If you are new to WordPress, make sure you read our overview of WordPress themes. It explains what WordPress themes are and how they can save business owners time and money.
This tutorial will show you how to upgrade your theme in the dashboard.
Updating Themes – Best Practices Checklist
Before updating your WordPress themes, we recommend going through the checklist below to ensure that no theme settings or customizations are lost and your update goes smoothly.
1. Back Up Your Site Fully
Backing up your website before making any changes 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 free and paid 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 any 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, it’s best to update.
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 any bugs and make sure that all plugins are working fine with the new theme before installing and activating it on a live site.
If you’re managing your own website, you can install a test WordPress site on a subdomain or a separate domain 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 site.
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 enter 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, 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 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 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 official WordPress 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 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 many upgrade without going through 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, as a website owner, it is solely your responsibility to protect your digital assets.
Updating Your Themes – Step-By-Step Tutorial
Updating your WP themes from your admin dashboard is easy.
Log into your WordPress administration area …
Depending on which theme(s) are installed on your website, you may receive an occasional alert in your WP Dashboard that new theme versions are available and require updating …
Updating a theme from the WP dashboard is simple and easy. You can update your themes via the “Themes” section, or the “Updates” page.
Updating WordPress Themes From The “Themes” Section
To see which themes need updating, go to your Themes area.
Select Appearance > Themes from your WordPress dashboard menu …
This brings you to the “Themes” screen …
WordPress Themes with new versions 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 will automatically update 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 upgrade multiple themes at once.
Updating Your Themes Using The “Updates” Area
Update your theme using the “Updates” section as follows:
To view all themes 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 bulk upgrade process …
WordPress automatically updates all of the selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade your theme in your dashboard.
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