October 14, 2019
5 min Read
Domantas G.
If you’re looking for tips on how to update WordPress websites, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll show you how to do just that. Whether you’re updating the WordPress core, themes, or plugins — everything will be explained.
If you still have doubts, keep in mind that updating your WordPress website comes with its advantages:
Before making any changes to your WordPress site, it’s essential to prepare for any possible cases. With that being said, here are the two steps that you should take in advance:
Here are four methods to update the WordPress core:
This is by far the easiest way to update WordPress as it’s only a click away. All you have to do is log in to your WordPress dashboard. Then, check if there is any core update notification at the top of the page.
Click Please update now to initiate the process. If it’s a minor update, you will be directed to a success message along with the plugin and theme update options. On the other hand, if it’s a major update, you will see the WordPress welcome screen with a detailed description of what has been upgraded in the new version.
Now you can proceed to update all of your themes and plugins to make sure they are compatible with your enhanced WordPress site.
Manually updating WordPress comes in handy when you can’t do so via the admin dashboard for some reason. For this, you can either use an FTP client or the File Manager tool on your hosting panel. All you need is access to your WordPress root directory.
You’ll have to overwrite the old WordPress core files with the new ones. Follow these steps to do it via FileZilla:
When the files are all uploaded, go to yoursite.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php/ to check if everything is updated!
Important: Don’t be in a rush to replace everything inside the WordPress root directory. You can easily break your site if you do this. Make sure to follow the tutorial carefully.
If you’re reading this, we assume you already have SSH access to your WordPress root directory in the public_html folder.
If you are not sure how to access your account via SSH, see this tutorial. Once everything is configured, here’s what you need to do:
cd public_html
wp core check-update
+---------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | version | update_type | package_url | +---------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | #.#.# | minor | https://downloads.wordpress.org/release/wordpress-#.#.#.zip | | #.#.# | major | https://downloads.wordpress.org/release/wordpress-#.#.#.zip | +---------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
wp core update
Now that you know how to update the core files via WP-CLI let’s update your database, theme, and plugins! Here are the commands to run:
wp core update-db
wp theme update --all
wp plugin update --all
When the program is done processing, run the commands once again to check if everything is already updated! Here’s what it should look like:
WordPress immediately updates its sites when there are minor releases. But, did you know you can also set major releases to be automatically updated as well?
It’s not a complicated process at all too! If you’re not a fan of coding, you can easily set up auto-updates using a plugin such as Easy Updates Manager. To learn how to install WordPress plugins, check out this tutorial.
You can also enable automatic WP core updates by adding a line of code to your wp-config.php file. Here’s how to do it:
define('WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', true);
, then click Save.You will do yourself a great disservice if you leave your themes and plugins unattended while updating your WordPress core files. Not only they might cause fatal WordPress errors, but they can also stop working properly and mess with your site’s functionality.
To update your plugins and themes from your WordPress admin dashboard, navigate to Updates by hovering the Dashboard menu.
Clicking this menu item leads you to the updates screen where you can update your themes and plugins with a simple click.
Note: Updating your WordPress theme will get rid of all the customizations you’ve made to the theme. Avoid losing them by using a child theme instead of editing the parent theme directly.
Before you sign off, here’s a quick recap of the methods:
Pretty easy, right? Learning how to update WordPress without breaking your site is a must-have skill for every website owner. We hope this tutorial will help you learn how to do it flawlessly. Good luck!
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