Know How to Upgrade WordPress Plugins and Themes Manually

Automatic updates are practical, simpler, and quicker if you want to have the latest version of WordPress plugins and themes always. But sometimes manual updation becomes the need of time.

If you have set restrictive file permissions on your WordPress website, you may be required to upgrade your WordPress theme and plugin files manually. You may also want to upgrade them manually for some other reasons. Here’s the comprehensive information that will guide you how to do so-

To Manually Upgrade WordPress Plugins

ü Begin with backing-up your WordPress site- this is the best precautionary you’ll ever need. Backing up your installation is always a good idea to deal with worst-case scenarios and roll back to your previous site.

ü Download a ZIP file of the plugin you need to upgrade from the author’s official source. You can usually find most plugins on the plugin repository along with a link to download the newest ZIP file.

ü Extract the zipped archive onto your local machine. It will create a directory called ‘plugin-name’ with all the files under it.

ü Before starting the manual update process, you have to deactivate the target plugin. Use sFTP to delete the existing plugin directory from the wp-content/plugins/ directory on your site.

ü Replace the deleted directory by uploading the unzipped plugin to the wp-content/plugins/ directory leaving it in a directory that looks like (for example) wp-content/plugins/plugin-name

ü Now sign in to your WordPress site. Go to the ‘Plugins’ menu and check that the plugin you upgraded is the newest version.

To Manually Upgrade WordPress Themes

Before upgrading your WP theme manually, you need to know that if you are running a customized theme, you will lose customizations if you simply overwrite your theme with a new one. If so is your case, you need to preserve your customizations; opt for some help from developers to integrate your customizations into your new WordPress theme. Or else, if you haven’t tweaked your theme’s code and have only customized it using the web admin interface that WordPress provides, i.e. without changing any of its files, then here are the steps you can follow-

ü Start with creating a backup of your WordPress site so that you can restore your site in case things doesn’t go as planned.

ü Download a ZIP file of the theme you wish to upgrade.

ü Unzip the theme files onto your local machine.

ü Delete your existing theme directory from the wp-content/themes/ directory using sFTP.

ü Now simply replace the deleted directory by uploading the unzipped theme into your wp-content/themes/ directory. You should now have a structure that looks something like: wp-content/themes/theme-name/

ü Sign into your WordPress site. Go to Appearance > Themes and verify you are running the newest version of your theme.

If everything goes smoothly, your WordPress plugins and themes will get successfully upgraded.