Pedro Sttau

Hopefully you didn’t make the mistake of hardcoding a lot of work into the Wordpress code, so Wordpress’s upgrade process is very clean and straight forward.

1. Backup, backup and backup

Before you upload anything to your server, make sure you make a full backup of your files and database. If your server hosts Cpanel, all you need to do is go to the backups section of the software and click on download full website backup.

Make sure the backup download went through correctly. I would even recommend making redundant backups of the database, just in case.

2. Download the latest Wordpress version

Now that your current wordpress version is safe, let’s download the latest version of Wordpress.

3. Check of compatibility issues

It’s also important to make sure tat all your current plugins are compatible with the new version of the software, so it would be advisable to login to your admin area, go to your plugins area and take note all of the installed plugins.

Now go to the provider of the plugins and find out if they are compatible with the latest version of Wordpress. Download the updated version of the plugins if needed and available.

Unfortunately the Plugin Compatibility page is outdated, but if you are installing a version prior to 2.8 it will still be of use to you.

4. Overwrite the correct files

By correct files I mean every single file and folder except the wp-content folder, that’s where you hold all of your current themes and templates. It is not necessary to update this folder.

5. Update your SQL structure

Now login to your Wordpress admin panel, and you will see a message telling you that you need to upgrade your database. This might seem a little but intrusive, but don’t worry, whatever happens you can always roll back to your current database. (you didn’t forget to backup, did you? )

The direct path to the upgrade file is: wp-admin/upgrade.php (in case you have wordpress installed in your rout of course)

The update is automatic, and it shouldn’t interfere in any way with your current system settings.

That’s it! Your done, your Wordpress is up-to-date.