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How to Update Wordpress Manually?
In earlier posts, we talked about how you can install WordPress manually. To keep your WordPress up-to-date is necessary to keep your site safe from risks and also ensure you can get all the new features available in new WordPress versions. WordPress will roll out upgrades with new features and fixes, you have to update WordPress site from time to time. In this guide, we will discuss how to manually update WordPress. Normally we can simply upgrade WordPress automatically from its dashboard, just like we upgrade a WordPress plugin. If the auto-upgrade failed or you like to try out the WordPress manual update, you can follow below tips to get it done manually. Before the WordPress manual upgrade, make sure to back up your site first in case of upgrade failure or errors.
We use the domain demo.betterhostreview.com for bellow instructions. We will use this URL as the example to show you how to upgrade from a lower WordPress version to a higher WordPress version manually by yourself.
How to Update WordPress Manually?
1. Download the new WordPress version from http://wordpress.org/download/
2. Unzip the downloaded WordPress on your local computer
When you unzip the compress WordPress installer package with a zip/unzip tool, like WinRAR, WinZIP, you will find the new WordPress files as below screenshot shows.
3. Deactivate all WordPress plugins
Log on to the Dashboard of your current WordPress installation. Go to Plugins >> Installed Plugins to deactivate all the plugins. You can select all installed plugins and disable them at once.
4. Delete the old wp-includes and wp-admin folders on your web host
You can connect to your web server through FTP client or shell access to delete above folders. Normally they can be found in the domain root， like demo.betterhostreview.com, or a sub folder in domain root, such as demo.betterhostreview.com/blog/.
5. Upload the new wp-includes and wp-admin folders to your web host
Use FTP or shell access to upload the new folders in place of the previously deleted directories.
6. Upload new files to wp-content folder
From the WordPress folder on your local hard disk, you will find another folder ‘wp-content’. You need to select the individual files from this wp-content folder and upload them to your existing wp-content folder on web server. This will overwrite existing files with the same name on your web server. Other files with only exist on web server will Not be affected. And we do not want those files or folders to be deleted because they are the installed themes and plugins for our WordPress site. If you like to delete a WordPress theme or plugin, you can remove them later by logging into WordPress admin panel after the WordPress manual update. If you use the default or classic WordPress theme(s) comes with the WordPress installation package, and you want to preserve your customization or use these default WordPress themes after upgrading to the new WordPress version, make sure to rename these old themes first. So when upload the files from local wp-content folder to the production server, they will not be overwritten. However you might want to compare both the old and new versions of the theme to see if any new features or fix later from the WP dashboard later.
7. Upload new files to WordPress root directory
From the WordPress folder on your local hard disk, except above said three folders, you should also see some loose files. You need to upload them from the root directory of the new version on your local machine to your online WordPress root directory. Just like we upload the new files to the wp-content folder, we do not need to delete those loose files on domain root folder, the uploading will automatically overwrite existing files with the same name. Other customized files we may need to preserve, such as the .htaccess files. You do not need to worry about your wp-config.php which creates WordPress database connection. Because the new WordPress contains only the wp-config-sample.php file, wp-config.php does not come as a default file in the installation package.
8. Update WordPress Database
If a database upgrade is necessary to be compatible with the latest code. WordPress will detect it and guide to update WordPress database. You can visit the admin URL, http://demo.betterhostreview.com/wp-admin/, see if any database upgrade notice from WordPress.
WordPress Manual Upgrade Extra Tips
The above instructions apply to both stage and production WordPress upgrade. So if you have installed WordPress locally on your computer, you can follow these steps to manually update WordPress by yourself. The only difference would be you do not need a FTP or shell access, you can directly access the local files on your hard disk via file explorer.