The ‘un-aided’ process of upgrading your Wordpress installation can be daunting and time-consuming, but here’s a simple and quick solution: the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade Plugin.
Here’s a simple, step-by-step process to upgrade to Wordpress 2.5 in 10 minutes or less, and make all future upgrades simple and pain free:
Firstly, locate and download the Wordpress Automatic Upgrade Plugin. It’s here:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade/#post-2560
Then:
- Unzip the files and upload the folder called Wordpress-Automatic-Upgrade to your /wp-content/plugins directory
- Access your blog admin screens and Go to your Plugins screen.
- Locate Wordpress Automatic Upgrade (it will be near the bottom) and click ‘activate’.
That’s it as far as installing and activating the plugin. When you’re ready to upgrade follow these steps:
- Access your Admin screens and go to the plugins screen.
- Check for any plugins that tell you there’s an upgrade available.
- Upgrade any and all plugins that need upgrading
- After all your plugins are updated do a full back up of your database and system files. (Just use your FTP client to copy the system files to your PC and follow the ‘Simple Wordpress Database Backup’ instructions at Wordpress .org for your database)
- Once your backups are completed go to your blog admin screens and click ‘Manage’
- Locate and click ‘Automatic Upgrade’
- Be sure to have the following details ready – the plugin will ask you for them so it can access your server files:
- FTP Username
- FTP Password
- Directory Where your blog is located
- FTP Host
- Start the upgrade process.
- Suggestion: Don’t opt for the Automatic process. (It’s an option in the first or second screen). It’s just a boy scout principle: if anything goes wrong you’ll know what stage you’d reached before the problem arose.
- Click on each link that it tells you to, and follow the process through.
- When it comes to the database upgrade it will do this in a separate window (or tab). At the end of the database upgrade process there’s a big ‘Continue’ link. DON’T click that one! Just close the window (or tab) so that you’re back in the original window where you’re doing the upgrade process.
- Click on to the next step and follow the process through to the end.
That’s it..!
I upgraded from WP 2.3.2 to 2.3.3 and from 2.3.3 to 2.5 with this plugin and it works like a charm. I do heartily recommend it for anyone operating a Wordpress blog. Once it’s installed and active and you’ve done your updates and backups it is, literally, a 10 minute process to upgrade your WP blog.
If anyone has any questions or suggestions leave a comment!
Update:
As a result of the interest in this post, I’ve written a full, detailed guide on the entire upgrade process – from start to finish. In addition to what I’ve covered here the detailed guide covers:
- How to avoid problems with your theme and plugins when you upgrade
- How to do full backups of your blog database and system files
- How to restore your backed-up blog database
- How to upgrade your blog manually in case you have troubles with the Auto Upgrade Plugin
You can find the comprehensive guide here:
Comprehensive, step-by-step Wordpress upgrade guide in clear, easy-to-understand language
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Thanks.
Very handy guide, especially the ‘Don’t click the continue’ button heads up!
John, hi,
You’re welcome! Glad it proved useful!
Raimi, hi,
Thanks for the trackback! Hang in there and take it one step at a time. Once you’ve done it once you’ll wonder what all the fuss was about..!
Cheers,
Martin.
You saved me some time Martin — I was going to upgrade the manual way… think I will give the auto way you described.
Great info… thanks,
Andrew
Andrew, hi,
Great – glad you found it useful and good luck with your upgrade!
Cheers,
Martin.
Now that is what I like, a nice simple way to do an upgrade. Thanks for putting it together so neatly.
I will be puling less hair out this time.
Well… I installed it on my test blog… like everything about it except for using widgets.
Prior to this upgrade… you had a visual of where you were putting your widgets — no more, unless I have overlooked it.
Andrew
Andrew,
I have been a bit hesitant to upgrade to 2.5 but after reading your post it seems to be a “piece of cake”. Thanks from this newbie.
Regards,
Darrin
Apology Martin, I was reading Andrews post and typing at the same time.
Regards,
Darrin
Darrin, hi,
No sweat..! And good luck with your upgrade. Drop me a line if you get stuck anywhere and I’ll do my best to help.
Cheers,
Martin.
Andrew, hi,
I agree – widgets are not handled as well as before.
It’s particularly irritating if you want to re-arrange your widgets between sidebars.
So far, I’ve found that the only way you can do that is to ‘Remove’ the widget from its current side bar, ‘Save Changes’, then ‘Show’ the sidebar you want to move the widget to, ‘Add’ it and ‘Save Changes’ again.
This is definitely a backward step.
I moved my blog roll and categories widgets around yesterday. I haven’t tried moving any of my text widgets yet, so I’m not sure what it will do with the content of a text widget when you ‘Remove’ it.
As always – do a back up! Meaning, take a copy of the text and code in a text widget before ‘Removing’ it!
Cheers,
Martin.
Eric, hi,
My pleasure – and I’m glad it’s been helpful!
Cheers,
Martin.
Thanks for a great blog and for sharing this information. (And all the other quality information you have on your very informative site!) I posted a link on my blog to this post.
Val, hi,
Many thanks for your kind comments – and I’m delighted the info was useful. Thanks also for your trackback!
Good luck with moving your blog to your new host – that’s something I haven’t tried yet..!
Cheers,
Martin.
hello! another version was up….I am itching to update but I am afraid I might encounter problems along the way. Will be waiting for your handy guide for the update.
Kerslyn, hi,
The process is no different! Just follow the steps in this post and you’ll be fine,
Cheers,
Martin.
I also was going to upgrade the manual way. Thanks for sharing
My pleasure, Cindy,
Glad it was useful,
Cheers,
Martin.
Thanks for the information. Very useful.
Hi Juan,
Thanks – glad you found it useful!
Cheers,
Martin.
Brilliant and totally scrummy as usual Martin, I will be upgrading later this week (will probs still get something wrong LOL so stand by your email box LOL).
Cheers
Sue
Hi Sue,
Thanks – and good luck with your upgrade!
If you’ve got the Auto Upgrade plugin installed and activated it should be a breeze, but certainly give me a shout if anything goes awry!
Cheers,
Martin.
Added to my download list.
Enjoy, thanks!
Martin.