- Image by Matt Thomas via Flickr
It is time to upgrade to WordPress 2.7
If you are like me you probably like to wait a few weeks months years to install the newest software. Upgrades take time, you have to learn new stuff, and new software usually breaks.
WordPress 2.7 is a little different. I have never seen software go through such a thorough vetting before release. Hundreds (possibly thousands) were testing this well in advance of release and multiple thousands were using it by the time of the official release.
All that testing does not make it any easier to install, though. Or does it? One those testers built a plugin to make upgrading super-easy.
The Wordpress Automatic Upgrade plugin will take you through each step of the upgrade process. It gives you a one-click option to create backups then puts your blog in maintenance mode, installs the files, and finishes the upgrade. After installing the plugin, (plugins are much easier to install than the full WordPress application) you have 5-10 clicks and you are done!
So let’s get started:
- Click here to download the plugin.
- Upload the file you just downloaded into the /wp-content/plugins/ folder.
- Unzip the file. (If I have lost you at this point, let me know. This is different for each host, but I can help you individually. Just ask.)
- Goto your wp-admin and click the Plugins menu and the Plugins sub-menu
- Find “Wordpress Automatic Upgrade” and activate it.
- After activating the plugin you will see a pink bar at the top that says “Click Here to Automatically Upgrade WordPress to latest Version.
- Anybody care to guess what the next step is?
- Yup, Click on that link and enter the twilight zone.
After this you will have to click “Next Step” several times, and whenever it gives you a chance to download back-ups, do it. (two different parts need to be backed up) You will also need to click on the link to upgrade your database.
Please let me know who things work out for you. I want to hear all those, “Wow! That was easy!” exclamations. I also want to hear about any trouble along the way, so maybe I can update these notes to make things even easier for others.
[Update]
Oh! Share this post with as many people as you possibly can. You can use social bookmarks like del.icio.us or rating sites like digg. Even better, you can copy this post onto your blog or write a post linking here. Let’s try to make this easy for as many people as possible.
[/Update]
Related articles by Zemanta
- Wordpress 2.7
- Upgrade WordPress effortlessly with WPAU plugin
- Wordpress 2.7 Officially Released For Everyone
- Upgraded to WordPress 2.7
- WordPress 2.7 Released, What Is Your Action Plan?
- WordPress 2.7 Available for Download
- Wordpress 2.7
- Wordpress 2.7 Is Unveiled In All It’s Glory
- Download wordpress 2.7 and upgrade your wordpress installation
- Plugin: WP Easy Uploader
- WordPress 2.7 Sees The Light Of Day
- Preparing for WordPress 2.7
- WordPress 2.7 Released
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com//reblog_e.png?x-id=e95073c8-9824-498d-8b76-b909ce65555c)
Related posts:
- Upgrade to WordPress 2.8 Today Image via Wikipedia It is time to upgrade again,...
- More Comments on Commenting Image by [ r ♥ c e y t...
- Do Not Auto-Update Hot Linked Image Cacher Plug-In! Don’t you love learning things the hard way? I am...
- File not Found We only have a few more days to find bloggers...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Luke Gedeon
69 Comments
Whew! Thanks so much for this article – seriously I was dreading it…. but I can report the plugin worked like a charm, smooth as silk and only took a few minutes.
2.7 definitely has a cleaner more streamlined look.
This is wonderful! Thank you for providing this great tool. Worked great without problems and I am running it on Windows Server 2008.
Thanks so much for this post. Went smooth as can be. Thanks again.
Jack, David, and Jim,
I am glad this helped you with upgrading. Now, will you help others by posting this information, or at least a link to it on your blog?
A lot of people are upgrading right now that do not know about this plugin. We need to get the word out.
Thanks.
That a great plugin.
thanks Luke for making that correction…i can say that using the steps and the plugin was no pain for me. may the others find it useful.
Works like a CHARM!
My host tried the upgrade and I tried the upgrade and it didn’t work.
Tried this plugin, which a lot of people at the Wordpress Support Forums disregarded and BAM! Site was WORKING!
Fantastic!! Works GREAT!
Have you had any issues with this plugin that we should be aware of? The idea of messing up the blog I spent hours to get the way I wanted it makes me shudder.
do you know if 2.7 is compatible with the Vistalicious theme?
Sage, I totally understand your concern. It worked great for me and many others, and I have not heard of any problems but this is dependent on the server you are using so there is always that possibility. Of course, there is an even greater chance (at least in my case) of messing it up trying to upgrade manually.
The first thing the plugin does is a backup of your current files and your database. It then gives you the option to download the back-ups. (2 separate files) Download them and make sure the plugin was able to actually create a back-up. If the back-up worked you can go ahead with confidence.
Let us know how it goes.
Thanks for your reply. Is it true that hosting on GoDaddy causes problems with this plugin or do you know?
As a side note….my sister let me name her middle child since I couldn’t have any. I named him Luke.
