Up Grading Word Press

How do you know when a new WordPress Version is available?

The WordPress Dashboard is built with an auto-reminder script that posts a notice when an updated WordPress version is available. For the past several weeks I have seen the following notice when I log-in to write or manage my blog.



Be aware a new WordPress version may be available for MANUAL upgrades before it is available for upgrades through cPanel’s Fantastico Auto-Installer.

Do yourself a favor and don’t lose any sleep over it; your blog will not self-destruct for the few days/weeks it takes for the automated upgrade to become available. Believe me, you don’t want to bypass the auto-process for a manual upgrade – I’ve been there and done that; it isn’t pretty.

Deactivating Plugins is your FIRST STEP!

The first thing you must do before upgrading your WordPress Blog is to deactivate all plugins. At times, plugins will be incompatable with newer versions of WordPress. When this happens, it can cause all sorts of issues across your WordPress blog. The absolute best way to remedy this – the only way, really – is to deactive ALL plugins BEFORE upgrading. Here’s how to do it.

Once in your WordPress Dashboard, Go To Plugins (orange link in top right corner).



Within ‘Plugin Management’, click the white square to the left of the word ‘Plugin’ (found in the dark grey horizontal table header right below the blue button that says ‘Deactivate All Plugins’) to auto-check ALL PLUGINS.

Then, click the blue button, ‘Deactivate All Plugins’.



This will deactive ALL your plugins immediately; your blog is now ready for a clean upgrade.

Upgrade using cPanel’s Fantastico Auto-Installer

Open a new tab in your browser window and log into your blog’s cPanel – typically found at yourblogname.com/cpanel. Depending on the version and/or skin of your cPanel, it may, or may not, look like mine below. Either way, find the link to Fantastico’s Auto Installer.

On my server it is called Fantastico Deluxe.



Click through the Fantastico Deluxe link and then, click on the radio button to the left of the ‘WordPress’ text link found in the left sidebar.



Once in the ‘WordPress’ window, your current version is displayed. As you can see, I was running 2.5.1 (*tsk*tsk*) and needed to ‘Upgrade to 2.6.1′**.

Click on the text link to Upgrade.



WordPress lets you know your current installation will be backed up. This means if it all goes debunk, you can get your ‘old’ blog back.

Click the ‘Upgrade’ button to begin the Upgrade.



As your blog upgrades, the status will show beneath ‘Upgrading…’. Once the Upgrade is finished, the text will read ‘Upgrade completed.’

Make sure to copy and save the information provided (see yellow highlighted area below). THIS IS AN IMPORTANT ‘JUST IN CASE’ KIND OF STEP necessary to retrieve the WordPress backup generated a couple of steps back in the upgrade.



I paste mine into a .txt file and name it something ominous like, ‘if-wordpress-upgrade-fails-09-24-08′. There will be no mistaking what this text file holds if I need to search for it later.



One more step and you’re outta here!

Go back into your WordPress Dashboard, and in the same Plugins Management window as before, click the white square to the left of the word ‘Plugin’ (found in the dark grey horizontal table header right below the blue button that says ‘Activate’) to auto-check ALL PLUGINS.

Then, click the blue ‘Activate’ button.



And that’s that!

Troubleshooting

On the rare occasion that something goes wrong when you click back to view your newly upgraded WordPress blog, it is PROBABLY one of your plugins. Go back and Deactivate your plugins again, activating them one by one and checking the face of your blog. Often times, this process of elimination will reveal the dirty little plugin that won’t play nice with the rest of the publishing software.

Check the plugin’s support page/site for upgrades, and if there isn’t one, do NOT click to Activate it again, but instead, contact the plugin’s programmer to request a fix to match the current version of WordPress.

The most popular plugins work to keep up with the most current WordPress version; when they don’t it is typically because the plugin function was integrated into the updated WordPress blogging platform.

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