How to Update WordPress, Plugins, and Themes … The Easy Way

Keeping your WordPress site up to date is one of the easiest and most effective ways to improve its overall security and prevent any compatibility issues in the future.

In this quick post, I’ll show you how to update your WordPress site from start to finish. The operation itself is quite easy. However, a couple of things are worth doing before and after to ensure everything works as expected.

Okay, here’s what you need to know:

What can you update in WordPress?

Your WordPress site has three main elements that are updated most commonly:

• WordPress core – the main WordPress software
• plugins
• theme(s)

I’m going to show you how to update each of them.

Translation files can also be updated the same way, but they’re not as significant to your site’s well-being as the three main elements listed above.

Before you update your site

Let me tell you a quick story about backups.

So WordPress backups (or website backups, to be more generic) are simply copies of your website’s files and database that you can restore if something goes wrong.

I’m sure we can both agree that having a backup at hand is a great safety net against any imaginable website problem.

Okay, but why am I telling you this? Quite simply, updating your site is one of those activities that can potentially break it. Don’t panic, though; it probably happens only 1% of the time. (I don’t have data on this, but it seems accurate based on my experience.)

In other words, when you update your site, you’re actually changing the scripts that run your site. Those scripts have been tested by the developers, but in some rare scenarios, doing this update can break things. So, if that happens, you will always be able to restore your site from a backup.

What I want to tell you in the end is this:

Make sure you have a recent backup before performing any serious update on your site – like updating multiple plugins, themes, and WordPress core all at once.

• If you’re not sure how to set that up, here’s how to do it for free with UpdraftPlus. This tool will back up your site daily and store the backup in a safe location, such as your Dropbox.
• Alternatively, many web hosts offer automated daily backups. This means you don’t have to set up or manage anything yourself; instead, your web host will take care of everything. Hosts such as SiteGround or Bluehost offer this functionality, for example.

1. Update WordPress core

This means updating the main WordPress system files.

To do that, go to your WordPress dashboard, then into Updates. You’ll see this:

Click on the main update button (image above).

Stay on the page. WordPress will start the update and let you know about status in a couple of seconds. If all goes well, you’ll a the success message:

2. Update WordPress plugins

This you can do in a couple of ways:

(a) Go to your WordPress dashboard, then to Updates. You’ll see a list of all available plugins for update:

To update them, you can either check the “Select All” box or check individual plugins one by one. Then, click on Update Plugins. Stay on the page.

You should see the success message in less than a minute:

(b) Alternatively, go to Plugins from the main sidebar menu. There, click on Update Available in the top list. You will see all your plugins that have available updates:

To update these plugins one by one, click on the update now link next to each plugin.

Extra: You can actually set up auto-updates

WordPress has a cool, newer feature that allows it to update itself. However, its default behavior isn’t very intuitive, but luckily there are ways to make it super-intuitive.

For example, you can install this plugin, which will allow you to automatically update your plugins, themes, and even WordPress core.

Just go to your WordPress dashboard, to Plugins → Add New, and type “Disable Updates” into the search box (yes, I know the name might make you think you’re in the wrong place, but this is it). Look for the plugin authored by Themeisle:

Click on Install Now and then Activate.

Then, go to Settings → Updates manager. You’ll see this:

(1) Pick the type of updates you want to allow for plugins. Options include:

• Manual updates – the default WordPress behavior – you will be notified of a new update, but it won’t install automatically.
• Enable auto-updates – updates will be installed automatically.

(2) You can do the same for your installed themes.

(3) If you want to control other elements of your WordPress install, such as your WordPress core, translations, and even other components, you can do that in the plugin interface too:

Once you enable these auto-updates, they will all happen on their own from that point on, without you having to click any buttons or regularly check the updates page. (Just remember what I said about backups earlier.)

3. Update WordPress Themes

Again, this can be done in a couple of ways:

(a) Go to your WordPress dashboard, then to Updates. You’ll see your theme and the available update there:

Tick the box next to the theme, and click Update Themes. Stay on the page.

In a second, you’ll see the success message:

(b) Alternatively, go to Appearance → Themes from the main sidebar menu. There, you will see all your installed themes (in case you have more than one).

If updates are available, you’ll see a banner saying “New version available,” like this one:

Click Update now and wait a couple of seconds for the update to complete.

Conclusion

As you can see, updating your WordPress core, plugins, or themes is quite easy. It basically just takes clicking a couple of buttons in different parts of the WordPress dashboard.

To make it even less of a hassle, you can use the plugin I mentioned: Updates Manager.

Check it out, and let us know if you have any questions about this topic!

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