If you are new to WordPress, make sure to read our introduction to WordPress themes. It explains what WP themes are and how using a theme can save web business owners significant time and money.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to easily upgrade your themes in the dashboard.
Updating Your WordPress Theme – Best Practices
Before updating any WordPress themes, we recommend going through the handy checklist below to help prevent any problems that could affect your site during the upgrade process.
1. Back Up Your Website Fully
Backing up your site before making any changes to your site is essential. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore things back to their former state.
If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of 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
Changes made to the WordPress software can affect the functionality of certain themes. Depending on the theme you are using, there may be some release notes accompanying an update listing any new features, improvements, security fixes or important changes in the new theme 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 an installed theme, track any bugs and make sure that all plugins are working fine with the new theme before installing and activating it on a live site.
If you’re managing 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 site.
4. Search Online
Before updating your theme, it’s a good idea to search online to see if other theme users have 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 premium 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 are 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 use a theme that gets regularly updated. You can learn more about child themes by searching online, or just visit the official WordPress child theme page here:
As you will see below, the actual process of updating a WordPress theme is easy. What can feel slightly bothersome is the precautionary work involved prior to upgrading.
Many people don’t upgrade their 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 “best practice” methods for ensuring problem-free upgrades. Ultimately, as a website owner, it is your responsibility to protect your online assets.
How To Update Your WordPress Themes – Tutorial
Upgrading your themes in your admin dashboard is simple.
Log into your WordPress admin area …
Depending on what theme(s) are installed on your website, you may receive occasional alerts in your dashboard that your theme(s) need updating …
Updating a WordPress theme in the dashboard is easy. You can update your WordPress theme via the “Themes” feature, or the “Updates” feature.
Updating Your Site’s Theme Using The “Themes” Section
To see which themes need updating, go to your Themes page.
Choose Appearance > Themes from your WordPress dashboard 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” alert.
When the theme details window opens up, click on update now …
WordPress will automatically update your 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 described below to update multiple themes.
Updating Your Themes Via The “Updates” Section
Update your WordPress themes using the “Updates” area as follows:
To view all themes in your website 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 automatically updates all of the selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade your themes in your admin dashboard.
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