It’s a good idea to keep your WordPress files up to date. There are some security fixes that come out on occasion and if you don’t apply the upgrade you may be prone to hacks, data loss, etc. Besides security fixes there are sometimes feature upgrades, like with the latest version of WordPress (2.5). In this post, I will give you general steps for updating your WordPress blog.
There are a lot of factors to consider when upgrading your blog. Some plugins may not work with the new version. You also have to be careful about overwriting custom files. Using the steps below, you should be OK when doing your upgrade. This won’t account for all situations.
These upgrade steps I provide here are partially from WordPress.org’s three step upgrade process and partially from my own experience. You can also take a look at the extended WordPress upgrade steps. I have never used them but it is probably the safest but most involved route to go.
- Backup your database
I use a plugin to keep my database backed up. It sends me a copy of my database to my email once a week and you can also get a backup on demand. You can get the plugin here.
I usually grab the .zip file and download it to my desktop for easy access.
- Unzip the files into a new folder
You can learn how to unzip files with this unzipping tutorial. The files you need to upload will be in a folder called “wordpress”. You will need to know where the blog files are located on your server. I install most of my blogs in the root folder but occasionally I install them to a folder called “blog”.
In most cases you will have a custom theme and some plugins installed that aren’t part of the default installation. I always delete the “wp-content” folder from my computer before uploading.
After deleting the “wp-content” folder you should be safe to upload the rest of the files and overwrite the ones on the server. Your blog will be inaccessible during the upload. Be patient because it will take a few minutes. For help with FTPing you can check out this FTP tutorial.
- Login in to your WordPress admin
After logging in you will be prompted to upgrade the database. Click the link to OK the upgrade and that should be it. View your blog to make sure everything is cool.
Be prepared because WordPress 2.5 looks a lot different than previous versions. It’s definitely a nice change and I like the new features. I spent 5 or 10 minutes clicking around the new interface and got up to speed with the new features and the new menu locations. There’s not much of a learning curve at all.
Hope these instructions were straightforward enough and your upgrade was a success.
April 8, 2008
Miscellaneous