Does The WordPress Automatic Upgrade Feature Work On Your Hosting Account
There has been an automatic upgrade plugin for WordPress for quite some time now. And since WordPress version 2.7 the automatic upgrade feature has been part of the WordPress core. But there are some hosting accounts that restrict the automatic upgrade feature from working.
With any WordPress upgrade I highly recommend backing up at least your wp-content folder and database first. Then when you see the nag to upgrade WordPress in the dashboard just click the link to automatically upgrade. In the next screen you might be asked for the hostname, username and password. That is simply the FTP information used to upload files to your site. The FTP information should have been or can be provided to you by your hosting account.
Here is a link to the WordPress Core Update Host Compatibility checklist. You can see if your hosting account passes the test. It also has some information to fix or bypass a few of the more stubborn hosting accounts.
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- You Need To Upgrade Your WordPress Blog
- New Sidebar Widgets Interface In WordPress Version 2.8
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Comments
Great advice! I have so many blogs and many of them aren’t backed up enough, and I know I need to implement a better strategy – it is definitely easier to deal with problems before they happen.
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Hey, thanks for the advice. I want to check out Wordpress 2.8 as soon as possible.
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As being an stock investor i should say thanks to you for this advice because it is very important for my wordpress blog!
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Wordpress is becoming more innovative day by day…new changelog plugins and new version 2.7 & 2.8…its good..would love to use it…
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Backing up content of a site is one of the most important aspect when planning to upgrade, as for me i can’t risk it.
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Very interesting article. I use Host Gator and I have never experienced any problems. So I wasn’t aware of this. Wow! Good to know stuff… Thanks!
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I actually just tried to update a couple days ago with the automatic update feature. Let’s just say I failed. I can no longer access the site or the wp admin portal. Not cool.
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Really superb points about wordpress 2.7 and 2.8.
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I agree, backing up the content before you upgrade is critical, don’t even attempt it without that step! Trust me, I learned the hard way!
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So far so good, I have updated more than 10 plugins now and all work fine. The only problem sometimes is that the FTP connection time out. Not a big deal.
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My wordpress blog is new but I have put hours and hours of work into it. Thank you for reminding me to back it up first.
Are there any other folders I should absolutely back up?
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Jeff Replied:
July 2nd, 2009 at 9:11 pm
The only one to backup is the wp-contnet folder, it has your themes, plugins and uploads in it.
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very interesting article. I use Host Gator and I have never experienced any problems. So I wasn’t aware of this. Wow! Good to know stuff… Thanks!
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“With any WordPress upgrade I highly recommend backing up at least your wp-content folder and database first” – Very good idea, but there are two super plugins which I use that can backup your WordPress files for you, one of called Wordpress Backup (made by Blog Traffic Exchange) and the other is “Backup” (don’t know who made it :S) The first plugin backs up the uploads, themes and plugins and the second backups the database and both of them have the option of sending you the backups via emails so even if your server is crashed and burns it’s all backed up
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Jeff Replied:
July 7th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
WordPress plugins will come and go and I use one of the plugins you mentioned. But knowing what to backup and how to do it manually is something you should know if you are maintaining a WP blog.
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Just started using wordpress a short time ago,
and I’m just trying to get a grip of all the endless possibilities that i gives you.
Also tried to do the automatic upgrade and actually was told it went ok. But guess it didn’t as I still have that upgrade reminder…
Do you if you can auto upgrade a localized version?
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Jeff Replied:
July 16th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Obviously not in your case…
But really I don’t know, guess it depends on your database settings.
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Backing up content of a site is one of the most important aspect when planning to upgrade, as for me i can’t risk it.
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Hi Jeff
just found your site… looks full of useful info.
I’ve been messing about with wordpress 2.8 on a local server using XAMPP but can’t get any response when I try to do an automatic upgrade.
Is this because the server is local (on my PC)?
Any thoughts?
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Jeff Replied:
July 24th, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Probably a database setting, of which I know nothing about.
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I’ve tried several sites across many hosting accounts. I can’t get the Wordpress 2.8.2 auto-upgrade to function. Is anyone else having the same problems? I just plan to work on the next version of Wordpress. I had not problems with auto-upgrade before this one.
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Jeff Replied:
July 27th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
No problems here. Most-Likely a hosting account issue.
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Well my host doesn’t allow the automatic upgrade feature so I always have to do it manually…spon I will move to a new host till then have to bear with it, anyway nice article really loved the idea of backing wp-content folder instead of whole installation.
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Well my host doesn’t allow the automatic upgrade feature so I always have to do it manually…spon I will move to a new host till then have to bear with it, anyway nice article really loved the idea of backing wp-content folder instead of whole installation
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Drive-By comments will be deleted! Like "Thanks for sharing", "Nice post", or any other text that doesn't contribute to the discussion. If you ask a very specific question about your particular WordPress theme, it will probably be deleted. I can fix your WordPress site but for a price. If you ask a question like "Why don't my blog work right", it will be deleted. If you ask a question about your WordPress site without a leaving a link to it, it will be deleted. The point is to ask questions and or comment on the the actual content of the post, and to please use some common sense. All comments are moderated and will appear when approved. Thank you.