The recent release of the world’s most popular blogging platform has seen some huge additions, including the ability to add custom Post Types and custom Taxonomies, and support for multiple blogs.
Other improvements include support for custom stylesheets to style the post and page editors. What this means is that what you see in the editor more closely resembles the final product.
To take advantage of these amazing new features, you’ll need to upgrade. Upgrading your current version of WordPress to the new version is pretty easy and all of the core functionality should just continue to work as normal and you shouldn’t lose anything.
However, there have been reports of bugs in some plugins and themes after the new version has been installed, so some care should be taken.
WordPress recommends that you have a complete backup of your site before you attempt to upgrade, just in case the worst happens. In this post, I’m going to walk you through the steps of backing up your WordPress install before upgrading.
Prerequisites
There are a few thing that you should have to hand before starting:
- Webhost control panel login details – note that I’m assuming that you’re using CPanel, but the steps should be similar on other providers like Plesk
- Database name – this is the name you gave your database when you first setup WordPress. If you’re not sure you can use the CPanel file manager to browse to the root directory and open up the file named ‘wp-config.php’ – the database name is in there.
There are two main parts to a WordPress install, the files and the database. Both should be backed up prior to upgrading. The good news is that, if you’re host is using CPanel, both these jobs are relatively straightforward.
Backing Up Your Database
Note: There are plugins that handle database backups available as well, but I won’t be discussing them here.
1) Log into your CPanel account, browse down to PHPMyAdmin and click the icon to open it up
2) Once you’re in, select your blog’s database by clicking on the database name in the right hand panel (note: you might have more databases listed – make sure you choose the right one!)
3) Click on ‘Export’ along the top menu bar
4) Make sure that all of the tables are highlighted here (click Select All if you’re not sure) :
5) Check the box that says Save As File and then give it a name.
6) Click Go, and the browser ‘Save as…’ dialog will pop up. Save this file somewhere safe – I usually put it on the desktop while I’m working with it.
Backing Up Your Files
If you’re using CPanel, the quickest way to get a copy of all of your files is to backup your home directory.
1) Log into your CPanel account and browse to Backups.
2) Under Download a Home Directory Backup click Home Directory.
3) The browser ‘Save as…’ dialog will open. Again, save this file somewhere safe in case you need it. Note that it may be a very large file – perhaps hundreds of megabytes – depending on how many photos and things you’ve uploaded.
Upgrading WordPress
Now you have a backup of the database and files, you can get on with upgrading.
1) Log in to your WordPress Admin panel.
2) Go to Upgrade
3) click Upgrade Automatically. WordPress will download and install itself.
4) After installation, you might be asked to do a Database upgrade as well. Make sure that you do this.
5) Return to the Upgrade panel, and make sure that you upgrade all of your plugins.
6) You’re done! If everything’s gone smoothly, you should be running the latest version of WordPress. If something’s gone wrong, don’t panic. Go down to ‘Copying Your Upgraded Database’ below and follow the steps.
Disaster Recovery!
If something goes horribly wrong, don’t panic! All you need to do is restore your database and files and you should be all set. Once again, CPanel makes this easy.
Restore Your Files
1) Log into CPanel and click on Backups
2) Click on Restore A Home Directory Backup
3) Remember that entire home directory backup file you downloaded? The really huge one? Click Browse and go find it.
4) Click Upload, then go make yourself a cup of coffee – this might take a while
Restore Your Database
1) Log into CPanel and browse to PHPMyAdmin
2) Select your blog database
3) Check the Check All button to select all of the tables
4) Choose Drop from the drop-down menu labeled With Selected: . It’ll ask you if you’re sure you want to do that. You are (you DO have that backup, right? Triple check before you hit ‘Yes’)
5) Click Import along the top row, then click Browse...
6) Find the database file you downloaded earlier (it should have the file extension ‘.sql’), select it and then hit OK
7) Click Go and wait until you get the confirmation screen – if everything executed successfully, you can now close that down – that’s your database restored.
And that’s it! With any luck, your blog should be back to how it was before the upgrade!
If you still don’t feel very confident and would like some help in updating your WordPress Site, then please get in touch.
This is perfect! I’ve been wanting to do it for both of my blogs but was too afraid. Right, I’m armed and dangerous!
Thank you
You’re very welcome. Good luck and remember – every time you forget to take a backup before doing something on your database, somewhere a fairy dies.