You’ve heard that before of course, which is why you are here. But it bears repeating.
It is super-important to make sure everything on your website – WordPress core, themes and plugins – is always up-to-date.
But with so many moving parts, you want to make sure they all play nicely with each other.
If all of these are not updated for compatibility with each other, it is possible that your website might get affected.
What to do before You update WordPress
Before you update your WordPress version, here’s a list of things you should do –
Take a backup of your website
This backup should include everything that you will need if you have to restore the entire website back to exactly how it was before the update.
Which means, you will need to backup
- WordPress Themes and Plugins
- WordPress Core
- Any changes you may have done to the config files or other WordPress files
- Database
- Media – images, videos etc.
- You can choose to do this either using a backup service possibly provided by your hosting provider or using a WordPress backup plugin.
Create a replica on a staging site
If you are able to, make a complete copy of your production website on a staging server, update the WordPress version on that copy and test everything completely.
Check forums for any news about known issues or problems
It is always best to check WordPress Forums if there is a major bug or problem with the latest version before you update your production site, so that you can choose to either postpone your update, until a fix is released or apply a patch if available immediately after updating.
In Conclusion
The key is to be as prepared as possible for a smooth rollback if needed. That’s not the outcome you are hoping for when you update, but that’s what you should be fully prepared for.