With each new theme update comes amazing new features, new customization options, code improvements and fixes. In addition, keeping your theme up to date is important for the security of your site. Staying up-to-date improves both site health and your user experience. It is important that we communicate to our customers any important items that need to be taken into consideration when updating.
Backup Your Website #
It’s always a good idea to make sure that you have a current file backup of your web site, and a backup of your WordPress database. You can use these to revert back to your backup if something unforeseen happens during the update process. If you are not familiar with how to do this yourself, you can contact with your hosting company or use plugins available that completely automate that process for you, such as: UpDraftPlus and BackupBuddy.
Update Required & Recommended Plugins #
All themes come with some required or recommended plugins. These plugins provide the theme to work fully functional. Every time you update the theme, the plugins also needs updated. When you update the theme, you will see a notification message at top of the admin panel. Follow the onscreen prompts to install the plugin updates.
Don’t Keep Older Copies of The Theme #
You should completely remove all previous the theme folder before adding the new updated theme folder. This can cause potential problems.
Update The Child Theme #
Child themes are great for making changes or editing your main theme without the risk of unpleasant surprises. Therefore, if there is an update to the child theme (You can check this via the changelog of the theme), do not forget to update the child theme.
Don’t Rename the Theme Folder #
If you rename your theme folder when you update, then the path is no longer valid. WordPress stores some features, menus, and widget settings by theme folder path. This can cause some problems in the long run. You also run into problems with automatic theme updates. Therefore, we strongly do not recommend that you do this.
