If you are new to WordPress, make sure you read our introduction to WordPress themes. This comprehensive article explains what WordPress themes are and how themes can save business website owners significant time and money.
This tutorial will show you how to update your themes to the latest version inside your dashboard.
Upgrading Themes – Best Practices Checklist
Before updating your WordPress themes, we recommend going through the handy checklist below to ensure that your update goes smoothly.
1. Back Up Your Files
Backing up your site before making any changes to your site is essential. This way, if something goes wrong, 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 have installed, there may be a changelog file accompanying an update listing any new features, improvements, security fixes or important changes in 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 Your 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 bugs and verify that 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 install 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 to see if other theme users have reported any issues 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 WordPress Theme Heavily Customized? Use A Child Theme
If you have made extensive changes 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 that 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 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 WordPress Codex child theme page here:
As you will see below, the actual process of updating a WordPress theme is easy. The step in the upgrade process 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 some or all of the steps listed in the section above. As mentioned earlier, the above are “best practice” methods for ensuring problem-free upgrades. Ultimately, as a website owner, it is your responsibility to protect your online properties.
Upgrading A Theme In WordPress – Step-By-Step Tutorial
Upgrading your WordPress theme from the WP dashboard is easy.
Log into your WordPress admin area …
Depending on which theme(s) you have installed on your site, you may receive an occasional alert in your WP Dashboard that your theme(s) need updating …
Updating WordPress themes in your dashboard is easy. You can update your WordPress themes from the “Themes” screen, or the “Updates” feature.
Updating Your Themes Via The “Themes” Page
To see which themes need to be updated, go to your Themes page.
Select Appearance > Themes from your WP admin menu …
This brings you to the “Themes” screen …
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” notice.
When the theme details window opens up, click on update now …
WordPress will automatically update the theme in seconds …
Your WordPress theme is now up-to-date …
Repeat the above process to update all of your outdated themes, or use the method described below to update multiple themes.
Updating Your Theme Using The “Updates” Screen
Update your theme from the “Updates” section as shown below:
To view all themes on your website that need 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 update process …
WordPress will automatically update all of your selected themes …
Congratulations! Now you know how to upgrade your WP theme from your admin dashboard.
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