Most people are probably going go crazy because version 2.5 literally just came out a couple months ago. But as I mentioned back in June: it is not as heavy of an update this time. However, that is not to say it isn’t feature-rich! It’s full of goodies, like the “post revisions” view that lets you compare changes as you write/edit blog posts:
Don’t be afraid to upgrade. It did not break any of my plugins or my design and it really isn’t that intensive to do. Here is a quick guide, even shorter than WP‘s famous “5-minute install” guide:
Mini Install Guide
- Download the latest version of WordPress.
- Backup the following:
- Your WP database. (Jem explains one way.)
- The /wp-content/ directory.
- The /wp-includes/images/smilies/ directory (if you have custom smilies).
- Your wp-config.php file, located in the root of your WP installation.
- Delete the folders wp-admin and wp-includes. This won’t kill your site, seriously! You’re going to add those directories back anyway. Don’t panic!
- Copy over all the new files from the download into your WP directory, except for wp-content. You want to keep your themes and plugins, yes?
- Copy back over your smilies, if you had custom ones.
- Go to your WP admin, click the “upgrade” button and poof, you’re done.
Don’t be afraid you will lose anything or mess up your site. As long as you back up your posts and wp-content folder, you are fine if anything actually does happen.
There is really nothing you can do to break your WordPress website unless you were purposefully trying to. :P Not saying the upgrading process is fool proof, but I’ve rarely had problems in my experience. Make sure you take the time to upgrade, as new versions usually equal better security and more useful features.
I am so excited about this new WordPress. Too bad I only installed WP 2.5 about 3 days ago when I opened my new site. Oh well. Time to update!
Thank you for the tutorial! Staring down the "three step upgrade" at WordPress was daunting, so finding your post was like a miracle. I’ll refer this to a friend too, as I think your reassurances would be helpful to her come time for the upgrade. :)
My biggest concern has been plugin compatability. For example – I really love Now Reading and have no desire to get a different book plugin thingy. I would hate to upgrade for fancy features just to find out that it doesn’t work anymore.
I’ve also been wayyy too lazy to look into whether it’s even an issue. *sigh* I guess I’ll have to do that soon. :P
Whoohoo! Thanks for your lt’s a lot easier when someone helps at times :cheer:
And don’t trust the automatic upgrade plug-in! It’s evil! XO
I’ll upgrade when I’m fully awake. :D I’ve not had problems before but your install guide is very handy. It sounds a lot less daunting than the essay WordPress wrote. :P
Melissa, I think you should work for WordPress XD
Hehe, glad the mini-guide is helping some of you! :D
Hey there,
just thought I should let you know that ‘copying over’ your other files on an upgrade is not a recommended way of doing things. Sometimes an ftp manager does copy over files well, and sometimes it doesn’t. It is an individual thing that people need to work out for themselves whether it will work, but it’s not really good idea to recommend that people do it. mostly if it breaks the install, you’ll get the blame!
I haven’t experienced problems upgrading that way before. Never had a script that instructed to always delete every file before uploading the new version. That way might be considered "safer", but I’ve never seen it as absolutely necessary unless there were extensive changes done.
WordPress.org doesn’t even suggest to delete everything in their generic upgrade instructions (which I have actually repeated here in a shortened version):
Via Upgrading WordPress. They do, however, suggest to delete more files in their extended upgrading instructions if any problems occur. But since I was quoting the general upgrade instructions from the developers themselves, it still holds true in my opinion.
@Sproke: You don’t have to be so pedantic. I copied files over and it worked for me. There isn’t anything wrong with Melissa’s instructions. I’m sure many people overwrite rather than delete.
Thank you so much. I was so scared of upgrading but thanks to your post I think I will now.
:dance:
Like what I’ve said in Plurk, I find joy in upgrading WordPress. That’s why I never hesitate! I’ve been doing it religiously on-time since WP 1.5 so I’m not that scared anymore, except for this one time when I had 2.2 or something when it messed up my dashboard page. :D And this version is pretty neat so far! Despite it still not being fluid.. but there’s the plugin for that anyway. :ohyeah:
Yeah I hate that the admin isn’t fluid! Thank god for plugins! :P
Just upgraded :3 thanks for the reminder!
why dont you try the easiest way to upgrade wordpress?? there is an autmatic upgrade plugin for wordpress. asy to use and no hassle..
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade/
try it
Yep, I know about it. But I’d much rather control what files are going where manually myself. I don’t mind the automatic-plugin-upgrading, but as fore the entire script of WordPress, I’d like more control. You can’t trust everything to plugins.
I’m not as excited about WP 2.6 as I was with 2.5. There are only minor changes and in my opinion they’re not all that interesting, apart from the revision thing! I haven’t tried that out yet, though. I only upgraded my blogs to WP 2.6 yesterday and I’m already experiencing some problems with plug-ins (Counterize, for example, which now gives me errors..). :-(