Updating Your Theme Manually

Updating a WordPress theme manually isn't as intuitive a process as we'd all like it to be. For most people, updating a theme is the same process as adding a new theme: Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload. Unfortunately, the following error is usually the result:

'Theme install failed' - what do you do now? We think the following is the easiest way for most people to update their theme manually.

  1. Log into your Press75 account, and download the latest version of your theme. The folder we provide is compressed, in .zip format. Some browsers will unzip the folder if you open it directly after downloading. If this happens to you, find where you downloaded the theme folder, right click it, and choose the 'compress' option to create a .zip.
  2. Log into your WordPress admin panel. This will be yoursite.com/wp-admin, replacing 'yoursite.com' with your real URL.
  3. Navigate to Plugins > Add New, and search for and install the WP Editor plugin. Activate the plugin once installed.
  4. Navigate to Appearance > Theme Editor, ensure you're editing the theme you want to update, and click the 'Download Theme' button (beneath the editor window) to download a backup of your active theme.
  5. Navigate to Appearance > Themes, and activate any theme other than the one you're updating. Once a different theme is activated, delete the installed version of the theme you're updating.
  6. Once the theme has been deleted, and while still on Appearance > Themes, click Add New > Upload Theme > Browse, then once you've selected the zipped theme upload, click 'Install Now'. Activate the theme once it's installed.
  7. In some cases you may need to re-save or reconfigure your theme options, so it's best to double check Appearance > Customize to make sure everything is in order. This process should take no more than a minute or two.

Note: If you're using any version of our themes released after September 30th, 2016, then you will have access to dashboard theme updates. Dashboard updates are the easiest way to update your theme, requiring only that you click 'update theme' text, under Appearance > Themes. For instructions on setting up dashboard theme updates, please see Setting Up For Dashboard Theme Updates.

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