Simple Ways to Update Your WordPress Site

Posted on February 9th, 2025

Once your WordPress website is set up, it’s important to take care of it regularly to keep it running smoothly. Updating your WordPress site is a key part of this. If you ignore the update notifications on your WordPress dashboard, you may face issues like compatibility problems, glitches, or even your site going down completely. Fixing these issues can be tricky, so it’s better to update your site before problems arise.

Luckily, there are four safe ways to update WordPress, which we will explain in this article. We’ll show you how to update manually, and also how to set it up to update automatically if you use a reliable WordPress host. In addition to updating WordPress itself, we’ll also cover how to update your themes, plugins, and database. This will help keep your site safe from malware and other online threats.

Reasons to Update a Site to the Latest WordPress Version

Just like any other software, updating WordPress helps you add new features, improvements, and fix bugs. If you don’t keep WordPress updated, your site will become slower and less efficient. Visitors may not want to stay, leading to lower traffic, which is not good for your site over time.

There are other benefits to updating WordPress as well:

  • Better security: Older versions of WordPress are more vulnerable to attacks. Updating helps protect your site from hackers and keeps your data safe.
  • Faster speed: The latest WordPress version can make your site run faster, improving its performance on different browsers and devices. This makes visitors more likely to stay and return.
  • Compatibility: New updates ensure that your site works well with plugins and themes. You won’t have trouble adding new features to enhance your site.
  • Improved functionality: Updates bring in new or better features that make managing your site easier and offer more options to help it grow.

Before Updating WordPress

Before updating your WordPress site, follow this simple checklist:

  • Read the update notice: Check what the latest update includes by reading the WordPress changelog. It might offer new features or fix security issues.
  • Check support forums: See what others are saying about the new update. Look for reports of bugs or errors, and decide whether it’s best to update now or wait. Generally, prioritize security updates first.
  • Back up your site: Always create a complete backup of your WordPress site. This ensures you can recover your data if something goes wrong during the update.
  • Turn off caching: Caching plugins might interfere with the update process. Clear your cache and disable any caching plugins before updating.
  • Deactivate plugins: Some updates may not work well with certain plugins, which can cause your site to go down. Deactivate any extra plugins before starting the update.
  • Update PHP: If your current PHP version doesn’t support the update, make sure to upgrade to a newer PHP version for compatibility.

How to Update WordPress

Updating WordPress is important to keep your website secure and working well. To update, go to the admin dashboard, click on the “Updates” tab, and follow the instructions to install the latest version. This will help protect your site from security issues.

If you’re updating WordPress for the first time, don’t worry. We’ll guide you through four different ways to update your site, both automatically and manually, so you can do it safely.

Step 1: Update WordPress via the WP Admin Dashboard

Updating your site to the latest WordPress version is simple and quick. This manual update only takes a few minutes and is just a click away.

To start, log in to your WordPress admin dashboard. If there’s a new WordPress version available, you’ll see a notification at the top of the page.

Click on “Please update now” to begin the update. This will take you to the Updates page, where you’ll need to click the “Update Now” button again. For small updates, you’ll see a success message along with options to update plugins and themes. For major updates, you’ll be shown a welcome screen with a detailed summary of what’s been updated.

Next, update all your themes and plugins to ensure they work properly with the latest version of WordPress.

Step 2: Update WordPress Manually via FTP

If you can’t update WordPress through the admin dashboard, you can use FTP to do it safely. To manually update your WordPress site, use an FTP client like FileZilla or the File Manager in your hosting control panel. You’ll need to access the root directory of your WordPress site.

Then, replace the old WordPress core files, such as wp-includes and wp-admin, with the new ones.

To update your WordPress website using FileZilla, follow these steps:

  1. Download the latest WordPress version and unzip the ZIP file.
  2. Open the extracted folder and delete the wp-config-sample.php file and the wp-content folder to avoid losing important data.
  3. Log in to your WordPress site using FileZilla or another FTP client.
  4. On the right side (remote site), find the wp-includes and wp-admin directories of your website, right-click on them, and delete them.
  5. On the left side (local site), select the new wp-includes and wp-admin folders, then click Upload.
  6. Upload the rest of the unzipped WordPress files from your computer to the server, replacing the old files. When you see a message asking if you want to overwrite existing files, choose “Always use this action” and “Apply to current queue only.”
  7. Once all files are uploaded, visit yoursite.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php to check if the update was successful.

Step 3: Update WordPress Using SSH and WP-CLI

If you’re reading this, you likely already have SSH access to your WordPress root directory in the public_html folder. Once everything is set up, follow these steps to update your WordPress site to the latest version:

  1. After logging into your SSH account, use the cd command to navigate to your WordPress root directory.
    cd public_html
  2. To see the files in your directory, type ls, or type cd ~ to go back to your home directory.
  3. To check if there’s a new version of WordPress available, enter the following command:
    wp core check-update
  4. If an update is available, you’ll see a message with the details of the new version: 
        +---------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
    | version | update_type | package_url                                                 |
    +---------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
    | #.#.#   | minor       | https://downloads.wordpress.org/release/wordpress-#.#.#.zip |
    | #.#.#   | major       | https://downloads.wordpress.org/release/wordpress-#.#.#.zip |
    +---------+-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------+
  5. If there’s no update, you’ll get a message saying that your WordPress is up to date.
    Success: WordPress is at the latest version.
  6. To begin the update, run this command:
    wp core update
  7. Wait for the process to finish, and your WordPress site will automatically update.

