For many reasons, It is necessary to keep the WordPress website updated, be it for performance improvement, security, or keep usability problems to a minimum. Here we’ll teach you some of the simplest methods to learn How to Update WordPress.
This article will guide you all the way whether you’re updating WordPress core.
Things to Know Before Updating WordPress
It is important to be prepared for any errors before making any improvements to the WordPress account. This involves the backup of the files.
Backup your Full Website
In the most unfortunate moments, errors appear to occur. Backups avoid irreversible data failure and serve as a downtime plan anytime you alter or upgrade your site.
Deactivate all your Plugins
Often new WordPress updates are not consistent with any of the plugins you own. This will refer to an unavailable website. You will avoid the problem by deactivating them until WordPress is updated. This is valid in particular for plugins that cache because they can conflict with the installation of WordPress.
How to Update WordPress?
If you are upgrading the WordPress core for the first time, the entire thing is way simpler than you would expect. There are some easy techniques, and here we will list all processes.
1. Updating WordPress Using the Admin Dashboard
This is the way to improve WordPress by far easier because it is just one click away.
Login to the dashboard is what you need to do. Check then if at the top of the page there is a key change message.
To start the process, click on “Please update now.” You will be taken to the Updates tab and the Update Now button should be pressed again.
2. Updating WordPress Using FTP
Manual process, WordPress upgrading is useful when you can’t do this for any cause from the admin dashboard.
You can use either the file manager from your hosting control panel using an FTP client like FileZilla or hosting control panel. You just need to enter the root directory for WordPress.
The old central WordPress files – wp-admin and wp-includes – must be overwritten with the new ones. We will teach you how we can do this with FileZilla:
- Download WordPress’s latest stable version
- Unzip the downloaded files in WordPress
- Access the extracted folder
- Delete the file and folder of wp-config-sample.php so as to avoid any important data loss during the process
- Link and log in from FileZilla or your favorite FTP client to your WordPress site
- Select the current wp-admin Web host and the wp-includes directory on the right side of the screen (remote site)
- Select the latest wp-admin and wp-includes folder on the left side of the panel (local site), then select Upload
Choose all files inside your computer’s WordPress folder and right-click Upload.
The older copies of the files of the same name also are on your website. What do you want to do with these files, you’ll be questioned. You must pick ‘Overwrite’ and check the box next to ‘Always use this action’.
This means that the latest versions of the files are replaced for the WordPress files contained on your site. Upon completion of your upload, you need to go to your WordPress site admin area. This move is important since a new WordPress release often requires the WordPress archive to be modified.
3. Updating WordPress Through WP-CLI
We presume that you already have SSH access to your WordPress root directory in the public HTML directory if you are reading this section of your tutorial.
Here’s what you need to do with the new WordPress update:
- Using a cd to switch to your WordPress root directory using the following line after you have reached your SSH account:
cd public_html
- Check if a new version of WordPress with this command is available:
wp core check-update
- If a new update is available, a related message will be displayed:
+---------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | version | update_type | package_url | +---------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+ | #.#.# | minor | https://downloads.wordpress.org/release/wordpress-#.#.#.zip | | #.#.# | major | https://downloads.wordpress.org/release/wordpress-#.#.#.zip | +---------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
- If no changes are available, this message will be shown instead:
Success: WordPress is at the latest version.
- Run the next line to launch the update:
wp core update
- Wait before the program completes, and your WordPress will immediately be updated.
Now we have to upgrade your core, your theme, and your plugins. You can upgrade the main files using WP-CLI. Here are the following commands:
wp core update-db wp theme update --all wp plugin update --all
When the program is finished, perform the above commands again to ensure that it is correctly modified. What it needs to look like here:
Sum Up
That’s it, we hope you learned How to Update WordPress easily. And for the visitor who asked us to write an article on How to Upload HTML File to WordPress, we have a dedicated article on this.
If you have any suggestions or queries, do comment and help us improve more.