nyjumpee

Hey. .at least you’re steering me and I thank you for THAT!

However, when I click on the link, it just brings me to a page to “download the software”. There’s no “install” button or anything.

Also, when I click on the Dashboard button/tab, nothing happens. Same as the screenshot you saw. . .could the files just be corrupted or something? Just can’t seem to get that elusive “Update” button :-/

Don’t think that’s the problem. . I was just looking at my “Users” tab in the dashboard. ..looks like all 3 users should have ADMIN privileges. . .check it out the screenshot here

Hmmmmm. . .am I missing something?

Hmmm. . .I went into the database I was actually listed as User3. So, I edited the first user, which was “admin”, changed the password and email contact info, saved and exited. When I logged back in under the “admin” username, I still just got the “4.4.2 update is available. Notify the administrator”. Maybe the user “admin” is not actually an administrator?

How do I assign Admin privileges to a user if I have access to the database? THank you!

Wow. . okay. .starting to make sense. I DIDN’T have the password (the people that did the site are VERY slow to respond) so I Googled it and went into the Database and recovered the passwords. . .Thought I was logging in with Admin privileges. . .guess I’ll have to go back in and check that. . .then log in with Admin privileges. Funny how I’ve Googled “No update tab in dashboard” for weeks and haven’t found anywhere re admin login. . .seems like it would be obvious. . .THANKS AGAIN!!!

Hey MBWD ~ Thanks again so much! You rock and thanks for the detailed answers! One of my main issues in the original post is how this all began:

1A) I don’t have an “UPDATE” tab on my Dashboard! Just isn’t there. . only a message that I can click on that says “update 4.4.2 is available” and it takes me to software download. Check a screenshot of my dashboard

2) I’ll check into whether or not the actual code of my theme was changed. If not, should be easy to keep it updated.

3) BACKUPS. Seems like an onion, the more layers I open the more that there seems to be to go! Looks now like my Backup/Update includes: Core Software, Theme(s) and Database. In my iPage “Control Panel” it appears that the Database is kept somewhere else? How am I sure I’m backing that up?

I don’t mean to keep pestering you for answers ~ I realize your time is important and I certainly appreciate any help I can get! So please don’t feel you need to reply right away. . .is there a way to get a message to you within the week or so with updates? Thank you again so much ~ Learning goes a LOT quicker with direct responses (or lots of mistakes!) ??

Wow! THANK YOU so much for this much-sought-after information, despite my online searching! I’m going to re-iterate just to be sure:
1) Download the latest version of WP (4.4.2)
2) Install into the root directory where website currently resides

Questions:
1) Updating WP Core Software (The downloadable 4.4.2 software) will not update my theme?

2) Does my theme need to be updated to maintain security?

3) I’ve read about “Child Theme”. Looks like if I need to update my Theme for security reasons, I’ll need to do that.

Thank you again for the detailed explanation. . .I’ll post back when I finally get the cajones to attempt this!

Hi! Thanks for getting back to me on this so quickly! I’m hosting over at iPage and have automatic backups as part of my hosting package, so I should be good there. It’s the next step that I’m not sure about; which files are NOT supposed to be replaced by the New WordPress Files? In other words, which files are the ones that actually contain my “website” files? The backup of the site is great, but it only gets me back to where I started. . .what’s the next step? Like I said, there’s no “UPDATE” tab in my Dashboard. . .only the message that directs me to the link to download WP 4.4.2. Thank you again! ??