I am on a godaddy linux box and did not have any trouble.
Now that really makes me feel better. I read somewhere that upgrades with an auto upgrader are particularly problematic with GoDaddy.
I need to see if my theme is compatible with 2.7 and if it is I will upgrade tonight.
I unzip my files before uploading to GoDaddy….is that a problem? I don’t know how to upload it and then unzip it.
Thanks again for the plugin and the information!
Sage,
I wonder if they were talking about the auto-upgrade inside Hosting Central. I have heard of problems with hosting central in general, but this runs completely inside WordPress.
Unzipping the plugin before uploading is not a problem if that is what you are used to. Zipped files usually upload faster, but the files are small enough in this case not to make a difference.
I missed your comment about the name, at first. That is pretty cool. I think Luke is a particularly great name.
Also, I have not gotten around to testing any themes yet. I have been focusing on plugins.
Luke is a great name.
I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions.
Dude.. It doesn’t work with my blog. below is the failed log. Hopefully you can help me.
Task Name: maintmode
Task Description: Puts the site into maintenance mode
Task Status: Failed
Task Start Date: 2008-12-20 23:08:06
Task End Date: 2008-12-20 23:08:06
Task Log:
Putting the site into maintenance mode /home/nizbila/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade
Copying /home/nizbila/public_html/index.php to /home/nizbila/public_html/index.php.wpau.bak
The file was successfully copied
Moving the maintenance file to root
ERROR -> Could not put the site into maintenance mode
Yoko,
Putting your blog into “maintenance mode” is not a required step. It just gives people a friendly error message if they try to visit while you are upgrading. Does it give an option to skip that step?
However this could also indicate that your file permissions are too restrictive. And later steps may not work either.
The most important step is the back-ups make sure to download and test them. You need the backups even if you upgrade manually.
If skipping the maintenance mode is not an option or you would rather not skip it you may need to temporarily change file permissions on your /home/nizbila/public_html/ folder.
Here is the link to the plugin author: http://techie-buzz.com/wordpress-plugins/wordpress-automatic-upgrade-12-release.html
He might be able to give you more specific help. I might do a little research in the morning too, but my eyes are so blurry right now I am not sure I would be much help.
Wow…. a completely idiot proof way to get the latest upgrade…I was hesitating for months to get this, fearing I’d loose everything… all better now…long live this plug-in!!! Thank you, Luke
Hi Luke,
Wow – that was sooo easy! Thank you for sharing this with us. I am eternally grateful
I was putting off upgrading because I always run into trouble, so I *love* this.
Mike and Marie,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Most of the thanks for the easy upgrade goes to the guys who put together the plugin, but I am glad that I blogged about it. It is so cool to be small part of making life easier for so many people.
Pass the news on to other people so they can have an easy upgrade too.
Great Plug-In. It worked like a charm!
Life is Beautiful!
Wow, that was awesome. Just used the plug-in to upgrade to WP 2.7 and it was smooth sailing. My site is hosted by godaddy and I had tried three times to use godaddy’s “automatic” upgrade, but I got error messages every time. I can confirm that the plug-in works on godaddy-hosted sites. Very cool
Glad I found this article. Kudos to all!
hi it didn’t work for me. the site says it’s “under maintenance”.
Looks like you might be having trouble with BlueHost not WordPress. Are you referring to the dutdot domain?
Thank you soooooooooo much for virtually “holding my hand” through this process. I recently switched over one of my blogs (eventually all of them) from free, point and click world of wordpress.com over to wordpress.org using bluehost. Everything I do has me pulling out my hair trying to figure it out so posts like the one you have here makes life so incredibly easy for people like me who don’t want to become super tech savvy in the process.
While this subject matter does not normally have a home on my blog, I did just craft one with a link back to your post: http://affrodite.net/?p=277
Thanks again!
I am having problems viewing the plugin – not showing up at all?? all my other plugin works okay. any thoughts?
Hey Luke,
Thanks for the email advice BTW
Thank you so much for this, I’ve been avoiding updating my wordpress for a good while now because I had no idea how and the guide was confusing me, but this was so simple and easy! Thank you again!
You lost me at step 3. Help! Thank you
I am trying to upgrade my site from wordpress 2.61 to 2.7 with the plugin and for some reason it notifies me as if I have the latest version, and then it doesn’t work. Any ideas?
WOW that was FAST! Thank you so much for posting this! Before I found this article, I was quite intimidated to upgrade my website. The instructions of other people seem so complicated. This is my first upgrade since my website is !fairly new. And you made it a whole lot easier! Keep it up!
Many thanks,
Pearl
I keep getting hung up at the nag about cleaning up old files. I click here — and then get an error message that it can’t get into my FTP –
Are there files I can clean up manually to get past this?
thanks
Charlotte
Very nice information. Thanks for this.
You are great…
Thanks for the TIP
Awesome. You’re the man!
