Wondering how to update your WordPress theme safely without losing content and customization?
Don’t worry, after reading this article you’ll be able to update the WordPress theme without losing settings and date.
WordPress themes determine the front-end of your website. The first thing your users see is your site’s layout. And, all your contents are displayed according to your theme. This pretty much explains how important a WordPress theme is.
Equally important is to update your WordPress theme. There are a lot of benefits to updating the WordPress theme. We’ve mentioned some of them as given below.
Why Update Your WordPress Theme?
Keeping your WordPress themes updated is a super important aspect of managing a WordPress site. Want to know why? See the points below:
- Security: The first benefit of updating your theme is that your site gets more secured. Outdated themes are vulnerable to security attacks so you can lose all your important data. Hence, always update your WordPress themes to the latest version.
- Additional Features: Did you know your theme’s developers are constantly adding new features to the theme to make it richer and easier for you to use? You can access these new features easily. All you need to do is update the theme and you can enjoy these features.
- Compatibility: WordPress is open-source software. It keeps updating. Sometimes, the themes you installed might not be compatible with the latest version of WordPress. Therefore, keep updating your theme to run your WordPress website smoothly.
Now that we’re aware of the importance of updating WordPress themes let’s dive into the actual process of updating the themes.
Preparing for Theme Update in WordPress
Before anything, always make sure that you have the latest backup of your website. When you keep a backup of your site even if something goes wrong, you can easily restore it. And, your site will be back and running in no time.
If you don’t know how to back up then, here’s a beginner’s guide on how to back up a WordPress website.
How to Update WordPress Theme? (Easy One-click Method)
Method 1: Update Your WordPress Theme Automatically
WordPress is the most trusted and versatile Content Management System (CMS). It powers 41% of the website today.
It’s loved by many people, thanks to its bundle of unique and amazing features such as thousands of professionally coded themes and plugins. Best of all, it allows updates of themes and plugins with so much ease.
Update All Themes At Once
In order to update all your installed themes at once, the first and foremost thing to do is log in to your WordPress dashboard. Then, from the menus located at the left sidebar, navigate to Updates.
Next, it takes you to a page where you can see if the themes you’ve installed have a new version. Additionally, you can also update plugins that you’ve installed and WordPress itself as well.
Moving forward, select the theme you want to update or select all the themes at once by clicking on the Select All button. Finally, hit the Update Themes button located at the top and bottom of the theme list.
Update Themes Individually
Another great feature WordPress offers is that it allows you to update themes individually. To do that, navigate to Appearance >> Themes from the sidebar.
On the next page, you can see all the themes you’ve installed. If there’s a new update available you can see ‘New version available. Update now’ message at the top of the theme.
Simply, click on the Update now button, and your theme is automatically updated.
If you want to see the details about the updates such as what new features are added, or the version of the theme before updating, you can do that as well. Simply hover over the theme that has updates available then, click on the Theme Details option.
On the next page, you can see which version has been released, also a description of the theme. Now, simply click on the update now option below the Update Available message.
Enable Auto-Updates for Your WordPress Theme
Apart from that, WordPress themes also allow you to enable auto-update options. On the theme details page, you can see the Enable auto-updates option, as shown in the above image.
Once enabled, you can see the scheduled time for the next update. At the scheduled time, your theme will be automatically updated. This scheduled time might differ depending upon the theme. Later, you can disable this option as well.
This is the easy and quick default method to update WordPress themes. It takes just a few clicks to complete the whole process.
But if you have done customizations by editing your theme’s code or added CSS, then you may lose the customizations after the update. So, it’s best to use child themes if you plan to make customizations.
Now, let’s see how to create a child theme and update it safely.
How to Update WordPress Theme? (For Developers)
If you’re quite familiar with WordPress and have good knowledge of coding, you can add custom codes to your WordPress theme files. Adding code snippets can take your theme to the next level.
However, if you’ve customized your theme by adding codes to your theme’s function.php file, updating it’ll overwrite all your customization.
