How to upgrade your Wordpress Blog

Posted by TuVinhSoft (Who am I?)

August 24, 2008

Wordpress is continuously improving its script and as a Wordpress user, you must upgrade your blog to avoid security problems. Last couple of months, I read somewhere in Sitepoint that there was a massive wordpress hacking due to lack of security. I understand that you don’t want your blog to get hacked so here is a step-by-step procedure on how to upgrade your wordpress blog. This post covers also the step-by-step guide on how to back-up your files before upgrading.

How do I know if I am using updated version?

If you see this message in your dashboard, it means you need to upgrade your blog. Click on the marked portion and it will bring you to Wordpress site prompting you to download the latest version. Download the latest version and save it in your PC.
wordpress upgrade

Before you do the upgrade, make sure you back-up your current files. This is to avoid losing your whole website if you encounter some problems during the upgrade. Use FTP and copy your content folder into your machine. You must also back-up your database (this is very important). If you are using Cpanel, follow the following process.

How to back-up Wordpress database

1. Log-in to your control panel an open your SQL database.
wordpress upgrade

2. Open PHPmyadmin as shown below.

wordpress backup

3. Open database of your Wordpress. There might be some other db if you installed multiple sites in your account.
wordpress backup

4. Select all tables
wordpress backup

5. Export tables
upgrade wordpress

6. You may select how you save the file but I suggest you zip it. The file might be large.

wordpress backup

7. Click on go to export the file to your hard drive
wordpress upgrade

8.Save the file to your desktop
wordpress backup

Now that you backed-up the content and the SQL tables (db), you are now ready to upload the new script. Using your favorite FTP (I use GoFTP), upload the whole script into the directory where your current blog is installed. This new version will overrite your old but maintain the changes you’ve already done.

After uploading all files, open http://yourdomain.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php and follow the simple instruction.

That’s all and your wordpress is upgraded. Check your dashboard and the message prompting you to upgrade should be gone.

If you experience broken content, upload your SQL tables in your phpmMyadmin. Click on Import (instead of export) to fetch the downloaded file from your hard drive and install it. You ma also upload your previous content using FTP. If you have any question post comment below.

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