Keeping your WordPress theme up-to-date matters for several reasons. Not only do theme updates often bring new features and templates, but they also include security patches for identified vulnerabilities and enhance compatibility with the latest version of WordPress.
And if you use plugins, you’ll need to make sure your theme is update to make sure everything plays nicely with each other.
This guide will walk you through, step-by-step, how to safely update your WordPress theme to its new version, ensuring your site remains secure, fast, and visually appealing.
Preparing for a Theme Update
Updating your WordPress theme is not just about clicking an update button. Proper preparation can ensure the process goes smoothly and prevents potential issues.
Here’s how to thoroughly prepare for a theme update:
Backup Your Website
Before you begin the update, it’s critical to back up your entire WordPress site. This safeguard protects you from data loss in case the update introduces problems or conflicts that disrupt site functionality.
Use a reliable WordPress plugin specifically intended for backups like UpdraftPlus or a tool provided by your hosting provider. Ensure that the backup includes your website’s database, the wp-content folder, all WordPress files, and any other configurations.
Store your backups in a secure location. Ideally, save them in multiple locations, such as your local computer and a cloud storage service. This redundancy increases the safety of your backup data.
Check Theme Customisations
If you’ve customised your current theme—especially any direct changes to the CSS in the style.css stylesheet file, HTML, or PHP files—it’s vital to ensure these modifications won’t be lost.
The easiest way to preserve these customisations is by using a child theme. A child theme allows you to apply updates to the parent theme without overwriting the custom changes you’ve made with new theme files.
For those who have modified the parent theme directly, document all changes meticulously. This documentation will be invaluable when you need to reapply the customisations after updating the theme. Or better yet — don’t do this at all!
Setting Up a Staging Environment
A staging environment is an exact replica of your live site that allows you to test changes and updates before applying them to your live site. This is crucial for avoiding disruptions on your active site.
Many WordPress hosting providers offer tools to create a staging site with just a few clicks. If your hosting does not provide this, plugins like WP Staging can be used to set up a staging environment manually.
Once your staging site is set up, deploy the theme update here first. Test all functionalities and ensure that everything works as expected. This includes checking plugins, custom scripts, and overall site performance.
Following these preparatory steps can help to ensure updating your WordPress theme will be a smooth process that maintains the integrity and performance of your website. These preparations help mitigate risks, allowing you to update with confidence.
Methods to Update a WordPress Theme
Updating your WordPress theme is a key step for maintaining your website’s functionality and security. There are several methods to update your old theme files, each suited to different needs and technical skill levels.
Whether you’re using free or premium themes, this procedure will be the same. So let’s delve into each method with a more detailed tutorial:
1. Via WordPress Dashboard
Updating your theme through the WordPress dashboard is the most straightforward method, ideal for those who prefer a hands-off approach. Here’s how you can do it:
- Access the Update Panel: Log into your WordPress dashboard. Go to Dashboard > Themes. If your theme is due for an update, it will appear under the Themes section with a notification.
- Perform the Update: You can also check for updates by going to Appearance > Themes. Here, if an update is available, you will see a notification under the theme thumbnail. Click the Update now link to start the automatic update process. WordPress will handle the download and installation of the latest version of the theme.
- Confirm the Update: After updating, go through your site to ensure everything is functioning correctly. This process does not affect your theme settings or customisation.
2. Manually via FTP
For those who require more control over their updates or need to update a custom theme not included in the WordPress repository, manual updating via FTP is an effective method:
- Prepare the Files: First, download the latest version of your theme from the developer’s website or a marketplace like ThemeForest. Unzip the package on your local machine if it comes in a .zip file.
- Access Your Site via FTP: Open your FTP client, such as FileZilla, and connect to your server using the FTP credentials provided by your WordPress hosting provider. Navigate to the
wp-content/themesdirectory. Or, if your hosting provider has a File Manager, you can use that instead. Add your theme update directly to the themes section.
- Upload and Replace Files: Upload the new theme folder to the server, making sure to overwrite the existing theme files. This step is crucial as it ensures all old files are replaced, preventing software conflicts.
- Verify the Update: After uploading, log into your WordPress dashboard to activate the theme if it isn’t already, and check the site to ensure everything is loading as expected.
3. Using a Child Theme
Updating a WordPress site using a child theme is the safest way to apply updates without losing customisations:
- Update the Parent Theme: If you’re using a child theme, your customisations are preserved in the child theme’s directory, separate from the parent theme. Update the parent theme using either of the methods above, without worrying about overwriting custom styles or functions.
- Maintain Customisation: Since the child theme inherits the functionality and style of the parent theme, only the parent theme needs updating. Your modifications in the child theme remain intact.
- Test After Updates: As always, after updating the parent theme, navigate through your site to check that all customisations are held and the site functions correctly.
Each of these methods offers different benefits, depending on your needs and technical expertise.
Whether you prefer the simplicity of updating through the dashboard, the control of manual updating via FTP, or the safety of using a child theme, maintaining an up-to-date theme matters for the security and performance of your WordPress website.
Testing After Updating Your WordPress Theme
After updating your WordPress theme, conducting thorough tests is crucial to ensure that the update has seamlessly integrated with your site without causing disruptions. These tests are essential to evaluate your site’s functionality, appearance, and performance across various devices and browsers, ensuring that everything operates smoothly for all users.
Functionality Testing
Thorough functionality testing involves a deep dive into every aspect of your site to ensure all features perform optimally:
- Check All Features: Start by navigating through your site to interact with various features such as forms, search functions, and login pages. Test each feature in detail to ensure everything operates as expected.
