WordPress How To: Update to the Latest WP Version (2.9.1)
Update for WordPress 2.9.1: I repost this information each time WP offers a new update so that you can have step-by-step instructions to easily update your WordPress site yourself.
Wordpress 2.9.1 addresses 24 known bugs in the 2.9 release 3 weeks ago. Five of the bugs listed have been rated high while the majority received a normal rating. Several updates fix installation and upgrade issues that site owners might have experienced.
You can review the list of bugs being addressed here.
You’ll know when you need to update as you’ll see the pale yellow “nag” bar at the top of the admin screen when you login in prompting you to update.
But, before you update we need to do a little housekeeping:
- First save a copy of all your WordPress pages and posts to your hard drive. You do this by clicking on the Tools icon in the left sidebar and then Export. On the next screen click on Download Export File. You might want to create a new Folder on your hard drive where you keep all you Web site files. Name it WP Backup so you know to save all backup files for WP there (and you’ll know where to find them if you need them). It is a good idea to back up this file once a month anyway regardless if an update is needed.
- Second, backup your WordPress database. There is a nifty plugin that makes this process a no brainer, WP-DBManager. This plugin is also a must have for repairing and optimizing your database (which you should be doing minimally monthly to keep things running smoothly).
- To be safe, deactivate all plugins before upgrading.
Once you get the above tasks accomplished, follow the links in the nag bar (it’s called a nag because that yellow bar will be up there nagging you until you take care of the important issue noted) and update your site to the latest version of WordPress.
Then, don’t forget to reactivate and update your plugins. You’ll see with each WordPress update that plugin developers also update their plugins which you can also do with one click. You’ll see the now familiar yellow nag bar under the plugin name in the plugins area with a link to “upgrade automatically.”
It’s not likely that there will be an issue with updates and plugins. In most cases a rogue plugin that has not been updated by the developer is what will cause problems or break a WordPress site. To troubleshoot this, if you find after an update that something is not working as it was, go through the systematic process of deactivating your plugins one at a time until you find the culprit. If the developer has not updated his/her plugin to work with the lasted update, find another plugin whose developer is on top of these things.
Are you one of those ignoring that nag bar thinking “no big deal”, “I’ll get to it … ” or “I don’t have a clue what to do!”? Now you have no excuse to continue to ignore these very important updates.
If you are not on 2.9 you need to follow the above suggestions so your site is secured, up to date and you can take advantage of a bunch of new neato features!
At your service,
Judith
You may also enjoy:
- WordPress How To: Do the Mother of All Backups
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- 5 Steps to a Lean Mean WordPress Machine
- Have a WordPress Site? Ignore This at Your Own Peril!
- Another Reason to Use Firefox: SEO Blogger WordPress Plugin!
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