The upgrading system of WordPress is improved vastly. But, there still exist certain steps that can ensure that your WordPress upgrades carry out smoothly.

The very first thing is that the updates and upgrades should always be carried out during the low traffic hours of your website. Usually, this is late at night (when people don’t feel bored at work surfing the internet), however, it is dependent on your particular website’s traffic patterns.

The point here is to do the updating when there is low activity on your website and in case something goes wrong. Next, follow the steps as under.

Depending on the nature of your update, certain steps listed below may need to be removed; however, here is the complete sequence of update events.

Do Back Up of Your Website

Backups make sure that you can revert to the previous state if something doesn’t go right.

  • Take back up of your website’s database. This can be done through the new dashboard tool named Software Monitor that is present in the sidebar menu under “Updates” or using PHPMyAdmin.
  • Take back up of your plugins and themes.
It should be kept in mind that taking back up of uploads folder (present in wp-content) takes a long time for backing up and isn’t compulsory to backup before updating.

Turn Off Caching

Deactivate the caching plugin to make sure you don’t cache maintenance pages while updating and the plugin isn’t interfering in the update process.

Update Your Themes and Plugins Framework

Usually, WordPress updates come with theme and plugin updates. Developers normally have a head’s up on the forthcoming updates of WordPress and can make their plugins ready to become compatible when the WordPress updates get released.

Update your themes and all the plugins BEFORE updating WordPress.

Update WordPress

It’s about time you should go for the actual WordPress update. Simply click on the automatic upgrade WordPress button and let WordPress do the rest.

At times, it just takes mere seconds to complete the upgrade process but sometimes it can take longer. Don’t panic if you see a blank area in the dashboard for some time.

Reactivate the Cache Plugin

Now activate your cache plugin which was deactivated earlier and clear the cache.

Check Your WordPress Website

Now go through your website, browse different posts and website pages. If you notice something isn’t working right, it is good to find it now and fix it on spot.

Usually, the WordPress upgrading doesn’t give much trouble however, it is ideal to follow the above-mentioned steps instead of putting in time and energy later on to recover what is lost.