How to update with a Child theme activated

[tracytrends]

If we have made a child theme (so the child theme is currently active) and want to update.

What do we do?

1. Back up our site

2. Download the update

???

I don’t know if I need to uninstall – reinstall or upload the new version over the old somehow.

Thank you for the help.
Tracy

Topic

[Jason Bobich]

Hello Tracy,

The process for updating a theme manually on your server is no different when a Child theme is activated. WordPress keeps all of your themes in their respective directories here on your WordPress installation of your server:

/wp-content/themes/

So, no matter which theme you have currently activated, updating any of these theme is the same. You’re essentially just finding the folder on your server and replacing it with the updated version.

/wp-content/themes/akita/

During this process your Child theme simply remains where it is, untouched.

/wp-content/themes/akita-child/

But always remember to update responsibly. Never update your theme or big plugins that play an important role on your site without first properly testing your site in some sort of staging environment.

[tracytrends]

Thanks Jason.

I do understand what you explained with the folders being in separate locations, but I don’t understand what to do.

I’ve downloaded the updated/new version in a zip file. If I go into WordPress > Appearance > Manage themes, I see my active theme is my child theme and I see the Parent theme located below.

1) When using WordPress to update, do I go to Appearances > Install themes and choose to upload the zip file there and will that overwrite the Parent theme I see under the ‘manage themes’ tab?

2) Will I have to delete the parent theme I currently have loaded before doing #1 above, or does it get overridden automatically?

3) Alternatively, can I just FTP the zip file directly into the directory or do I unpackage all the zip items and FTP those over? I see the Zip file has two more zip files within it.

Thanks for being patient with me. I don’t want to do it wrong.
Tracy

[Jason Bobich]

The process I explained above does not involve anything in your WordPress admin. The process of updating a theme is essentially just updating the files on the server. So, once you update the files as I explained above through your FTP program, the theme is updated and there’s nothing else to do. Does that make sense?

Try watching this video. I think it might be helpful:

https://vimeo.com/41533135

[tracytrends]

Thank you for taking time to look-up and link to the video URL.

It cleared up all my zip file questions. I’m all updated.

[Author]

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