How to Update the theme

Warning / Notice:#

Before updating the theme it is highly recommended that you make a backup of your current site, especially if you’ve made modifications. Updates should be performed in a staging environment first to test, not on a live production site. You have been warned!

Backup your website!#

Before updating your theme, please make sure you are running the latest version of WordPress. It is also a good idea to make sure you have a backup of your site. Backup WordPress is a useful plugin to help you do this. To learn more about backing up your WordPress website please see the Codex here: WordPress Backups Codex

Backwards compatibility#

We try to be very careful to make the updates by maintaining a backward compatibility and thus no content or options will (and should not) be lost after performing a theme update. Again, backup to make sure you won’t have to worry about that, however if you do seem to find any problem, please start a new topic on our support forums and we’ll dig deeper into the problem and investigate it.

 

Automatic updates#

Our themes come with a built-in update system that notifies you in the standard WordPress way of any theme update (In WordPress Dashboard > Updates). In order to activate this feature, you will need to activate the theme with an API Key generated in My Products section of this app. You can read more in How to register the theme .

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Manual Updates#

There are a few different ways to manually update your theme depending on your specific situation. We recommend using the child theme if you are going to customize your theme files, as this will make it easier to update your parent theme.

Download latest version of the theme#

Theme pack can be downloaded from your ThemeForest’s account > Downloads section. You will basically download a package containing the theme, the child theme, Documentation and PSD’s.

Update by uploading new version#

The easiest way to manually update your theme is to upload it via the WP dashboard.

  1. Go to Appearance > Themes > Install Themes > Upload
  2. Click Browse and select the zip file
  3. Click Install Now

You will most likely GET the following error:

Error upon upload

The reason we get this error is that you already have the theme folder on your server with the same name as the folder inside your ZIP file.

You can use Easy Theme and Plugin Upgrades plugin or do one of the following:

A. Rename the folder#

You can either rename the theme folder on your server or rename the folder inside the zip file.

  1. Unzip the file on your computer
  2. Rename the folder (e.g. kallyas-new”). The folder name must not have spaces in it.
  3. Compress the new folder to a ZIP file
  4. Upload it via Appearance > Themes > Install Themes > Upload
  5. Go to Appearance > Themes and activate the new version
B. Delete the theme on your server#

If you have done any customizations to your theme files, these customizations will be lost if you use this method. If you have not done customizations to the theme, or you are running a child theme you can:

  1. Go to Appearance > Themes
  2. Activate TwentyFourteen (or another theme)
  3. Delete the old theme
  4. Upload new version via Appearance > Themes > Install Themes > Upload
  5. Activate the new version

We highly recommend using a child theme to avoid this step.