” Section
To see which themes need updating, go to your Themes area.
Select Appearance > Themes from your WordPress admin menu …
This brings you to 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” message.
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 outdated themes, or use the method below to bulk upgrade multiple themes.
Updating Your Site’s Theme From The “Updates” Screen
Update your WordPress theme from the “Updates” section as shown below:
To view all themes installed in 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 bulk upgrade process …
WordPress automatically updates all of your selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade your themes from your dashboard.
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