There are several ways to update a theme, and this article covers the recommended update process for our own themes. If you want to update a theme that hasn’t been created by NiceThemes, we suggest to contact the original author.
wp-content/themes
folder should be enough. We’re being more specific about this during the rest of the article, but you need to keep this in mind from step zero.Automatic update↑ Back to Top
This is the preferred method. Assuming you’ve already obtained your license key and registered your theme, it’s a one click process.
Updating the theme↑ Back to Top
This process will update the theme to its last available version.
- On your WordPress Dashboard, go to NiceThemes → Updates.
- Find the Theme Updates section.
- If a theme update is available, you will be offered an Update button: click it.
- Wait until the process is done.
Updating the framework↑ Back to Top
All our theme are based in a common framework, which is bundled with every one of them. Every time you update your theme, the framework is updated too. But sometimes, between theme versions, we may want to offer you core fixes or improvements in a quick and simple way: in that case, we’ll release a framework update. Updating the framework is as easy as updating the theme.
- On your WordPress Dashboard, go to NiceThemes → Updates.
- Find the Framework Updates section.
- If a framework update is available, you will be offered an Update button: click it.
- Wait until the process is done.
Manual update↑ Back to Top
If automatic update is not an option, you can always do it the old-fashioned way. If you’re going down this road, it’s very important that you know what you’re doing: messing with the wrong files could break your site entirely. We also recommend backing up your site first, just in case.
Downloading theme files↑ Back to Top
- Login to your NiceThemes.com account and head over to your dashboard. (Or via ThemeForest, in your Downloads Section)
- Download the theme ZIP file as you did when you purchased it.
Removing old theme files↑ Back to Top
- Connect to your server using FTP (or the method of your choice) and find the folder of your theme (for example, if you want to update Flatbase, it should be the
wp-content/themes/flatbase
folder). - Download any files that you may have customized, like
functions.php
andcustom.css
(which are the most likely files that you could have made changes to). Note that, if you don’t do this, all changes you may have made to the theme will be lost (unless, as we suggested before, you’re using a child theme). - Remove the folder of your theme.
- Disconnect from your server.
Uploading new theme files↑ Back to Top
Using WordPress admin
- On your WordPress Dashboard, go to Appearance → Themes.
- Find and click the Add New button, and then the Upload Theme button.
- Upload the theme ZIP file you downloaded and click Install Now.
- Wait until the process is done and click Activate.
Directly to the server
- Extract the ZIP’s contents and find the extracted theme folder.
- Connect to your server using FTP (or the method of your choice) and find the
wp-content/themes
folder. - Create a folder for the theme (for example, if you’re updating Flatbase, it should be
wp-content/themes/flatbase
) and upload the extracted contents there. - Disconnect from your server.
- On your WordPress Dashboard, go to Appearance → Themes.
- Find the theme you just uploaded, and click Activate.
wp-content/themes/themename
and not wp-content/themes/themename/themename
, the latter may cause malfunctioning.That’s it. Your theme should be updated to the latest version now.
Additional notes↑ Back to Top
- If you’re just starting with FTP or want to use a reliable and user-friendly client to transfer your files, we recommend FileZilla, which you can download for free. In case you don’t know what FTP is, you may want to read this article first.
Re-applying customizations↑ Back to Top
As we stated, both automatic and manual updates will remove the old files in your theme folder, so that’s why it’s important to backup any changes you’ve made to the theme files beforehand (and, again, that’s why you should be using a child theme).
If you didn’t make any changes to the theme files, there is no risk of losing theme settings, pages, posts, etc, and backwards compatibility is guaranteed.
If you have made changes to the theme files, you will need to compare your modifications with the current theme files (the changelog.txt files in both the new version and the backup can help you with that) and merge them together. If the only files you modified are functions.php
and custom.css
, you’re most certainly safe because those files don’t usually change. But, just in case, we still recommend you to merge instead of overwriting.