- Interact with Plugins: Verify that all plugins are compatible and functioning correctly with the updated theme. Check for any plugin conflicts that might have arisen post-update. If any issues are detected, you may need to update the plugins or adjust their settings.
- Forms and Transactions: Pay special attention to e-commerce elements if your site includes them. Test all transaction processes and user input forms thoroughly. Ensure that the checkout process, as well as any data entry forms, operate smoothly without any errors.
Cross-Browser Compatibility
Since your site’s audience will access it from various browsers, ensuring cross-browser compatibility is essential:
- Test on Multiple Browsers: Open your site on different browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. Look for any inconsistencies in how pages are displayed or function.
- Check Visual Elements: Focus on how graphics, animations, and CSS elements like layouts and color themes appear across browsers. Ensure dynamic elements such as hover effects, transitions, and animations work uniformly.
- JavaScript and Interactivity: Test interactive scripts and functionalities like pop-ups, modal dialogs, and dynamic content loading to ensure they work consistently across all browsers.
Responsiveness Check
With a significant amount of web traffic coming from mobile devices, your site must perform well on small screens:
- Test on Various Devices: Use both real devices and browser developer tools to test how your site appears on tablets, smartphones, and other screen sizes. Ensure that the layout adjusts properly and is user-friendly on all devices.
- Interact with Touch Elements: Check that all touch-sensitive elements like dropdown menus, sliders, and buttons are easily navigable and responsive. Make sure that elements are not too close to each other to avoid user interface issues.
- Loading Speed: Monitor the loading times on different devices. Updates can sometimes impact performance; thus, it’s crucial to ensure that your site loads quickly on both desktop and mobile to maintain low bounce rates and high user engagement.
Additional Testing Tips
After the initial round of testing, these additional strategies can further ensure your theme update aligns perfectly with your site’s needs and audience expectations.
- Use Developer Tools: Leverage the built-in developer tools in most browsers to emulate various devices and screen resolutions. This can be especially helpful for conducting a quick check of the site’s responsiveness.
- Seek User Feedback: If possible, gather feedback from real users or stakeholders. Understanding their experience with the updated site can provide valuable insights, especially if they encounter issues that were not initially apparent during your tests.
Taking the time to test your WordPress theme update ensures that it enhances both the visual appeal and functionality of your site. This comprehensive testing strategy helps maintain or even improve the user experience across all platforms and devices and builds a positive interaction with your site’s content.
Troubleshooting Common Issues After a WordPress Theme Update
After updating your WordPress theme, you might encounter some issues that affect your site’s functionality or appearance. Here are detailed steps to troubleshoot common problems that may arise post-update:
Review the Changelog
The changelog is an essential tool for understanding the specifics of what has changed in the latest theme update. Here’s how to use it:
- Understand Recent Changes: Start by reviewing the theme’s changelog, which can typically be found on the theme developer’s website or within the theme itself in the WordPress dashboard. The changelog provides details about what has been changed, fixed, or updated, and can offer insights into any new features or adjustments that could be causing issues.
- Identify Relevant Updates: Look for entries in the changelog that correlate with the problems you’re experiencing. This can help you understand whether a new feature or a bug fix has unintentionally impacted your site’s functionality or layout.
Consult Support Forums
Engaging with support forums can provide you with insights and solutions from a community familiar with the theme.
- Search for Similar Issues: Visit the theme’s support forums, which are often available on the theme developer’s site, WordPress.org, or where you purchased the theme (like ThemeForest). Use the search function to find threads discussing similar issues.
- Engage with the Community: Post your specific problems if you do not find existing solutions. Often, other users or theme developers will offer solutions or workarounds that have worked for them.
- Follow Suggested Solutions: Implement the solutions suggested in the forums cautiously, ensuring they do not conflict with your site’s custom settings or other plugins.
Reverting to an Older Version
When updates cause issues that can’t be quickly resolved, reverting to a previous version of the theme can be a practical temporary solution.
- Backup Before Reverting: Before reverting to an older version of your theme, ensure you back up your current site. This preserves any changes or updates you might want to keep.
- Revert the Theme: If the issue persists and disrupts your site’s operation, consider reverting to the previous version of the theme. This can often resolve immediate problems, especially if they are caused by bugs in the new update.
- Use a Plugin: Tools like WP Rollback can simplify the process of reverting to an earlier version of a theme directly from your WordPress dashboard.
Additional Troubleshooting Steps
Beyond standard practices, there are several other techniques you can employ to diagnose and resolve issues after a theme update.
- Deactivate Plugins: Sometimes, issues arise from a conflict between the newly updated theme and existing plugins. Temporarily deactivate all plugins and reactivate them one by one to identify if a specific plugin is causing the problem.
- Check Custom Code: If you have added custom code snippets to your theme, check to ensure they are compatible with the new theme version. Incompatible code can lead to features breaking or layout issues.
- Developer Tools: Use browser developer tools to inspect elements and console logs for any errors that might provide clues about what is going wrong.
Update Your WordPress Theme the Right Way
Updating your WordPress theme is an essential part of maintaining your site’s health and ensuring compatibility with future core updates and plugins. And by following these steps, you can ensure that your site benefits from the latest features and improvements, while minimizing potential disruptions.
Today, we’ve outlined the steps you need to take to do this. From securing backups to honing in on a post-updated testing strategy. We’ve even covered how to choose the right update method for your needs. Hopefully, this guide will help you streamline the update process and keep your site running smoothly.
If you ever feel like tasks like updating WordPress themes are out of your realm of ability (or you just don’t have time to do it), we can help. We offer extensive WordPress maintenance services that cover updates like these so you can spend more time on other tasks.