{"id":4987,"date":"2014-01-11T17:28:31","date_gmt":"2014-01-11T23:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theme.co\/x\/member\/?p=4987"},"modified":"2016-12-09T09:49:54","modified_gmt":"2016-12-09T15:49:54","slug":"updating-your-theme-and-plugins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theme.co\/archive\/kb\/updating-your-theme-and-plugins\/","title":{"rendered":"Updating Your Theme and Plugins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This article was last updated on the <strong>December 9, 2016<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\r\n<h2>Best Practices<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p><strong>Before updating, please read through this article. If you&#8217;re having an issue after updating, we would advise double-checking the points below. It is recommended to be on a version of PHP that is <a href=\"http:\/\/php.net\/supported-versions.php\">considered supported<\/a>. Versions 5.4 and older are <a href=\"http:\/\/php.net\/eol.php\" target=\"_blank\">end-of-life<\/a>. See this thread for <a href=\"https:\/\/community.theme.co\/forums\/topic\/regarding-end-of-life-php\/\" target=\"_blank\">more information<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>With a large customer base, anytime we update a product, there are tens of thousands of people updated from many different versions. While we work hard to minimize bugs and issues, there are many outside of our control because of how extensively WordPress themes and plugins can be customized.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Generally when global issues are identified, we&#8217;ll add a green message in our community area with next steps. As always, our commitment is to quickly address outlying issues, making the process as smooth as humanly possible.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h4><strong>Before Updating<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Read all the release notes for the update, found in the <a href=\"http:\/\/theme.co\/changelog\/\">changelog<\/a>. Be sure to read the notes for every release since the last time you updated.<\/li>\r\n<li>Backup your site.<\/li>\r\n<li>Consider using a development environment. This is a great place to test updates with your customizations to see how your site is affected.<\/li>\r\n<li>Consider deactivating caching plugins temporarily to avoid the caching of old markup.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h4><strong>After Updating<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Clear any caching plugin you may have active.<\/li>\r\n<li>Consider an additional backup after successful updates.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h4><strong>Before reporting an issue<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Make note of any other plugins that you may have updated alongside Themeco products.<\/li>\r\n<li>Try testing for a plugin conflict. You can do this by disabling all other plugins, and checking if the problem persists. Reactivating plugins one at a time until the problem returns will help identify a conflict.<\/li>\r\n<li>If you ever experience a white screen, checking for PHP errors will often lead to the source of the problem. You can do this by <a href=\"https:\/\/codex.wordpress.org\/Debugging_in_WordPress\">enabling WP_DEBUG on your site<\/a> during the troubleshooting process.<\/li>\r\n<li>In any support request, please include detailed information of what is not working as expected.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2>Automatic Updates (Recommended)<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Setting up Automatic updates can be done in a few clicks by validating your site. To get started, head over to the <a href=\"https:\/\/community.theme.co\/kb\/product-validation\/\">Product Validation<\/a> article. Here&#8217;s how Automatic Updates works:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Once enabled, you will receive automatic notification in your dashboard when an update is available.<\/li>\r\n<li>Automatic updates are provided this way for X, Cornerstone, and all X Extensions.\r\n<li>They are automatic in the sense that the process of replacing the files is handled for you, but it is not &#8220;unattended&#8221;, meaning you will be able to run them at your convenience.<\/li>\r\n<li>To run an update, visit <em>Dashboard > Updates<\/em> in your WordPress dashboard.<\/li>\r\n<li>Automatic updates checks every 12 hours for new versions that may be available. You can manually check by clicking <em>Check Again<\/em> on either the X or Cornerstone home page.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2>Manual Updates<\/h2>\r\n<p>We highly recommend using <strong>Automatic Updates<\/strong> (above), please use this method whenever possible. Manual updates are still possible. This requires that you obtain the latest zip file for the product you are updating. To find these zip files:<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h4><strong>Obtaining X<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Use the <em>Download<\/em> button on your <a href=\"https:\/\/community.theme.co\/dashboard\/\">dashboard page<\/a><\/li>\r\n<li>From <a href=\"http:\/\/themeforest.net\/downloads\" title=\"Downloads\" target=\"_blank\">Downloads in your ThemeForest account<\/a>, click <em>Download<\/em> next to X and choose: <em>All Files &amp; Documentation<\/em>. Unzip, and you will find <code>x.zip<\/code> inside.<\/li>\r\n<li>From Downloads in your ThemeForest account, click <em>Download<\/em> next to X and choose: <em>Installable Theme Files<\/em>. This will have a different filename, but the file downloaded is the equivalent of <code>x.zip<\/code><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h4><strong>Obtaining Cornerstone (included with X)<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Obtain <code>x.zip<\/code> (see instructions for X above). Unzip, and you will find <code>cornerstone.zip<\/code> under <code>x\/framework\/plugins<\/code>.