A Step By Step Guide For Manually Updating Your Wordpress

One of the things I noticed while working with clients on their Wordpress blogs is that many don't know how to update their Wordpress manually. In most cases you can do it through your hosting (if you used Fantastico to install your blog) or through your wp-admin, but if you have an older version you might not have these options. So I thought, why not share the steps with you, in case you might need it.

1) First of all, make sure that your hosting company has all the minimum requirements for the latest WP version. You can check the requirements here: WordPress › About Requirements At this time you need PHP version 4.3 or higher and MySQL 4.1.2 or higher.

2) Make sure you have a backup of your site. Maybe you change your mind after upgrading, or maybe something goes wrong, whatever it is, without a backup you can't go back.

3) Disable all your plugins. It's not a must-do, but sometimes a not-updated plugin can cause a problem after the update.

4) Download the latest Wordpress zip file here: WordPress › Download and unpack it on your computer

5) Through your FTP you need to delete the wp-includes and wp-admin folders on your webhost.

6) Upload the new WP files to your webhost, overwriting the old files. You will need to replace every file with the new ones, including the ones in the root directory (your wp-config file will be safe). Be careful when you come to copying the wp-content directory. You should make sure that you only copy the files from this directory, rather than replacing your existing wp-content directory. This is where your themes and plugins live, so you will want to keep theme. If you have customized the default or classic themes without renaming them, make sure not to overwrite those files, otherwise you will lose your changes. (Though you might want to compare them for new features or fixes..)

7) Then, open the wp-config-sample.php file and see if there are new settings you want to add to your own wp-config.php

8) Go to your wp-admin (yourdomain.com/wp-admin) and login. If a database upgrade is needed it will be detected by Wordpress and you will get a link to do that. Follow the link and the instructions you get.

9) Enable your plugins again and see if everything is working like it should.

10) Done.

Really, it's very easy once you get over the fear of messing something up. With a backup in place you can't lose your site, so there's no reason not to update your Wordpress when you only have the manual option available.

Take care,

Leslie