Hi,
My client (a non-profit organization) is running an old version of X theme (version 3.2.4) with a child Theme; WordPress 4.7.5 and php 5.4.45. Can I update the theme to his latest version 6 “safely” or should I update with older versions first? And where can I find them ?
Thanks you very much for your help
Hi Marica,
Thank you for writing in, We understand that updating from outdated version to the latest version can be anxious sometimes. But don’t worry it should work fine, you might need to adjust a few things after because of the changes happen over the course of development (Themes, Plugins, Wordpress) but those are just minor. You can check all the changes, added features, and bug fixes from your current version to the latest version on our Changelog page page.
Before you start updating please CLEAR and DEACTIVATE all your caching plugins (e.g. W3 Total Cache, SG Optimizer, etc) including the server-side caching and CND caching (e.g. CloudFlare, SuperCacher, etc…). This will help us avoid any potential caching related errors.
Keep a backup of the entire site just to play safe.
The first thing to update is WordPress itself. Latest Wordpress as of this writing is 5.1.1
Next is the theme, but since the automatic update might not work because your X is outdated, please follow the Manual X Update Via FTP guide method in the article below.
Updating Your Themes and Plugins
After you successfully updated the X, navigate to Plugins panel and deactivate and delete the X - Shortcode plugin, that is now replaced with Cornerstone, to install Cornerstone, on your admin dashboard navigate to X > Validation wait for a few seconds and X will automatically install a compatible version of Cornerstone (latest X, latest Cornerstone).
After you successfully update X and Cornerstone, then re-validate your X theme. This is to make sure that you can re-install the latest version of Extensions in the next step.
Then to update the Extensions to the latest versions, that are supported by the latest theme and Wordpress:
- Ensure your theme is validated so Extensions can be installed automatically
- Deactivate and delete the extensions, from the plugins panel.
- On the X > Validation > Extensions, locate and re-install the extensions that you need.
- Visit "Plugins" panel in your Dashboard to activate the newly installed version.
Because all of the plugin settings are stored in the database, and because version 2.x will migrate settings from older versions, it’s safe to use this method of deleting the previous version.
After that, update all your 3rd party plugins.
How to Properly Update WordPress Plugins (Step by Step)
Then activate your plugins one by one and see if something is causing an error.
Again, clear all caches (plugin, server-side, CDN, and browser’s cache) after updating so that the code from the latest release is always in use. This will help you to avoid any potential errors.
Follow this guide and your site should be fine, but always keep a backup of the entire site just to play safe.
Let us know how it goes,
Cheers!
Thanks for your helping reply.
Every thing been ok with the first steps, updating wordpress, php…
But something worried me, after updating the X and desactivate the previous X shortcode, the site has completely disappeared (blank page). Is this normal? is it supposed to come back after the validation of Cornerstone and the re-validation of Theme X ?
Thank you
Hi Marica,
No, it’s not. Did you clear any caching plugin/feature you have? if not, please do so.
Did you install the Cornerstone? If not, please do so, see my instruction above.
If nothing works, please provide us login credentials in a secure note so we can take a closer look.
Thanks,
Hi,
ok, X last version is well nstalled and validate and its works !
But I need to fixe two more things.
The existing child theme doesn’t seem to be related … see image attachment. But the site is working.
In addition, the preview of the cornerstone appears only when I create new pages, elsewhere I have this error message. Thanks 
Hi Marica,
I checked the site and your account and it happens because your X theme is installed in the wrong folder and so the child theme is unable to detect it. Please make sure your main theme is installed with this folder structre
/wp-content/themes/x/
It’s currently installed as /wp-content/themes/x/x/
You can verify that by checking the location of this style.css http://www.cooplesvaloristes.ca/v2/wp-content/themes/x/x/style.css, and the correct location should be http://www.cooplesvaloristes.ca/v2/wp-content/themes/x/style.css
You can fix that through FTP manager or your hosting’s file manager, I recommend the hosting file manager as you can easily move the files and faster.
Hope this helps.
Hi !
I fix it, every thing is ok now.
Thank you very much for all your help.
It was very appreciate! 
We are delighted to assist you with this.
Cheers!
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