WordPress Tutorial: How to Upgrade to The Latest Version

I’ve been asked if there’s an upgrade tutorial each time after I upgraded Sabahan WordPress installation to the latest version. So I here it is.

The following tutorial is adapted from the original article from WordPress codex.

If you have large database, the upgrade – especially the backing part – will usually take longer than 5 minutes.

Step 1: Backup Your Current WordPress Installation

Backup the database using phpMyAdmin or other database tool provide by your web hosting company.

Then use ftp to download a copy of all the files from the server including the .htaccess files. To be safe, I usually download everything from public folder. This is to make sure any WordPress core files that were modified are backup.

Step 2: Deactivate Plugins

Go to your Plugin management Page and deactivate them one by one. This ensures your upgraded installation is not broken.

Step 3: Overwrite Files

Overwrite your current files with the latest version. Just be careful not to overwrite your wp-content directory and wp-config.php.

When upgrading from 2.0.x to 2.2, or from 2.1.x to 2.2 , you will need to delete old files on the server , because several file names have changed.

Step 4: Run the upgrade script

Point your browser to your blog’s Upgrade page at

http://www.yourblog.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php

and follow the instructions there.

Step 5: Reactivate Plugins one by one

That’s it. You are done!

The longer version is available here.