You are responsible for maintaining your WordPress site and keeping it up-to-date. If your site was installed using the WordPress Installer, updates to the WordPress software and to the plugins and themes originally installed by the installer should be performed using the WordPress Upgrader (linked below). Manual upgrades are not recommended. Note: WordPress may prompt you to make updates through its interface, rather than the WordPress Upgrader, but that will not work in the Stanford environment.
Who can update WordPress software?
WordPress can be updated through the WordPress Upgrader by anyone who satisfies the same requirements as installing WordPress in the first place. These requirements are:
- a full-service SUNet ID
- administrative rights to the space where WordPress is installed
See the Before You Get Started page for more details.
A quick way to find out if you are allowed to upgrade a particular WordPress instance is to log in to the upgrader and see if the instance is listed there.
How to update WordPress
The WordPress Upgrader is a web-based tool for updating the WordPress software and the plugins and themes originally installed by the WordPress Installer. Some things to note:
- This tool cannot update WordPress sites installed manually. It can only be used to update WordPress sites that were originally installed using the WordPress Installer.
- The upgrader does not upgrade themes or plugins you installed manually. It will leave those alone and you’ll be responsible for updating them. The upgrader only keeps the WordPress software and the plugins and themes that the installer added during installation up-to-date.
Troubleshooting
Problem
You visit the WordPress Upgrader and your website isn’t listed.
Possible reasons/solutions
- You do not have administrative access to the space where WordPress is installed.
- It’s possible that you might not have administrative access to the space where WordPress is installed. This is governed by membership into a specific group called a PTS group. Note that this might be the case even if you have an administrator account on your website. A WordPress administrator account allows you to administer WordPress, but not necessarily the space where the software is installed. If this is the case, please submit a HelpSU ticket specifying that you need to be added to the -admins PTS group for the space where your WordPress site is installed so that you can use the WordPress Upgrader.
- The WordPress software is too old to upgrade automatically through the upgrader.
- The upgrade tool sends out periodic reminders when new versions are available. If you don’t update WordPress and your version falls behind more than four versions, the tool will stop tracking the installation. Once that happens, updates will need to be done manually and become more complicated.
Problem
The tool fails to upgrade WordPress and lists a number of files that have been changed as the reason.
Possible reasons/solutions
- Modifications were made to the WordPress software, or one of the plugins or themes installed by the WordPress Installer
- WordPress recommends that none of its files be modified, and the best practice for modifying themes is to use child themes. To proceed with the update through the tool, the changes made will need to be reverted. The upgrade tool will report a list of files that were changed. Make a backup of your WordPress installation and then submit a HelpSU request to have your changes reverted, after which the upgrade will be able to continue. This will remove any changes made to the software so you should check with whoever made the changes to figure out why it was done.
- WordPress (or one of the plugins or themes installed by the WordPress Installer) was updated manually.
- All upgrades of WordPress, the Stanford Modern Theme and the two plugins: "HTTP Authentication" and "Reverse Proxy" that were originally installed by the WordPress Installer should be performed through the upgrade tool. If you update any of these manually, these updates will need to be reverted. Submit a HelpSU Request to have this done. Please note that it's not always possible to successfully revert the previous manual update. In that case, the WordPress software will need to be updated manually from now on.
- One of the plugins or themes installed by the WordPress Installer was deleted.
- If you don't need to use a plugin or theme provided with WordPress at installation, please de-activate it, but don't delete it. The upgrade tool will look for these at update time and will become confused if it can't find them. Submit a HelpSU request to have the deleted files re-instated so that the upgrade can continue.
