Gadgets and Gizmos World

Or, in other words, how to get lucky upgrading your WordPress blog.
Okay, this blog has just been upgraded to the latest WordPress (v2.3.1). And I’ve managed to upgrade it without a single glitch. Lucky me So as my gratitude to the WP team that has created such a wonderful blogging platform, I’ll write down how I did the upgrade here in my blog; hope it helps others that always wanted to upgrade but still afraid to do it

Please READ ALL the steps written here BEFORE you do anything, so you’ll get the big picture. Also, make sure that you really need the upgrade. It could be security reasons (security hole in your current WordPress), or aesthetic reasons (new theme you like only works in v2.3), or functional reasons (you want the new WordPress features).

1. Download the latest stable WordPress v2.3.1 from here. Then upload it to your server, put it in a folder, DO NOT REPLACE / DO NOT OVERWRITE any current WordPress files.

2. Download and install the following plug-ins:
- WP Database Backup
- Upgrade Preflight Check

3. The most important step, as an insurance if anything goes wrong: BACKUP your WordPress installation and all your works.
How to do it:
- Copy everything in your WP folder to another folder in your server as a backup.
- Do full backup with WP Database Backup. Database is where all your postings/works stored.
- Verify that all the above has been completed successfully.

4. Run Upgrade Preflight Check. Save (copy and paste) the results in a text file (or Words) for your note.

5. Change your WP theme to the default theme.

6. De-activate all plug-ins (NO exception).

7. Read the following excerpt from WordPress.org:

Delete the old WordPress files on your site, but DO NOT DELETE
* wp-config.php file;
* wp-content folder; Special Exception: the wp-content/cache and the wp-content/plugins/widgets folders should be deleted.
* wp-images folder
* wp-includes/languages/ folder–if you are using a language file do not delete that folder;
* .htaccess file–if you have added custom rules to your .htaccess, do not delete it;
* robots.txt file–if your blog lives in the root of your site (ie. the blog is the site) and you have created such a file, do not delete it.

This is what you should do:
Basically, delete everything except wp-content folder and wp-config.php.

Note:
Remember to keep .htaccess and robots.txt (if it’s there)
Also delete the wp-content/cache and the wp-content/plugins/widgets, if they’re exist.
Keep wp-includes/languages/ if you use other languages than English.

8. Copy all of your new WordPress v2.3.1 folders/files to the old WordPress installation. Overwrite everything.

9. Do the following:

Run the WordPress upgrade script by accessing wp-admin/upgrade.php in your favorite web browser and follow the instructions presented on your screen.
* If WordPress is installed in the root directory, point your browser to: http://example.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php
* If WordPress is installed in its own subdirectory called blog, for example, point your browser to: http://example.com/blog/wp-admin/upgrade.php

10. Check your permalinks setting, do adjustment if necessary. Preview your blog.

11. Activate your plug-ins, one by one, refer to the note you’ve created based on the Upgrade Preflight Check plug-in.
Update plug-ins to the latest version if applicable.
DO NOT active plug-ins with issues/incompatibility. You may need to search new plug-ins with the same function like the outdated plug-ins.

12. Switch to your favorite theme. MAKE SURE that your theme is compatible, usually by checking to the theme author page. Make sure it mentions WordPress v2.3.

13. If nothing goes wrong than celebrate, and thank me

Tags: how to upgrade wordpress, upgrade wordpress, wordpress