Any time a WordPress release is announced (especially if it's a major one like version 5.0 in December), you might be wondering whether or not it's necessary to upgrade your WordPress site. The answer is quite simple: yes.
The two main reasons someone might hesitate to upgrade WordPress is due to the time it takes and the potential loss of functionality of a plugin that's not yet compatible with the new version.
While those concerns are understandable, the benefits of upgrading WordPress outweigh the potential risks. And any plugin that doesn't work with a new WordPress version today will likely have its team of developers working hard to update it to the latest version, so you probably won't lose functionality for long.
Because of how popular WordPress is - over a quarter of all sites on the Internet use it - it's a common target for hackers. Ethical hackers (people with hacking skills and good intentions) often work with WordPress to find any vulnerabilities in the code that bad hackers could use to target websites on WordPress. When the company is alerted to these vulnerabilities, their development team then works hard to fix the issues.
Security patches are one of the most common reasons WordPress releases upgrades. Anyone who sticks with the old version risks opening themselves up to unnecessary vulnerabilities.
While improved security is the most important reason to upgrade WordPress, the updates will often come with added features, improvements to the interface, or increased speed for your website. The only way to take advantage of these improvements is to always upgrade your system.
For coding as complicated as that behind WordPress, minor bugs are basically inevitable. Every time a bug is found, their development team works to fix it as quickly as possible. Those fixes will only take effect when you upgrade to the new version.
Therefore, in order for your WordPress site to consistently work properly and stay secure, make sure to stick with the latest version at all times.
There are four main ways to upgrade your WordPress site.
The easiest option is to set up your site to update automatically every time WordPress releases a new version. That way, not only do you usually not have to remember about upgrading your system, but you also ensure that your website gets the benefits of the new update the moment it becomes available.
The default setting for WordPress is automatic updates for minor maintenance and security upgrades, but you can update your settings to enable automatic updates for larger upgrades as well. To do that, you'll need to access your wp-config.php file through your FTP program or the file manager provided by your hosting provider. The file will normally be in the root folder of your website, but if you don't see it there you may need to do a search to figure out where it is.
Open the file and look for the WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE portion of the code. To enable all auto updates, you want to set this section to true, which looks like:
define('WP_AUTO_UPDATE_CORE', true);
Once you're finished, reload the updated file to your website, and you're done.
WordPress makes it very easy to upgrade to the newest version once it's available. When you're logged into your WordPress account, look for the Updates tab in the menu. If you see an orange circle with numbers next to the word, click on it.
If your WordPress is out of date, you'll see a message telling you about the new version and an 'Update Now' button.
While you're on this page, you can also quickly upgrade all your plugins and themes that are out of date. It's a quick and easy way to make your website more secure.
In a few rare cases, the easy update options might fail, meaning you need to go through the process manually. Luckily, it's not that difficult to do.
To start, make sure to back up your website before you make any changes to be safe.
Download the current version of WordPress at https://wordpress.org/download/
Go into your FTP (or file manager) to find and delete all the old WordPress files. Specifically, look for:
Now you want to replace all of the deleted files with the new files from the WordPress upgrade you downloaded. Upload them all (except for wp-config.php and the wp-content directory which has your templates and plugins).
When all the files are loaded, navigate to http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php (where yourdomain.com is your own domain address) and follow the instructions there.
Your last option to update your WordPress is to manually upgrade it with the WP-CLI tool. WP-CLI is a free tool that allows you to make updates to WordPress using a command line interface (CLI). For people with coding skills that prefer more direct access to WordPress files and functions, this can be a preferable option, however, those that prefer an intuitive interface for their WordPress use probably won't want to deal with this more complex way of upgrading.
If you use WP-CLI, you can upgrade WordPress using the command:
[user@server]$ wp core update
Now you know four different ways to get your WordPress up to date - so no more excuses. Keep your website protected and working seamlessly by keeping your WordPress version current. It's relatively quick, easy, and well worth the time.
If you want to learn more about the powerful content management system, feel free to check out this article about its widespread popularity or contact us at any time.
