Stop wondering as to why upgrade your WordPress blog when it’s working all fine. Upgrading helps protecting your blog against hacking and related security threats and getting rid of errors and bugs. After knowing that 83% of the hacked blogs had very old versions, upgrading becomes a necessity. Site maintenance forms an integral part of owning and running one.
Upgrading a WordPress blog can be done either manually or through automatic route with the aid of utilities like Fantastico. People find it hard to get back their plugins and WordPress Templates in working condition if upgrading is done in auto mode. Manual upgrading is therefore mostly advisable. Enjoy reading this section and gets hands on upgrading your WordPress blog.
- Log in to your admin panel and ‘export’ all your content matter from the blog, including plugins and widgets. This creates a back up of your files in case things go wrong.
- Now look into the top WordPress bar to click ‘update now’. Since we have decided to do the upgrading manually, go for downloading the new version instead of automatic update. After downloading, extract the files from the downloaded folder.
- Go to FTP (file transfer protocol) and the directory where WordPress files are kept. Before doing anything, please note that few files like ‘wp-config.php’, ‘.htaccess’, ‘wp-content’, wp images folder, wp language folder, are all important. Please don’t delete or alter them.
- Now delete all files other than the files mentioned above. Replace them with the files in the downloaded document.
- Run the upgraded files using http://mydomain.com/blog/wp-admin/upgrade.php and install the new version.
- Finally you need to manually install plugins one by one after installation. A few plugins may not perform due to compatibility issues. You can always note them down and download the compatible ones for free. Also check for your WordPress template’s compatibility with the new version.
Upgrade to the new version and get going with blogging. This manual method of upgrading though looks tedious, is safer and more reliable. Hope the information in the article was of some help to you. Feel free to share this article.
Hi Suresh,
Good tips! I’ve done automatic, but I need to know by hand eventual to update WordPress. I saw the option to re-install in case it was necessary. Obvious automatic is easier but good to know this option.
Cheers,
Gera
Gera@Sweets Foods Blog recently posted…Promoting Your Blog & Promote Your Business
I have never got courage to install and upgrade the my wordpress blog. I often take help of my friend. I have read your this post and bookmarked it. I want to request you,please publish further posts on wordpress, so that person like me can learn.
Maja@fantastic sams recently posted…How Fantastic Sams is Helpful to Look Attractive ?
Thanks a lot. This is very useful for people who are not yet using auto installers for their wordpress sites.
Chris@mgctables recently posted…How To Clean Glass Tables
Hey Suresh,
I love updating my blog, my concern when updating though is whether my theme will break upon updating or not, that’s why its always safer to have a local copy on your computer and try to update it first and see if everything is working fine.
Sayed recently posted…Subdomain or Subdirectory Better?
Great guide, thank you, Suresh. It can get particularly complicated when you have made changes to the code and you are using a free template.
Ana @ Bounce Rate recently posted…CommentLuv Premium
I am non-technical and thanks for helping me out. Excellent step by step guide indeed.
Lalit@Samsung Tablet recently posted…Samsung Tablet PC–Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 specification and review
This will be useful when I need to upgrade. I can’t imagine trying to manually upgrade without this guide. Thanks for the step-by-step guide. (I’ll make sure I do a back-up!)
Amy@Cellulite Cream Reviews recently posted…Do Cellulite Leggings Work?
I already know that manual way. few weeks ago my friend guide me through that way.
As a web developer I always develop CMS at my own.This is a good tutorial on WordPress.