That means that hackers know how to get into old versions of WordPress. So it is extremely important to keep your site updated to avoid getting hacked! Big problems when you do update. No matter what, you are going to have to update someday. The more often you update, the less likely it is that updates will cause problems. Problems will arise if you try to skip a bunch of version numbers for instance, if you try to update from version 3.
I have encountered this many times. I just start all over with a new site, and import their old content. For a small site, this might not be a big deal, but for complex sites, it can get very expensive. In a worst case scenario, this can even lead to a major data loss.
I once worked with a website that was running a very old version of bbPress a popular forum plugin. I spent dozens of hours and cost them thousands of dollars trying to update from this very old version, but since there were hundreds of thousands of posts in their forums, updating was very complicated.
Any theme changes made using these companion plugins are also not affected by a theme update. Any other features that you have added to your website using a plugin are also safe. For example, your WordPress contact forms , Google Analytics , email newsletter popups , and more. These changes will be lost because the files will be overwritten when your theme is updated. These files will also be overwritten and you will lose your changes. A child theme is a WordPress theme that inherits the functionality, features, and style of another WordPress theme, the parent theme.
You can then customize the child theme without making any changes to the parent theme. Because your changes are stored in the child theme, you can safely update the parent theme without losing your customizations. You can create the child theme using a plugin or using code. The theme you need to update should be the parent theme.
If you use the code method of creating a child theme, then you should create it in a folder on your computer. If you use the plugin method, then you will have to download the child theme folder to your computer in the next section. This folder will be the backup of your theme and customizations. If you created a child theme using the plugin method in the previous section, then you should download its folder to your computer in the same way. Now we need to download the update to your theme.
You should now have three theme folders on your computer: the new updated version of your theme, the old customized version of your theme, and the child theme you just created. Next, we need to identify all of the changes you made to your theme so we can copy them over to the child theme. The easiest way to do this is by comparing your old and new theme files. Open your file comparison software and then drag the updated version of your theme in the left panel, and the old customized version in the left.
The software will highlight any files that have been changed or added. With the exception of functions. Your child theme already has its own functions. First, open the updated and old versions of your functions. You need to copy the highlighted text from the customized version and copy it to the clipboard. Make sure you save the file after you have done this. After copying your changes to the child theme, you are now ready to upload the updated theme and child theme to your website.
After that, you should select the updated theme folder and child theme folder and upload them to your website. Your FTP client will warn you that the files with the same name already exist. You need to choose Overwrite to make sure that your old theme files are replaced by the updated versions. We mentioned at the beginning of this article that any customizations made with the WordPress theme customizer are not stored in your theme, and so they have not yet been added to the child theme.
For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin. With the parent theme still active, you need to visit the Themes » Customize page. The plugin will now export your customizer settings and send them to your computer in a. Next, you should activate your child theme.
Simply navigate to Appearance » Themes and then click the Activate button underneath the child theme. The plugin will now import the customizer settings from your export file. You have now moved all of your customizations to the child theme.
In the future, you will be able to update the parent theme without needing to go through these steps again. We hope this article helped you update your WordPress theme without losing customization. If you come across any issues, then check out our guide on most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.
You may also want to check out our list of must have WordPress plugins to grow your website. If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook. Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission.
See how WPBeginner is funded , why it matters, and how you can support us. Trusted by over 1. Get FREE access to our toolkit — a collection of WordPress related products and resources that every professional should have! I want to do some customisation to my theme. Good article as always. Since it was written though there are a number of good child theme creator plugins or older ones updated and now that function well. If I want to switch to using a child theme after I have already used and customised the parent theme, Is there a way to keep all my theme settings and customisations and bring them to the child theme?
It would depend on the customizations added to your site. In that case, it would be best to create a staging site to test the changes. Hi, Thank you for the article! Quick question- if I use the customizations to update my theme do I still need to follow all of these multiple steps?
I thought changes made in customizations were safe from any changes with a theme update? Thanks a lot for the clear piece of information. However, even though I have a child theme activated, when I update the theme currently I am testing it on a staging environment I still lose all customization. What am I doing wrong? Not super clear on what the update procedure should be when using a child theme.
I have even tried to copy paste all code from old child theme into the new child theme in the updated environment, without any result. Thank you for the information. However, I did not see the download option on my Cpanel. I cant download the themes. I want to know if Cpanel does not have access to that. You would want to reach out to your hosting provider to see if they have something custom specifically set up for their hosting.
As this was a lot of code, is there any way to recover this? Help is much appreciated. Thank you. My question is, would there be any problem creating a child theme, even if I never end up using it, just having it there in case the need arose, and still using css customizer or css plugins. Just to cover all bases.
I am wondering over the following: I have created a child theme to an existing theme. I have installed it, but since then I have added some changes via additional CSS. I would also like to change something in the functions. And one of the ways to do that is to update your site. Remember that the WordPress team is always on-the-go and on the look-out for security issues and always ready to release updates to fix any issues, especially those concerning security vulnerabilities.
The same is true with your themes and plugins. So, the three reasons above are the three biggest things to consider why you have to regularly update your website. SiteSpot is a website management system that makes writing, designing and maintaining your site a breeze.
You miss out on new features This is quite literally the foremost reason why you are required to update. Remember, prevention is better than cure. Posted in Uncategorized.
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