No need to panic; below, we’ve mentioned 3 methods for updating WordPress themes without losing content. Without further ado, let’s get started.
Method 2: Update WordPress Theme With Child Theme
The next safest method to update a WordPress theme is creating a child theme.
A child theme in WordPress is a theme that inherits all the features, functionalities, and styles of a parent theme. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to create a child theme.
- Login to your cPanel and open the File Manager folder under the Files section.
- Next, navigate to public_html/wp-content/themes folder.
- On the themes folder, create a new folder and name it as your theme name -child.
- Inside the child theme folder create files style.css and functions.php.
The next step is to write custom codes on those files. In this article, you can find the necessary codes – Creating WordPress child themes.
To activate the child theme you created, go to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Appearance >> Themes, and activate it.
After creating the child theme, you can add as many customizations as you like and update your theme without hampering the parent theme.
Method 3: Update WordPress Theme Manually Without Losing Customization
One of the methods to update the WordPress theme without losing your customization is to manually update it. To manually update, first of all, connect to your hosting account using an FTP client.
Once connected, you can see the screen divided into two. The left side is the local side. Whereas, the right side is server-side. From the server-side navigate to public_html/wp-content/themes.
On the themes folder, you can see all the themes you’ve installed. Right-click on the theme you want to update. Select the Download option and save it on your computer.
Next, it’s time to download the updated version of the theme. Visit the theme’s site and download the latest version. Further, extract the zip file.
Now, you’ve both the old customized version and the new version of the theme on your computer. If you remember the code snippet you added then, copy and paste them into the new version.
However, if you don’t remember the added code snippet then, you need to compare the theme files and find them. The easiest way to compare the theme files is to use file comparison software such as WinMerge.
In the file comparison software, open both the theme files. Then, locate the customizations you added to the old theme. Copy the codes and paste them to the same file in the new version.
Once you’ve copied the code to the new theme folder, it’s time to upload the updated version to your website. Using the FTP client, connect to your website.
From the server-side, navigate to public_html/wp-content/themes. Now, simply drag and drop the updated version of the theme from the local side to the server-side.
You’ll get a message ‘Target file already exists’. Click on the Overwrite option and then hit the Ok button.
It might take some minutes to upload the theme folder. Finally, your old theme files are replaced by new theme files. Congratulations! you’ve successfully updated the WordPress theme without losing any content.
Method 4: Create a Staging Site to Update WordPress Theme
A staging site is a test site you create to experiment with customizations, themes, and plugins. The staging site acts as a sandbox for your production website.
You can add new themes, plugins, update them on the staging site, and customize them as per your wish. The great news is if anything goes wrong, this doesn’t affect your live site at all.
Once you’re satisfied with the changes and modifications you can push the staging site into a live site without any hassle.
The easiest way to create a WordPress staging site is using a WordPress staging plugin. WP Staging is a free staging plugin. Moreover, it’s easy to set up and use.
You can easily install the plugin from your WordPress dashboard. Below is the brief step-by-step process to create a staging site using the WP Staging plugin.
- First of all, log in to your WordPress dashboard. Then, from the sidebar select the Plugins menu.
- Next, search the WP Staging plugin in the search bar. Then, install and activate the plugin.
- Once activated, click on the WP Staging tab from the sidebar. And, select the Create New Staging Site button.
- Then, write the name of the staging site of your choice and click on the Start Cloning option.
- And that’s all, the staging site is ready. Now, you can experiment, customize, and update themes and plugins as much as you like.
Wrapping It Up!
And, that’s all about how to update WordPress themes. If you’re a beginner and non-technical person then, choose the first method to update your WordPress theme.
However, if you’ve added custom codes and don’t want to lose them then, update it manually, or create a child theme, or use a staging site.
Furthermore, if you’re looking for some great themes that provide a one-click update, here are some suggestions – Zakra, ColorMag, Spacious, eStore, etc. Besides, these themes also provide child themes and they are highly compatible with all major plugins including WP Staging.
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