What to do BEFORE you upgrade to WordPress 2.8
WordPress is releasing their 2.8 version shortly.
What does this mean to you? Well, it means you should probably update your WordPress (insert smiley face here).
Besides nifty new features, all new releases have security patches to make WP more hack-proof.
So here are a few things you should do first to prepare your site for upgrade:
- Back Up your wp-content folder, including your plugins & themes.
- Back up any customized files.
- Back up your database (very important).
I use the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin because it does all the above for me and I can download all the backups to a folder on my computer before I upgrade.
There are several other backup options including going through your web host and running a Database backup, then using your FTP to back up your files. There are also a few other plugins that help you back up your database but I find that the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin works best for me.
If you don’t want to use the plugin mentioned before, you can upgrade using the WordPress admin if you have version 2.7.1. In your admin, you’ll see an “Upgrade” link to the left in the “Tools” area – this will upgrade WordPress, but it won’t do any backups. So please do yourself a favor and back up BEFORE upgrading if you’re going to go this route.
Or I could always walk you through it. If you want to go that route, I can offer a quick upgrade walkthorugh for $30 over Skype or via Phone. Contact me and we’ll set it up!
photo credit: Army Environmental Update