Now that you’ve updated the core files, it’s time to update your database. Run the following commands to update your plugins and themes:

wp core update-db
wp theme update --all
wp plugin update --all

Once the update is complete, run the check commands again to confirm that everything was updated properly. The results should show that all updates were applied successfully.

Step 4: Update WordPress Automatically

WordPress automatically updates your site for small core updates, which mainly focus on maintenance and improving stability. You can also set up automatic updates for major releases, plugins, and themes.

Here’s how to set up WordPress Enhanced Automatic Updates. Keep in mind that enabling this will turn off the default WordPress automatic updates.

  1. Go to WordPress → Security in hPanel.
  2. Scroll down to the Automatic updates section and switch on Enable automatic updates. This will enable all WordPress core updates.
  3. If you only want to automate security updates, click Show advanced settings and select Yes, but only security updates from the drop-down menu under WordPress core automatic update settings.
  4. Read the disclaimer and click Enable auto-updates to confirm.
  5. To set up automatic updates for themes and plugins, click Show advanced settings and select Yes, enable all updates from both drop-down menus.
  6. Click Apply settings once you’re finished.

Then, scroll down to the Update log section to view all recent automatic updates. To see more details about an update, click the three-dot icon and choose Details. If you want to go back to a previous version, select Restore.

Alternatively, you can use a WordPress plugin to automate updates. For example, the Easy Updates Manager plugin allows you to enable or disable updates with just one click, and it can hide updates for custom-developed themes or plugins.

You can also turn on automatic WordPress updates by adding a line of code to the wp-config.php file. Here’s how to do it:

  • Log in to hPanel and go to File Manager under the Files section.
  • In the public_html folder, find and select the wp-config.php file.
  • Click the Edit button in the top menu.
  • Add or change the following line of code:
    define('WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', true);
  • Finally, click Save.

This will help you update WordPress to the latest version safely.

How to Update WordPress Themes and Plugins

After updating your WordPress core files, don’t forget to update your themes and plugins. If you skip updating the database, it can lead to errors that may affect how your website works. It’s important to regularly check for plugin and theme updates so you know when they need to be updated. Waiting too long to update can cause problems with syncing features and increase the chances of website crashes.

Before updating, it’s a good idea to test and make sure the new version won’t cause any issues. To update plugins and themes, go to the Updates page by hovering over the Dashboard menu. This will take you to a page where you can see all available updates for plugins and themes.

You can either choose “Select All” to update everything at once or select specific plugins and themes to update. Be careful when updating everything at once, as it can use a lot of resources and slow down your website.

While the process is the same for both, remember to update your plugins and themes separately. Start by updating the caching plugin to avoid any problems.

You will see an “Update available” message next to any outdated plugins or themes. Simply click the Update button to install the latest version. Alternatively, you can select multiple outdated plugins and themes, and the Update selected button will appear at the bottom, allowing you to update them all at once.

If you need help using hPanel, check out our tutorial for guidance. After updating, preview your site to check if everything works correctly.

Sometimes, you may not get update notifications on the dashboard. In most cases, plugin developers will email you about updates, so be sure to check your inbox after updating WordPress. If you’re unhappy with the update, consider removing or replacing any themes or plugins causing issues. However, avoid rolling back plugins to older versions, as this could harm your site, including reducing SEO performance and traffic.

Conclusion

In this guide, you’ve learned how to update WordPress safely, both manually and automatically, without causing issues on your site – an essential skill for any website owner. Keeping your site updated improves security and fixes bugs. A well-maintained site is more likely to attract visitors and boost conversion rates.

To update, remember to check for upcoming WordPress releases, back up your site, clear the website cache, and upgrade PHP. It’s also important to deactivate plugins before updating to avoid errors.

Here’s a quick recap of the four ways to update your site to the latest WordPress version:

  • Update through the WordPress Admin Dashboard. Click on the automatic update notice in the WP admin panel to start the update.
  • Update manually using an FTP client. Replace the old core files with the new ones from the official WordPress site.
  • Update with SSH and WP-CLI. Use commands to update WordPress core files, database, themes, and plugins via an SSH terminal.
  • Enable automatic updates for WordPress. Modify the wp-config.php file through your hosting control panel’s File Manager.

Also, don’t forget to update your themes and plugins to ensure your site runs smoothly. Go to the Updates page in your WordPress admin area to choose whether to update each item separately or all at once.

Now that you’ve updated WordPress, feel free to leave a comment below!

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