How To Update WordPress Themes

Learn how to easily update WordPress themes inside your dashboard …

Updating Themes In WordPressIf 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 business owners time and money.

This tutorial will show you how to easily update your theme in your admin area.

Updating Themes – Best Practices Checklist

Updating A WordPress Theme - Best Practices

We recommend going through the “best practices” checklist below before going through the upgrade process, to reduce any problems happening during your update process.

1. Back Up Your Website Fully

Backing up your files and data before making any changes to your site is vital. If something goes wrong, you can always restore things back to their former settings.

If you don’t want to perform manual backups, there are a number of WordPress plugins you can use. Learn 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 a changelog file accompanying an update listing new features, improvements, security fixes or any other changes in the new version.

If the theme 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.

Tip

Typically, web service providers will set up a test site where they can test the latest version of the theme, track any 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 configuration settings (e.g. plugins) and play with the 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 and see if anyone has reported any issues 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 premium WordPress themes, and even for some free plugins).

5. Use Child Themes For Heavily Customized WordPress Themes

If you have made extensive customizations 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 the 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 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 just visit the official WordPress child theme page here:

Practical Tip

As you will see below, the actual process of updating a WordPress theme is very simple. The step in the upgrading process that takes the most time and effort to complete is the precautionary work involved prior to upgrading.

Many people don’t upgrade their themes regularly, while many upgrade without going through some or all of the steps listed in the section above. As mentioned earlier, the above are “best practice” methods to help you avoid problems. Ultimately, as a website owner, it is solely your responsibility to protect your digital properties.

How To Update A Theme In WordPress – Step-By-Step Tutorial

Upgrading your WordPress themes in your dashboard is simple.

Log into your WordPress admin area …

Theme Management: Upgrading Your Theme

Depending on the theme(s) installed on your website, you may receive occasional notifications in your WordPress Dashboard that your theme(s) need updating …

Upgrading Your Themes

Updating a theme from the WP dashboard is a very simple process. You can update your WordPress themes from the “Themes” page, or the “Updates” feature.

Updating Your Themes Using The “Themes” Page

To see which themes require updating, go to your Themes page.

Choose Appearance > Themes in your WordPress admin menu …

WordPress Theme Management: How To Update Your WordPress Theme

This brings you to the “Themes” page …

Theme Management: Upgrading A Theme In WordPress

WordPress Themes with new versions display an “Update Available” message over the theme’s thumbnail image …

WordPress Theme Management: How To Upgrade Your Theme

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

Theme Management: Upgrading Your Theme

WordPress automatically updates the theme in seconds …

WordPress Theme Management: How To Upgrade Your WP Theme

Your theme is now up-to-date …

Upgrading Your WP Theme

Repeat the above to update all of your outdated themes, or use the method described below to update multiple themes.

Updating Your Site’s Theme Using The “Updates” Screen

Update your WordPress theme from the “Updates” screen as shown below:

To view all themes in your website that need updating, click on Dashboard > Updates

Updating Themes In WordPress

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

Theme Management: How To Upgrade Themes In WordPress

Select all the themes you want to update and click on Update Themes to complete the upgrade process …

How To Upgrade Your Themes

WordPress will automatically update all of the selected themes …

Theme Management: Upgrading WordPress Themes From The WP Dashboard

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

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"This is an awesome training series. I have a pretty good understanding of WordPress already, but this is helping me to move somewhere from intermediate to advanced user!" - Kim Lednum

Originally published as How To Update WordPress Themes.