Themes impact your website’s design, speed, performance, SEO, and user experience. Updating a WordPress theme means installing it to the latest version, which can sometimes be disruptive. WordPress notifies you when there is an update available.

Reasons to Update Your WordPress Theme

1. Security

   • Regular updates to your themes, plugins, and WordPress core are essential for maintaining site security. Failing to install theme updates leaves your site vulnerable to security threats.

2. Compatibility

   • Theme developers test their themes for compatibility with new WordPress versions and release updates accordingly. Installing these updates helps avoid compatibility issues.

3. Feature Upgrades

   • Updates often include new features, allowing you to utilize the full potential of your theme.

4. Performance Optimization

   • Updating your theme ensures it operates at maximum performance, improving the overall experience for users.

Setting Up Automatic Theme Updates

Outdated themes pose risks to your site's security, performance, and compatibility. Follow these steps to set up auto-updates for your WordPress theme:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Click Appearance.
3. Go to Themes.
4. Click on the active theme you wish to update.
5. Click Enable auto-updates.

Note: If there are custom codes added to your theme, you might want to avoid auto-updates.

Updating WordPress Themes Manually

If you installed and activated your theme without customization, updating is straightforward. Here’s how:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard. You will see a notification in your WordPress Admin Menu when a new version is available.
2. Click Themes. If your theme is up to date, you’ll see a message stating, "Your themes are all up to date." If not, select the theme you wish to update and click the Update Themes button.

Another option to manually update your theme:

1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
2. Click Appearance.
3. Go to Themes. You’ll see a notification stating, "New version available. Update now."
4. Click Update now. WordPress will automatically download and unzip the theme package, replacing the old theme files.

Note: This will overwrite old theme files, resulting in a loss of customizations. To avoid this, you can update your theme using an FTP client.

How to Update a Theme via FTP (FileZilla)

To transfer files from your computer to your WordPress hosting account using FTP, follow these steps:

1. Create a backup of your theme:

   • Log in to your site via FileZilla.
   • Locate the public_html folder.
   • Click wp-content, then go to your themes folder.
   • Rename your active theme folder and download it to your computer.

2. Download the new version of your theme:

   • Go to the theme’s website and download the latest version to your computer.
   • Locate the theme’s zip file and extract it.

3. Add customizations to the new theme files:

   • Open both your old and new theme folders.
   • Copy the custom code from the old theme files and paste it into the corresponding files in the new theme folder.

4. Upload the new theme folder to your site:

   • Log into FileZilla.
   • Click the public_html folder.
   • Locate the wp-content folder, then go to the themes folder and upload your new theme directory.

5. Activate the new theme on your site:

   • Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
   • Click Appearance.
   • Go to Themes and activate the new theme.
   • If prompted, click the Replace current with the uploaded button.

6. Test your site:

   • Visit your website to ensure everything functions correctly. If there are issues, revisit your backup of the old theme and verify that all necessary customizations were copied to the new theme.

Conclusion

To provide the best experience for your users, it is crucial to regularly update your themes. Keeping them updated enhances security, performance, and compatibility, ensuring your site remains robust and user-friendly.