If you are new to WordPress, make sure you read our overview of WordPress themes. This in-depth article explains what WP themes are and how using themes can save business website owners time and money.
This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to upgrade a theme in your admin area.
Updating Your WordPress Theme – Best Practices Checklist
Before updating any WordPress themes, we recommend going through the checklist below to help prevent any problems occuring during the process.
1. Make A Backup
Backing up your website before making any updates 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. You can read 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 are using, there may be a changelog file accompanying an update which provides an overview of any new features, improvements, security fixes or important 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 the theme, track any bugs and check to see if the new theme version doesn’t conflict with any existing plugins or settings before applying and activating it on a live site.
If you manage your own website, you can install 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 main website.
4. Search Online
Before updating your theme, it’s a good idea to do a quick search online to see if anyone has reported any serious problems 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 provide forums for premium themes, and even for some free plugins).
5. Use Child Themes For Heavily Customized Themes
If you have made extensive customizations to your existing theme files, upgrading 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 the parent theme. When you update the “parent theme”, your customizations get 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 visit the WordPress Codex child theme page here:
As you will see below, the actual process of updating a WordPress theme is easy. The bit that takes the most time and effort to complete is the precautionary work involved prior to upgrading.
Many 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 for ensuring problem-free upgrades. Ultimately, it is solely the website owner’s responsibility to protect their digital properties.
How To Update Your Themes – Tutorial
Updating your themes from your 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 in your dashboard is simple and easy. You can update your site’s theme using the “Themes” page, or the “Updates” page.
Updating WordPress Themes Using The “Themes” Page
You can see which themes need to be updated by going to your Themes page.
Choose Appearance > Themes in your WP admin menu …
This brings you to the “Themes” page …
WordPress Themes with new versions display an “Update Available” message over the theme’s 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 in seconds …
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 at once.
Updating WordPress Themes Via The “Updates” Screen
Update your WordPress theme from the “Updates” section as shown below:
To view all themes on 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 bulk upgrade process …
WordPress will automatically update all of the selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to update your WP themes from your dashboard.
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