If you are new to WordPress, make sure to read our overview of WordPress themes. It explains what themes are and how using themes can save web business owners time and money.
This step-by-step tutorial will show you how to upgrade your themes to a new version inside your admin area.
Upgrading Your WordPress Theme – Best Practices
We recommend going through the “best practices” checklist below before attempting the upgrade process, to ensure that your update goes smoothly.
1. Back Up Everything
Backing up your website before making any changes to your site is vital. This way, if things don’t go as planned, you can always restore.
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 fully automate your site backups here:
2. Check The Changelog
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 any other 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 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 installing it on 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 with 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 search online to see if other theme users have 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 themes, and even for some free plugins).
5. Use Child Themes For Heavily Customized Themes
If you have made extensive changes to your existing WordPress theme files, updating 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 that 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 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 very easy. What can feel slightly bothersome is the precautionary work involved prior to upgrading.
Many 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 recommended “best practice” methods to help you avoid problems. Ultimately, it is the website owner’s responsibility to protect their online assets.
Updating Your WP Themes – Tutorial
Updating your themes from the WP dashboard is easy.
Log into your WordPress admin area …
Depending on the theme(s) installed on your website, you may receive occasional notifications in your dashboard that new theme versions are available and require updating …
Updating a WordPress theme in your WP dashboard is easy. You can update your site’s theme from the “Themes” page, or the “Updates” feature.
Updating WordPress Themes Via The “Themes” Area
To see which themes need to be updated, go to your Themes page.
Select Appearance > Themes in your WordPress admin menu …
This opens up the “Themes” page …
WordPress Themes that need updating display an “Update Available” message over their thumbnail image …
Locate the theme that needs to be updated and click on the “Update Available” message.
When the theme details window opens up, click on update now …
WordPress automatically updates your theme …
Your theme is now updated …
Repeat the process described above to update all of your outdated themes, or use the method below to bulk update multiple themes at once.
Updating Your Site’s Theme From The “Updates” Page
Update your themes via the “Updates” page as follows:
To view all themes installed on your site that require 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 upgrade process …
WordPress will automatically update all of your selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to update your theme in your admin dashboard.
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"I have used the tutorials to teach all of my clients and it has probably never been so easy for everyone to learn WordPress ... Now I don't need to buy all these very expensive video courses that often don't deliver what they promise." - Stefan Wendt, Internet Marketing Success Group