.

DON'T UPGRADE new WordPress version too fast. Here is why

The Fine Art of WP Upgrades. Wait up!

24 Jul
upgrade wordpress button image

You click on the shiny upgrade button on your WP Dashboard, but then something is broken - a plugin, a function, whatnot. Easy tiger, not so fast ..

A typical scenario:-

The blogger: Keen, easily tempted, likes security, bug fixes, insurance.

The problem: Bugs, broken plugins & functions, wasted time.

The solution: Downgrade WP version, else deactivate plugins, reactivating individually.

The reaction: Yikes. You must be chokin'.

The moral: Patience is a virtue.

WordPress 2.8.2 Preview Problem (for example)

I AM GUILTY. Yup, class idiot. I'd normally wait before pressing that button, but this time I didn't .. think.

So I upgraded to 2.8.2. I mean, what could go wrong? 2.8.1 was sweet. And this time, there's only a single bug fix, and it looked sooo obscure. Surely it wouldn't affect the site? It did, and now I can't preview new posts.

.. Big deal, you say, that's not too much of a hassle, just wait for the next upgrade. Sure, you're probably right but, when you're giving prosumer techie advice, like what I is, you have a stylesheet as long as mine, and hand code, you kind of need a preview before going live with errors and screwing up everyones' machines.

Wait Before Upgrading

Whatever WordPress version you have, if you wish to upgrade to a fresh new release, here's the deal: WAIT.

Wait for the bugs to become addressed. 'Cos beta-testing isn't enough.

Wait for your key plugins to be upgraded to suit the new version, should that be relevant per plugin.

Wait .. well, in my experience, probably a week or three. Make that 3.

How to Downgrade a WordPress version

So you fell into the trap too, huh? Here are some handy resources:-

Hmmn. Let's just say this is a learning exercise.

Be Sociable, Share!

If you liked that ...

  • Easy-as-you-like! Adapt Square Boxes with Hassle-Free Curves

    Give your site a design lift with this simple CSS code snippet. Simply choose a radius and drop it in a div for a real easy way to add curves without any images or javascript. This is super-fast to do and works for [...]

  • File Sharing Site Torpedoed After Fine Threat

    The file sharing peer-to-peer network, The Pirate Bay, has had the plug pulled. The decision to suspend the site was taken by their main web host, Black Internet, which was threatened with a hefty fine by Sweden's [...]

  • About Guvnr & the_guv

    Hi.  My name's Olly Connelly.  Welcome to Guvnr. About Guvnr.com Guvnr launched in 2008 as a showcase for my Web, PC and Content services. [...]

  • Guvnr.com and Web Standards

    There's a lot of talk about web standards. Here's some more. What are web standards? Rules for producing well-coded, user-friendly websites, set down by a very important and useful group of gordo-geeks, [...]

  • Video How-to: Add a Favicon

    If I had a Big Mac for every favicon tutorial out there, I'd be dead. But hey, I needed a favicon, and I figured a video illustrating the process may come in handy for some folks, so here goes. What is a [...]
... maybe you'll like these?
Posted on Friday, July 24th, 2009
Subscribe to Comments by RSS              Trackback from your blog

THE_GUV NEEDS YOU!!

.. to improve this post ..

Please clue me in. What's wrong or missing?

Or, hey, just pile on the praise ;)  Ah, yup, and fix a feed, fella.

Or link the page to your social network!

thank you, thanx, tx, ta, t, tsst, twaddle, cheek, cheers, cheerio



  1. Gautam July 24th, 2009 at 6:47 pm

    Hi Guv,

    Thanks for the mention. I still haven't upgraded to the latest version for the same reason.

  2. Wachten met upgraden van WP | Bakkel dot com July 24th, 2009 at 8:32 pm

    [...] Ook ik zal altijd gelijk upgraden als de melding binnen het dashboard van WordPress verschijnt, maar dat gaat niet altijd even goed. [...]

  3. the_guv July 24th, 2009 at 8:52 pm

    @Gautam .. you're most welcome. Kind regards, Sir.

  4. Max July 24th, 2009 at 9:43 pm

    You'll always see that YOU are the single person that is using that obscure plugin that is causing an upgrade to go bonkers. Pity when it happens to you, but to advice against upgrading for that reason... I dunno.

    I've hit the shiny button myself, and everything still works fine, previews and all. Better yet, I'm protected against that small obscure whatsit that the upgrade is supposed to fix.

    Upgrading is always a matter of YMMV -- it's also a great reminder of why exactly they tell you to backup _before_ you upgrade. =]

  5. the_guv July 25th, 2009 at 1:40 am

    @Max .. cheers for that .. valuable points. Definitely a toughie, for sure depends on your setup. Darn right, backup and be done with, well, backing up, bejeevers :P

  6. jerry July 25th, 2009 at 11:13 am

    thanks for the Info i didnt updated still so will wait for some solution

  7. the_guv July 25th, 2009 at 11:24 am

    @Jerry .. cheers Jerry, best of luck

  8. holyhttp July 30th, 2009 at 9:15 pm

    I have experienced worse when upgrading from 2.7 to 2.8. An unsuccessful automatic upgrade wiped out all my files including the wp-content. Needless to say I lost all my media files. Thank goodness it was a new site about 3 months old. I confess I am not an avid blogger that's why that loss was minimal.
    My advice folks, not only should you backup your blog database but you also need to do the same with the uploads folder.

  9. the_guv July 30th, 2009 at 9:23 pm

    @holyhttp .. damn, holy moly m8! sorry to hear. some fine backup guides lurking about somewhere on this site, if you wanna take a peek.

Say Something


.