How to Upgrade WordPress

Posted on August 2nd, 2009 by Marck

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WordPress is one of the most popular and powerful content management systems in the Internet today. Many people like using WordPress for its ease of use, versatility, and features. To keep your blog or website up-to-date with the latest version of WordPress, you need to upgrade it every now and then.

WordPress Installations

To function properly with the latest innovations, WordPress installations should be upgraded. The way you upgrade a WordPress install depends on what kind of installation you’re running on your site:

WordPress MU. Blog networks running on WordPress platforms, and blogs hosted by WordPress.com, are based on a multi-user fork of WordPress called WordPress MU. The administrator of the multi-user install typically upgrades the WordPress core for use by the entire network.
Self-hosted WordPress. Many sites use the WordPress engine for use on one particular site or blog. A self-hosted WordPress install is used for a particular site, and must be managed by the site owner and administrator.

Automatic Upgrade

Some people do not have the technical skills needed to perform a manual upgrade on their WordPress installs. Automatic upgrades take the effort out of manually upgrading your WordPress installation, or creating a new installation altogether. Here are some ways to perform an automatic upgrade:

Upgrade plugin. For older versions of WordPress (2.3 and below), you need to upload an automatic upgrade plugin to the “wp-content/plugins” folder on your website using an FTP client. You can then activate and activate the plugin from the “Plugins” panel of your older WordPress installation. Make sure to deactivate all plugins and back up databases before activating the automatic upgrade plugin.
WordPress 2.7 and beyond. One of the updates that came with WordPress 2.7 (Coltrane) was that the install can be upgraded automatically. A update notification is displayed on the top of dashboard, or you may select the “Automatic Upgrade” option on the “Plugins” pane on the left side of the dashboard.

Manual Upgrade

In some instances, a manual upgrade is much safer and more efficient than upgrading WordPress automatically. You do need some technical knowledge in computers and Web applications to install WordPress without problems.

Tools

FTP client software
The latest version of WordPress (available in ZIP or tar.gz)

Steps

Back up the databases and tables of your site through the hosting control panel.
Connect to your site using the FTP client.
Back up the contents of your site. Depending on the speed of your connection and the total size of your site’s contents, it can take hours to complete the backup process. Do not skip the backup processes.
Delete the old “wp-includes” and “wp-admin” directories, but make sure to hang on to the file named “wp-config.php.” Do not delete or modify the contents of this file.
Overwrite the contents of the files and folders in your blog’s site directory, not the root directory.
Log in to your WordPress account. You will then be redirected to a URL where you can upgrade your WordPress installation. Follow the instructions to complete the install upgrade.

Upgrading WordPress is a very important task to keep your install up-to-date. With these steps, you can easily and efficiently upgrade your WordPress installation to the latest version.