Webhostright

I have all of my wordpress blogs self hosted and even though wordpress have now made it very easy for us to do a quick automatic upgrade, i still like and prefer to do mine manually, meaning that i will download the latest version to my computer then upload the files through ftp, making sure that i dont copy over anything that might cause me any problems.

I know that this does not guarantee that i wont experience any problems at my wordpress blogs after an upgrade but i like doing it manually because i know exactly what files i have copied over.

Before i upload the new wordpress files i make sure that i backup the database of the blog that im about to upgrade, i do this through cPanel.

When i have unpacked the wordpress rar file i go into the folder and delete the wp-config-sample.php file, if you want to be extra safe you could download the individual wp-config.php file from your current installation to your desktop, but as ive usually got a recent home directory backup i dont worry about doing that.

Also i dont delete the folders of the current installation of which im about to upgrade, i leave them where they are and will upload a folder at a time.

I upload the wp-admin folder first, basically overwriting the existing files on the server, then i go into the wp-content folder and into the plugins folder and upload the index.php file in that folder.

I do the same for the themes folder, uploading the index.php file within that folder only, and then the last file to upload within the wp-content folder is the index.php file within that actual folder.

After that i upload the wp-includes folder individually, just like i did above with the wp-admin folder, and by individually i mean that i set the folder to upload and not that i go into the folder and upload each file one at a time, that would take ages.

Lastly i upload the separate files that are outside of those 3 folders that are within the wordpress folder itself and of course once all of the files are uploaded that i needed to i then follow the instruction from wordpress to finish the upgrade and it's all done.

I repeat this for each wordpress blog that i have, i prefer seeing what im uploading, it prevents me from copying over the hello dolly plugin and the classic and default themes that i dont need.

Also i make sure that i then backup wordpress again at least later that day, now that i have my wordpress intallation upgraded to the latest version.

It's best to hold onto the backup that you took before the upgrade, at least for a few days, until you see that everything is ok with the blog, sometimes everything can seem fine until you or a visitor are browsing and realise that something is not working as it should.

Photo by koka sexton