WordPress: How to Update Themes Without Losing Content?

If you’re a WordPress user, then you know that it’s important to keep your site up-to-date. In this post, we’ll show you another important thing on WordPress: how to update themes without losing any of your content. Keep reading for the details!

Matthew

October 26, 2022

Why Should You Keep Your WordPress Themes Updated?

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1 Why Should You Keep Your WordPress Themes Updated?

2 WordPress: How to Update Themes Without Customization?

3 WordPress: How to Update a Theme With Customization?

3.1 Backup First

3.2 Use a Staging Site

3.3 Use a Child Theme

4 Updating WordPress Themes Without Any Problems: Summary

As a WordPress user, you probably know that it’s important to keep your site up-to-date. This is because the more recent the version of WordPress you’re using, the more secure and stable it will be.

However, there are some other reasons why you should make sure your themes are updated as well:

You’ll get access to new features and options: As WordPress and its themes are constantly being updated, you’ll be able to take advantage of new features and options that can make your site more functional and user-friendly.
You’ll stay compatible with the latest plugins: In addition to new features and options, theme updates will ensure that it stays compatible with the latest WordPress plugins, which can help you improve your site’s functionality and performance.
Your site will run faster, which in turn improves your user experience: By having a new version of your theme, you’ll ensure that it runs efficiently and effectively. This will allow your site to load quickly, which is particularly important for mobile users. Old themes often have features that use a lot of resources, which can slow down your site.

In other words, updating your WordPress themes is an important part of maintaining your site based on WordPress. How to update a theme without losing any of your content? Let’s take a look!

WordPress: How to Update Themes Without Customization?

Remember: whenever you update your theme from the theme directory, it’s critical that you do a full backup of your site first.

If you’re using an original theme (it doesn’t have any customizations), go to your WordPress dashboard and select Appearance > Themes > “Update Now” from the drop-down menu on your current theme. That’s how to automatically update WordPress themes to the latest version.

But most people don’t use the prebuilt theme on WordPress. How to update themes with customization on your WordPress site?

WordPress: How to Update a Theme With Customization?

Updating your theme with the latest versions will overwrite any custom code you have installed. That means you cannot use the method above. Instead, you should use child themes and parent themes. How to do that?

Backup First

Before you update your theme, it’s important that you first back up your site. In fact, you should back up your site every time you make a change to it. This will ensure that if something goes wrong, you can easily undo your site modifications and get things back to how they were before the change.

Use a Staging Site

A staging site is an invisible copy of your site that is protected from the public. You can make any changes to it and then check them out before making the change on your main site. This ensures that you don’t make a mistake or update your theme with customizations by mistake.

Use a Child Theme

The easiest approach to upgrade a customized WordPress theme is to make a child theme and add your modifications there. If you’re not sure whether your site has a child theme, use our WordPress template detector to check.

You’ll now need to build a child theme with the theme files you’ve modified. Follow these instructions in your staging site:

Make a backup of the parent theme and copy it to your computer.
Create a child theme for your current theme and identify all the modifications you made to the parent theme.
Copy the custom codes to the child theme folder.
Instead of the parent theme, use the child theme. Now it’s time to test your site!
If everything works well, you can then safely update the theme from your WordPress dashboard and test your new theme version.

If you don’t want to update the custom code, instead of a parent theme, use a child theme as an option for adding customizations to your WordPress themes. This will ensure that you always have access to the new version of your theme on your site. But remember: always update your themes from a staging site, and never make changes to your live website before testing them out first.

Updating WordPress Themes Without Any Problems: Summary

WordPress: how to update themes? Now you know how to update WordPress themes without losing content or customizations. Remember: never make changes to your live site before testing them first. This will ensure that you don’t accidentally destroy important data on your website.

Need help with updating your WordPress theme? Don’t hesitate to contact WordPress theme developers to assist you with your theme customizations and any updates. Good luck!