Great Plug-In. It worked like a charm!
That was awesome. Worked like a charm. Thanks so much! I will definitely pass it along to others.
Great thanks for the info, this worked great!
Thank you very much
I have wanted to do this for the last 6 months and I have now done it in minutes. Great and useful post. Thanks Manda
Manda and everyone else that has been kind enough stop by and say thanks, I want to say thanks to you too. Your comments have made me glad over and over again that I posted this. I almost did not, “because it was already on the web”, but not everyone reads the same sites so this is one way to get this helpful plugin out to more people. You guys have made my day more than once.
I have found what i was looking for !!! thx )
Thank you so much! Finally!
Thanks – I hope it keeps working great for all!
1 question though – I thought iframes are bad for seo?
I don’t know what I did wrong, but the Automatic upgrade wasn’t working, so I decided to “manually install” 2.8, upgrade from 2.7. When I downloaded the file to my computer, it came “unzipped.” so I added all files except Wp-content to my ftp server. After I did this my web page dissapeared completely.
I know I did something wrong, I am asking for your your help though if you could email me, and possibly talk me through it?
I don’t know what I did wrong, but the Automatic upgrade wasn’t working, so I decided to “manually install” 2.8, upgrade from 2.7. When I downloaded the file to my computer, it came “unzipped.” so I added all files except Wp-content to my ftp server. After I did this my web page dissapeared completely.
I know I did something wrong, I am asking for your your help though if you could email me, and possibly talk me through it? http://www.mymorningstory.com
It works fine. Nice! Thanks for sharing this information!
.-= Frank´s last blog ..Gesetz gegen Steuerhinterziehung verabschiedet =-.
I liked the upgraded WP 2.7. I felt it worked fine but have had trouble with the 2.8 upgrade from that. Now there is a further upgrade and am not so sure I want to jump on that one so fast. So I appreciated what you said about waiting to upgrade! Thanks for that!
.-= Jim Maginity´s last blog ..jasmine =-.
Do you think it’s worth holding off on a 2.8 upgrade. I always get worried when I have so many plugins and everything is working fine at 2.7
.-= Caleb´s last blog ..5 Tips to Keep Your House Clean =-.
Thanks for the tips Luke. I always feel more comfortable holding off for awhile before each update to allow all of my favorite plug-ins to make their corrections.
.-= Tom Jones´s last blog ..Wondershare Photo Collage Studio =-.
What are the benefits of upgrading, what does the new version offer?
.-= panicattackmum´s last blog ..Least Expensive GoPhone =-.
We had several upgrades to do and quite a bit of downtime but the benifits to us have been great
Keep working, great job, I love it!
If you use this method to update, does this really effect any other plugins you are using?
I love how you can do the Wordpress upgrades from the admin interface now. I mean I didnt really have a problem doing the upgrade manually with FTP and so on, but uploading 1000’s of files takes aggges… Now it can do it live in a few seconds.
can’t you upgrade wordpress more easily using fantastico through cpanel?
Well, I upgrade my site using the automatic upgrade on my dashboard. And seems nothing is wrong with that.
Anyway Sir, this post, actually your blog, really gives me more insight about wordpress and its tech matters.
Thanks for the tips.I upgraded mine and pretty like it so far.
.-= Col´s last blog ..Probiotic Advantage and The Benefit of Lactobacillus Acidophilus =-.
nice,very interesting
.-= Tabetha´s last blog ..Como Dominar Google en 15 minutos… =-.
I am quite happy to help.
if you have fantastico on your server you could do that, but a WP upgrade also involves dealing with plug-ins, database, and other things.
Awesome tips and tricks, thanks for that… I love wordpress but that is one thing you have to deal with on a continuous basis. but its not that challenging and takes little to no braincells. I love its versatility as well
.-= Caleb´s last blog ..GoodDogAdvice =-.
Panic,
The post WordPress 2.7 is here! mentions several new features.
The biggest time saver is the possibility to upgrade the WP blog from the control panel! This is the most important update till now…
It’s certanly nice to upgrade WP through the control panel. A big time saver!
saves a ton of time and effort, thanks for the post
Just upgraded.Thanx!
.-= Constipation Treatments´s last blog ..Constipation Treatments: Great tips for treatment of constipation =-.
Upgraded too..Thanx!
ceiling fans with lights
Upgraded too..
thanks a lot,but it didn’t do the trick for me…it says something like: install folder could not be found. I think it’s because i have htdocs and a lot of addon domains
.-= John´s last blog ..Ceiling fan with light: the advantages =-.
4 Trackbacks
[...] How to upgrade to WordPress 2.7 – The easy way! [...]
[...] How to upgrade to WordPress 2.7 – The easy way! [...]
[...] and as what Luke’s say is share this to everyone. Here is the original post by Luke in his blog (No Ratings Yet) Loading [...]
[...] How to upgrade to WordPress 2.7 – The easy way! [...]