Are you wondering if your website is using the latest version of WordPress ?
With each new release, WordPress developers fix bugs, add new features, improve performance and stay up to date with new industry standards. If you don’t update your website, you risk the security of your website and miss the new features.
In this article, we’ll show you how to check and update the latest version of WordPress .
Why always you should use the latest version of WordPress ?
The most important reason to use the latest version of WordPress is to improve the security of your website. Since more than 43% of all websites use WordPress, it is a common target for hackers, malicious code distributors and data thieves.
Every time a vulnerability is reported, the WordPress core team works hard to release an update that fixes the problem. This makes the latest version of WordPress the most secure version.
The new WordPress versions also include useful new features as well as bug fixes for older features.
Developers of plugins and templates often coordinate their updates with major WordPress releases.
This allows them to take advantage of the newly available features and improvements. This often means that the latest version of WordPress is the most compatible.
How to easily check your WordPress version ?
The first thing you need to do is log in to the WordPress administration area and scroll to the bottom of the page.
Look for the phrase “Thanks for creating with WordPress”. Next to it, you will see the WordPress version number.
In the main control panel “Home screen, you can also find your WordPress version number in the” quick overview “management tool. In the screenshot above, we are using WordPress version 6.0.2.
Sometimes you may want to find out the WordPress version of a website when you do not have administrator access. Fortunately, there are other ways to check which version they are using.
How to check for WordPress updates ?
You can find out if a new version of WordPress is available by visiting the Dashboard ” Updates page in your WordPress Management Area.
If your WordPress version is up to date, you will see a message stating that you have the current version. In the screenshot below, this is version 6.0.2.
On this page, you will also see the timestamp of when you last checked your WordPress site for updates.
WordPress automatically checks for updates on a regular basis. However, you can also click on the “check again” link to manually search for updates.
When the latest version of WordPress is available, you will see the message, “an updated version of WordPress is available.”
Under this message, you will find the “update Now” button. The next section will show you how to install the WordPress update.
How to safely update to the latest version of WordPress ?
Before updating anything, it is important to make a full backup of your WordPress site. You can find out the best way to do this in our guide on how to back up and restore your WordPress site .
Once this is done, you can return to the Dashboard “Updates page” and then click on the “update Now” button that you can see in the screenshot above.
WordPress will automatically put your site into maintenance mode, and then bring the latest version of the program and install it for you. You will see the update progress on your screen.
Once the WordPress update is installed, you should visit your website to make sure everything looks fine and works.
If there are any problems, you will need to do some troubleshooting. You might want to take a look at our list of common WordPress bugs
If you haven’t found a way to fix the problems, you can restore your website from the backup you created.
How to enable automatic WordPress updates ?
When you visit the Dashboard “Updates page in your WordPress management area, you will see the message,” this site is automatically updated with maintenance and security versions of WordPress only. ”
Since it’s best to install security updates right away to keep your website safe, WordPress does it automatically for you. This means that you can be confident that your site will remain safe, even if you are busy or away from home.
If you want to treat all WordPress updates in the same way, just click on the link labeled “Enable Automatic Updates for all new versions of WordPress.”
There are several other ways to enable automatic WordPress updates .
Automatic WordPress updates are convenient, but they can also lead to problems. For example, it is possible that the update will disable your site. If WordPress updates automatically, you may not be there to fix it, or even notice a problem.
That’s why it’s a good idea to keep more control over your updates .
If you decide to turn off automatic updates in the future, simply refer to the “Updates page” dashboard and click on the link that says “switch to automatic updates for maintenance and security versions only”.
Now the main versions of WordPress will not be installed automatically , only security updates that are less likely to cause conflicts that cause your site to crash.
How to test WordPress update on a staging site ?
If you are worried about an update crashing for your site, you can test if there are problems before installing it on your Live website. You can do this through the staging site.
A staging site is an exact copy of your Live website and must be installed on the same web hosting server. This means that if the WordPress update is working properly on the staging site, then you can be confident that it will not cause any problems on the live site.
Some of the best WordPress hosting companies offer one-click staging websites. If your website is hosted with one of them, you can easily create a phased website without any hassle.
If your hosting provider does not provide this service, then you can easily create a phased site yourself. You can do this manually or use a plugin such as WP Stagecoach .
How to install the latest versions of WordPress ?
The latest WordPress updates are called nightly installations. They should never be installed on a live website because they are still being tested for errors, (and night versions mean that he checks the latest
existing version of WordPress and then installs it.)
Instead, the night versions should be installed on a staging site or locally on a Windows or Mac computer . You can do this using the WordPress Beta Tester extension which will automatically update your WordPress
installation to the latest Nightly versions.
Developers use Nightly versions to make sure that their plugins and themes will work with future versions of WordPress before they are released. If there is a problem, they can fix their own code, or let the core WordPress developers know about any bugs they detect.
It’s also a good way to contribute to a WordPress project. Ordinary users who do not have programming skills can test the nightly build and report any errors they find. Those with programming skills can submit code patches that fix these errors.
We hope that this tutorial will help you learn how to check and update the latest version of WordPress. You may also want to learn how to speed up your WordPress site.