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h4><strong>Obtaining Cornerstone (purchased standalone)<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Use the <em>Download<\/em> button on your <a href=\"https:\/\/community.theme.co\/dashboard\/\">dashboard page<\/a><\/li>\r\n<li>From <a href=\"http:\/\/codecanyon.net\/downloads\" title=\"Downloads\" target=\"_blank\">Downloads in your CodeCanyon account<\/a>, click <em>Download<\/em> next to Cornerstone and choose: <em>All Files &amp; Documentation<\/em>. Unzip, and you will find <code>cornerstone.zip<\/code> inside.<\/li>\r\n<li>From Downloads in your CodeCanyon account, click <em>Download<\/em> next to Cornerstone and choose: <em>Installable Plugin Files<\/em>. This will have a different filename, but the file downloaded is the equivalent of <code>cornerstone.zip<\/code><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h4><strong>Obtaining X Extensions<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><p>From <a href=\"http:\/\/themeforest.net\/downloads\" title=\"Downloads\" target=\"_blank\">Downloads in your ThemeForest account<\/a>, click <em>Download<\/em> next to X and choose: <em>All Files &amp; Documentation<\/em> download from ThemeForest<\/a>. Unzip, and you will find an <code>extensions<\/code> folder containing zips for all our Extensions.<\/p><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>With the installable zip file(s) in hand, you can proceed to update.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h4><strong>Manual X Update Via FTP<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Unzip <code>x.zip<\/code> on your computer.<\/li>\r\n<li>Rename the <code>x<\/code> folder to <code>x-updating<\/code>.<\/li>\r\n<li>Connect to your server via FTP and navigate to your <code>\/wp-content\/themes\/<\/code> directory.<\/li>    \r\n<li>Drag and drop the <code>x-updating<\/code> folder into your themes directory.<\/li>\r\n<li>Upon completion, rename the previous <code>x<\/code> folder to <code>x-previous<\/code>.<\/li>\r\n<li>Rename <code>x-updating<\/code> to <code>x<\/code>. Your site will now be at the latest version. <\/li>\r\n<li>Delete the <code>x-previous<\/code> folder.<\/li>\r\n<li>Visit the WordPress dashboard at least once to ensure any migration logic can run (this happens behind the scenes).<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<p>The order of the above steps, especially renaming the folder in the correct order is important. This will ensure your site is running a clean copy of the latest version.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h4><strong>Manual X Update via the WordPress Dashboard<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<p>While not always advisable, you can manually update by deleting the theme, and reinstalling.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Visit <em>Appearance > Themes<\/em> in your WordPress dashboard.<\/li>\r\n<li>Temporarily switch to one of the WordPress default themes.<\/li>\r\n<li>Delete X. Your settings and content will be safe, since they are stored in the database, not the theme files.<\/li>\r\n<li>Use <em>Add New<\/em>, then <em>Upload Theme<\/em> to reinstall X from the <code>x.zip<\/code> file.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<h4><strong>Manual Plugin Update Via FTP<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<p>This uses Cornerstone as an example, but the process can be applied to any plugin.<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Unzip <code>cornerstone.zip<\/code> on your computer.<\/li>\r\n<li>Rename the <code>cornerstone<\/code> folder to <code>cornerstone-updating<\/code>.<\/li>\r\n<li>Connect to your server via FTP and navigate to your <code>\/wp-content\/plugins\/<\/code> directory.<\/li>    \r\n<li>Drag and drop the <code>cornerstone-updating<\/code> folder into your plugins directory.<\/li>\r\n<li>Upon completion, rename the previous <code>cornerstone<\/code> folder to <code>cornerstone-previous<\/code>.<\/li>\r\n<li>Rename <code>cornerstone-updating<\/code> to <code>cornerstone<\/code>. Your site will now be at the latest version. <\/li>\r\n<li>Delete the <code>cornerstone-previous<\/code> folder.<\/li>\r\n<li>Visit the WordPress dashboard at least once to ensure any migration logic can run (this happens behind the scenes).<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n\r\n<p>The order of the above steps, especially renaming the folder in the correct order is important. This will ensure your site is running a clean copy of the latest version.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h4><strong>Manual Plugin Update via the WordPress Dashboard<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<p>While not always advisable, you can manually update by deleting the plugin, and reinstalling.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>Visit <em>Plugin<\/em> in your WordPress dashboard.<\/li>\r\n<li>Deactivate, and delete the plugin. Your settings and content will be safe, since they are stored in the database, not the plugin files.<\/li>\r\n<li>Use <em>Plugins > Add New<\/em>, then <em>Upload Plugin<\/em> to reinstall the plugin using the zip file. Example: <code>cornerstone.zip<\/code><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was last updated on the December 9, 2016. Best Practices Before updating, please read through this article. If you&#8217;re having an issue after updating, we would advise double-checking the points below. It is recommended to be on a version of PHP that is considered supported. Versions 5.4 and older are end-of-life. See this [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kb","category-site-setup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theme.co\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theme.co\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theme.co\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theme.co\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theme.co\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theme.co\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4987\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theme.co\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theme.co\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theme.co\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}