Newbies unsure & scared of theme & WP first update!!

  • WordPress Forums

    Hi Team,

    We are total newbies to WP and plugins. We run an online business & science college. I think we have WP 4.0.1
    We paid some guys to build a site for us, but we have lost touch with them. My question is about updates. I received the update messages below & want to know :

    1) is it safer to do manual upload of the new WP or is automatic quite safe these days?

    2) for the theme update, my theme is WPLMS (learning management system) I believe. But the pics used on my site (template) look nothing like the pic. that shows up for the theme update. In fact, it seems to mention ‘magazine’ and all the pics are ‘travel’ pics on the new twenty/fourteen theme. Whereas our one from Mr Vibe? had college student pics on it. It may seem like a silly questions, but we are so newbies, and our web-guys gave us utterly no instructions (more or less) when it comes to this kind of stuff.
    I’ll try to include the scrnshots of what we see. I really don’t know what theme was built for us, or if we should be doing this theme update. No instructions were ever given to us. I dont understand the bit about ‘child’ themes and losing all the custom settings or whatnot.

    Please help us!

    Brent Havill
    Founder
    Australia Online Courses
    https://www.australiaonlinecourses.com

    Here is what is says:

    An updated version of WordPress is available.
    ? You can update to WordPress 4.1 automatically or download the package and install it manually:
    Download 4.1
    While your site is being updated, it will be in maintenance mode. As soon as your updates are complete, your site will return to normal.
    Themes
    The following themes have new versions available. Check the ones you want to update and then click “Update Themes”.
    Please Note: Any customizations you have made to theme files will be lost. Please consider using child themes for modifications.

    Here is a pic of the wplms theme we are using now:

    https://www.wpexplorer.com/wplms-learning-management-system-wordpress-theme/

    Here is a pic of the ‘twentyfourteen/magazine?’ theme we can update to:

    https://i1.wp.com/www.vibethemes.com/img/wplms-up2.png?w=1170

    Does this mean we’ll lose the ‘college students’ pics we currently have on our theme?

    In our admin dashboard it also says:

    Install the WooThemes Updater plugin to get updates for your WooThemes plugins.
    Your theme has bundled outdated copies of WooCommerce template files – if you encounter functionality issues on the frontend this could be the reason. Ensure you update or remove them (in general we recommend only bundling the template files you actually need to customize). See the system report for full details.
    System Status Hide this notice
    The Disable Comments plugin is active, but isn’t configured to do anything yet. Visit the configuration page to choose which post types to disable comments on.

    Our current theme:

    Theme Details
    By Mr.Vibe
    Active: WPLMS
    Customize

    The new twenty/fourteen theme:

    Theme Details
    By the WordPress team
    Twenty Fourteen
    Activate Live Preview

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • Moderator cubecolour

    (@numeeja)

    updating is usually fine, however you should have a full backup before proceeding. Not only a backup of the files that make up the site, but the database as well. You should also be comfortable with restoring the site from the backups in case of problems.

    Performing automatic updates should be just as safe as manual updates

    Before updating the theme you need to be sure that the people who built the site did not make any modifications to the theme. if they did, which they should not have done as it goes against recommendations, updatg the theme will overwrite those modifications.

    Although updating to a new version of WordPress is usually safe, issues with plugin compatability (and sometimes theme compatibility) can be encountered. It may be of benefit to create a cloned version of the site where you can perform a dry run of the updates before updating the live site. This will enable you to be aware of any potential compatibility issues so you can investigate them and their fixes without breaking the live site.

    If you are in any doubt about any of this, and as you have lost contact with the people who originally built your site, rather than taking on the task yourself, you may want to consider hiring a professional to look after the site and perform these admin tasks. If so, you may be able to find someone you can trust at a local WordPress meetup or you could place a listing at https://jobs.wordpress.net

    Thread Starter Brent Havill

    (@brent-havill)

    Thanks Cube!!

    I notice you say ‘backup of the files that make up the site, but the database as well’ – To a newbie like us, what’s the difference?

    BH

    Thread Starter Brent Havill

    (@brent-havill)

    Oh, and someone told me I should de-activate all plugins before doing the WP Version upgrade, then re-activate the plugins, one by one, testing the site ‘live’ with each one to make sure we can find the one that’s got issues (if we’re unlucky enough to have one)

    What do you think?

    bh

    Hi,

    In ‘newbie words’, files are like bricks when You build the house and database is like a book that tells You where You should put them, something like blueprint.

    Lets assume, that we are ‘refuilding’ that house. Bricks without knowing where to put them are just pile of bricks…
    Wordpress sometimes changes little details in database. In most cases thats not a problem, but think about what would happened if You remove one wall on the first floor of ten storey building. It can collapse.

    Best thing to do before any major update is to copy all files from server via ftp and make a database export via f.e. phpmyadmin.
    You should find some plugins for that.

    Then, if eventualy something go south, You can just replace files and database to older version and voila, everything is working again.

    Greetings

    PS. There is a good practive to deactivate all plugins before WP upgrade and reactivating it one by one to find out if all of them are compatibile with New WP.

    Thread Starter Brent Havill

    (@brent-havill)

    And one more thing if I can. Do I have to upload the html file to my host-server (HG) or does the automatic update take care of all that sort of stuff?

    bh

    Thread Starter Brent Havill

    (@brent-havill)

    thanks ML! You explained it well!

    bh

    Thread Starter Brent Havill

    (@brent-havill)

    PS – I have been having a look at how to backup the database to C drive – but one question is: Do I have to have a phpMyAdmin plugin in my WP site? Or can I just access that thru my host server (HG) when I go to Databases folder, and select the icon that says this?

    bh

    If You’re doing automatic update through wp-admin, everything will be taken care of by WordPress (download, install, etc.).

    You can do it manualy, but in 99% of cases there’s no need to do that.

    phpMyAdmin is usualy provided by server host (HG as You said), not WP.
    Maybe there are some plugins to do that, but if You have it in the panel of Your server, that would be best solution.
    Just select database on the left, then Export on top, Export Method -> Custom, in option select some compression (fe.zipped, always better to have smaller files), in ‘Object creation options’ select ‘Add DROP_TABLE / VIEW / …’, any other options leave as they are and press ‘Go’ on the bottom.
    You should get zipped file with Your database.

    Greetings

    Thread Starter Brent Havill

    (@brent-havill)

    Thanks so much, ML – you’re the best!!

    bh

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • The topic ‘Newbies unsure & scared of theme & WP first update!!’ is closed to new replies.