Manually Upgrading WordPress is Easy. Here’s How.

Upgrading a WordPress install has always been something that’s split down the middle between two factions of WP blogger’s it seems. Those who are comfortable with the idea of upgrading and those who are not, “those who are not” being the slightly larger majority I believe. Those blogger’s who simply want to write their articles and publish but wanted a bit more control over their site than what the popular free blog hosts have to offer. In other words–non tech types which is what the WordPress developers are striving to attract more of with each successive release.

There’s nothing wrong with not being born with mind that simply can’t wrap itself around the majority of things technical in nature–most folks fall into that category while the rest of us that can are just weird that way. If we all were born with this ability to fathom all things technical then we’d all be using Unix on our home computers since we’d need nothing beyond a command line interface now would we?

Be that as it may, what every blogger who runs a custom WordPress based site; non-tech, tech-head or otherwise, has to realize is that once you buy yourself that domain name, set up a hosting account, install WordPress and publish your first post is that you are now a webmaster which simply means that there is going to be site maintenance that has to be done and upgrading is one of them. But never fear, with a few tools of the trade, it becomes an easy task and once you get through your first upgrade you’ll find out there was nothing to fear after all.

Note: Reading the entire procedure through at least once before performing the upgrade is always a good idea when attempting any procedure like this. Once you feel comfortable that you understand what’s going on, then do the upgrade. Also, this upgrade procedure is geared towards those non-tech type bloggers who do not make changes to the WordPress core files. If you don’t know what I mean by this then your safe. If already have an idea what you’re doing but you keep getting stuck during an upgrade, this procedure might also be of help.

Tools of the trade:

Here’s three basic tools (or the equivalent) that you need to get the job done if you don’t already have them. For this post I’m going to assume you do.

• A file compression program. I recommend the free ZipGenius 6.0 (or an equivalent for Mac) since it supports all formats, it’s simple to use, reliable, stable and fully incorporates itself into OS and right click menus. Consistently updated.
• An FTP program. Here I’ll recommend FileZilla which supports all OS platforms and is also free, reliable, stable and doesn’t overwhelm you with functions and features that you’ll never use. Also consistently updated.
• The WP-Database-Backup plugin. An absolute must-have and easy to use.

At this point I’m going to go ahead with the procedure which is what this post is all about rather than get into detail about each of these tools at this time. I’ll have these types of posts coming up in the very near future that will reside under the “Blogging Tools” category here.

Actually a manual upgrade for both major upgrades and all those security updates in between can be done quickly and easily in about 20 minutes (based on a 768k DSL connection) or less depending on your connection speed if you follow these simple steps (Major upgrades as from the 2.3 series to the 2.5 series is done the same way but you need to look into the changes made from the previous series for plugin/theme compatibility issues first):

1. If you wish, write up a simple post saying you’re doing an upgrade and the site might blow up without warning (I’m just kidding okay? ).

2. Download and extract the new version of WordPress to your computer.

Back Up, Back Up Back Up!

(did I mention to Back Up your DB? I will on the next step…)

3. Back up your database (the WP Database Backup plugin is great for this).

(See? Don’t forget now.)

4. Deactivate all your plugins

5. Using an FTP client such as Filezilla, delete the following online directories, do not overwrite!

Note: Why not overwrite? Many will tell you that they overwrite all the time. Many will also complain that upgrading their WordPress installation always screws something up. For whatever reason, attempting to overwrite a directory and all it’s sub-folders and files at the same time almost always causes problems and all it takes is one dropped bit or a corrupted file to do it. Another reason is there are times when a file or files in the current version of WordPress install will no longer be used in the newer version or is renamed to something else and overwriting does not delete the obsolete file or files–they just stay there causing problems and you won’t have a clue as to why.

One exception to this is that the root files rarely change and there’s relatively few of those when compared to the “wp-admin” or “wp-includes” directories, and all sub-folders and files so I have no problem overwriting these.

Directories to delete:

“wp-admin”
“wp-includes”
(Important: Leave “wp-content” alone.)

6. Once those 2 directories are deleted, upload the new versions of the directories one at a time. It will take awhile so relax until it’s done.

7. Now you can safely overwrite all the WordPress root files with the new versions making sure that the “wp-config.php” file is not overwritten (contains username and password to your database and without it your WordPress based site stops working). This is easy since WordPress software does not contain a new “wp-config” file but rather a “wp-config-sample.php” file which is only used during the initial install. You can delete this file before you upload if you wish though it won’t hurt anything if you do upload it.

8. After that’s done just log into your Admin. If the upgrade requires you to update your database the login will automatically redirect you to that step in which case you just click on the link provided and the DB upgrade will be completed and another page will come up with a “Continue” link displayed. Click on that link and you’ll end up in your normal Admin’s Dashboard.

9. Reactivate your plugins one by one making sure each one activates without a problem and your upgrade is done.

The only reason it takes around 20 minutes is waiting for the two directories I mentioned to delete and then the time waiting while the new ones upload. Otherwise the upgrade process is actually fairly simple. I usually get a cup of coffee or do the dishes while I’m waiting but I’m strange that way.

Upgrading is absolutely necessary especially for security purposes. WordPress is the most popular blogging platform out there right now which means the hackers of the world are going to do their best to mess up WordPress based sites just because they can. Same reason they go after Windows based PC’s and Internet Explorer browsers. Realistically, this doesn’t happen very often but when it does due to running an old unsecured version of WordPress, the results can be disastrous indeed.

Why isn’t the process automated like the plugins are in the latest version of WordPress? For the simple fact that there are literally hundreds (thousands?) of different possible server configurations that an automated process would have to deal with and it’s almost impossible to take into account all of them. Even the new plugin update feature doesn’t work on all hosts/servers just for that reason.

Anyway, I hope this procedure helps you non-tech folks out and hopefully allays any fear you might have had in upgrading. Always keep in mind; when it comes to you and your WordPress based site, you are in control.