If you are new to WordPress, make sure you read our overview of WordPress themes. It explains what WordPress themes are and how using a theme can be cost-effective and time-saving for business website owners.
In this step-by-step tutorial, you will learn how to update themes to their latest version inside the admin area.
Upgrading Themes – Best Practices
We recommend going through the handy checklist below before attempting the upgrade process, to help minimize any problems affecting your site during the upgrade process.
1. Back Up Your Site Fully
Backing up your files and data before making any updates to your site is essential. This way, if something goes wrong, you can always restore everything to its former state.
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 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 some release notes included with an update which provides an overview of new features, improvements, security 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 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 name using the same plugins and configuration settings 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 and 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 WordPress themes, and even for some free plugins).
5. Is Your Theme Customized? Use A Child Theme
If you have made extensive customizations to your existing WordPress 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”, your modifications 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 to 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 not complicated at all … a few simple clicks and you’re done! The part of the updating process that takes the most time and effort to complete 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 recommended “best practice” methods to help you avoid problems. Ultimately, as a website owner, it is solely your responsibility to protect your digital assets.
Updating Your WordPress Themes – Tutorial
Updating your theme in your admin dashboard is simple.
Log into your WordPress administration area …
Depending on which theme(s) are installed on your website, you may receive occasional alerts in your dashboard that your theme(s) need updating …
Updating a theme in your dashboard is very simple and easy. You can update your themes via the “Themes” area, or the “Updates” screen.
Updating Your Site Themes From The “Themes” Area
To see which themes need updating, go to your Themes area.
Select Appearance > Themes from your WordPress admin menu …
This opens up the “Themes” page …
WordPress Themes with new versions display an “Update Available” message over the theme’s 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 the theme …
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 bulk upgrade multiple themes at once.
Updating Your Site’s Theme Using The “Updates” Area
Update your themes from the “Updates” area as shown below:
To view all themes on your website that require updating, click on Dashboard > Updates …
This brings up the Updates screen. Scroll down to the Themes section …
Select 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 themes in the WP dashboard.
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