WordPress has automatic upgrade options in the Dashboard, but if you have (like me in the past when I didn’t know better) hacked your site’s main theme, using that option will really mess you up. Best practice is to create child theme, but in the event you ever want to upgrade manually and not replace your theme folders, follow these steps below.
(Thanks to http://tutorialwordpress.info/ for the quick steps on how to manually upgrade WordPress.
Manual WordPress Upgrade
- Backup your database and files. If you don’t know how to do this, check the WordPress Codex.
- Download the latest WordPress zip file. A link should be provided in your Admin Dashboard.
- Unzip the file on your local computer.
- Log in to your WordPress site using your preferred FTP program. If you don’t know what FTP is, this method of updating isn’t for you.
- In the root folder of your web server, locate your WordPress files and do the following:
- Delete the old wp-includes and wp-admin folders.
- Please read this entire sentence before doing anything: Once the old files are deleted, upload all of the new WordPress files (the folders and files from index.php down to xmlrpc.php) EXCEPT the wp-content folder. Do not upload this folder! This is where all of your plugins and themes live and you don’t want to over write this folder.
- You should replace all the old WordPress files with the new ones, including those in the root directory like index.php, wp-login.php and so on. Your wp-config.php will be safe.
- Once the new files have been uploaded to your server, open up the NEW wp-content folder and copy only the index.php file to your old wp-content folder on the web server. I’m not sure if this is actually necessary but I always do this as a safe bet.
- This should be all you need to do.
Now, for a couple of last minute steps. Log back into your admin area. If the upgrade was successful, you’ll get a message fom WordPress stating that the WordPress Database needs to be upgraded. Click the Upgrade WordPress Database button and wait a few minutes.
Manually upgrading WordPress via FTP
If successful you’ll get a second message:
Manual WordPress upgrade via FTP
Click continue and you’re done!