How To Update WordPress Themes

Learn how to easily update WordPress themes inside your dashboard …

Theme Management: How To Update WordPress Themes From Your DashboardIf you are new to WordPress, make sure you read our overview of WordPress themes. It explains what WordPress themes are and how using themes can be cost-effective and time-saving for website owners.

This tutorial will show you how to easily update your themes inside your dashboard.

Updating A WordPress Theme – Best Practices

Upgrading Themes - Best Practices

Before updating your WordPress themes, we recommend going through the “best practices” checklist below.

1. Back Up Everything

Backing up your website before making any updates to your site is essential. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore your site to its former configuration.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are many free and paid WordPress plugins you can use. Learn about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups 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 accompanying an update which provides an overview of new features, improvements, bug fixes or any other changes in the new version.

If the changes seem irrelevant or unimportant, you can skip the update. Otherwise, you should upgrade.

3. Test Your Theme

If you can, it’s a good idea to check the theme before installing it on your site.

Useful Tip

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 check to see if 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 set up a test WordPress site on a subdomain or a separate domain name with the same plugins and configuration settings 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 do a quick 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. Is Your Theme Customized? Use A Child Theme

If you have made extensive changes to your existing 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 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 just visit the WordPress Codex child theme page here:

Tip

As you will see below, the actual process of updating a WordPress theme is fairly easy. What can feel slightly bothersome is the preparation involved prior to upgrading.

Some people don’t upgrade their themes regularly, while others upgrade without going through 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 solely your responsibility as a website owner to protect your digital assets.

How To Update WP Themes From Your Dashboard – Step-By-Step Tutorial

Upgrading your themes from your dashboard is easy.

Log into your WordPress administration area …

WordPress Theme Management: How To Upgrade Your WordPress Themes

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

Upgrading Your Themes

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

Updating WordPress Themes Using The “Themes” Screen

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

Select Appearance > Themes from your WordPress dashboard menu …

Theme Management: How To Upgrade Your WordPress Theme

This opens up the “Themes” page …

Updating WP Themes From The WP Dashboard

Themes that need updating display an “Update Available” message over the theme’s thumbnail image …

How To Upgrade WordPress Themes In Your Admin Dashboard

Locate the theme that needs to be updated and click on the “Update Available” alert.

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

How To Update A Theme In WordPress

WordPress will automatically update your theme in seconds …

Updating A Theme In WordPress

Your theme is now up-to-date …

Theme Management: How To Update A Theme In WordPress

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

Updating WordPress Themes Using The “Updates” Screen

Update your WordPress themes using the “Updates” area as follows:

To view all themes on your site that require updating, click on Dashboard > Updates

WordPress Theme Management: How To Update A Theme In WordPress

This brings up the Updates screen. Scroll down to the Themes section …

Updating A Theme In WordPress

Check the box next to all the themes you want to update and click on Update Themes to complete the bulk update process …

How To Update A Theme In WordPress

WordPress automatically updates all of the selected themes …

WordPress Theme Management: Upgrading Your Themes

Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade your themes in your admin dashboard.

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Originally published as How To Update WordPress Themes.