This morning I finally took the time to update Wordpress to 2.1.2. I had been putting this off for way too long, I think I was on version 2.0.4 which was several versions back. The upgrade went pretty quick so hopefully no one noticed the site being down.

I realize that some people are still new to Wordpress, so I wanted to take this opportunity to share with those users how to update Wordpress properly. Rather than reinvent the wheel and reiterate instructions that are already posted on the web, I will just hit the highlights and point you to the proper sources of information. Plus, this way the instructions will stay up-to-date as Wordpress evolves.

The first and most important thing to do is backup your Wordpress database and files. There are several ways to accomplish these two task. I’ll point you to what I think is the easiest ways to complete each.

Probably the easiest way to backup all the files in your Wordpress directory is FTP. You will need to download a good FTP client if you don’t already have one installed. I recommend Filezilla for PC and CyberDuck for Mac. FTP is very simple to use–it’s essentially like moving files around on your hard drive. You will need to log-in to the server with your FTP user name and password and navigate to where your existing Wordpress files are and download them to your hard drive. I won’t go into any more details of how to use these FTP clients because that is not what this post is about, but feel free ask question via the comment section at the end of this post.

Detailed instruction on how backup your database can be found at Wordpress on the cleverly titled Backing Up Your Database page. The easiest way to backup your database is phpMyAdmin if your web host offers it (most do) or if your use a Mac, Cocoa MySQL. If you would like to automate database backups, check out skippy.net’s WordPress Database Backup plugin!.

Once you’ve got the backups completed, open a few of the files on your local computer to make sure everything worked properly. If you can see a bunch of files and open them, then you should be good to go.

I will outline the rest of the steps, linking to the appropriate source to find additional information.

• Deactivate all of your plugins
• Download the newest version of Wordpress
• Delete some old files
• Upload the new Wordpress files to your site (don’t overwrite the files you didn’t delete in the above step unless explicitly told to do so)
• Run the Wordpress upgrade program
• Update permalinks and .htaccess (only if necessary. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s probably not necessary).
• Install updated plugins and themes
• Reactivate the plugins you disabled a few steps back

That’s it. Now, it’s time to enjoy any new Wordpress features and enjoy the added security of running the latest stable release of Wordpress.

Well, hopefully this post helped you upgrade your Wordpress site and taught you a little about backing up your site. I highly recommend backing up your site regularly, not just when it’s time to upgrade. Don’t believe me, see my post whew…what a relief!