Topic
WordPress Maintenance: Updates and Backups
Updating WordPress, plugins and themes without breaking anything, backing up properly, and a routine that keeps your site healthy.
A WordPress site is never quite finished. WordPress itself, your plugins and your theme all receive updates that fix bugs and close security holes, and the site's files and database need backing up in case something goes wrong. Ten or fifteen minutes a month keeps most sites safe and healthy.
What this topic covers
- WordPress core: major and minor releases and how to update, in how to update WordPress safely.
- Plugins: manual updates, auto-updates and what to do if one breaks your site, in how to update WordPress plugins safely.
- Themes: keeping your customisations when the theme updates, in how to update a WordPress theme.
- Backups: what to back up, how often and where to keep the copies, in how to back up a WordPress site.
- A routine: weekly, monthly and yearly jobs in one list, in the WordPress maintenance checklist.
Download the printable maintenance and update checklists to keep by your desk.
Guides in this topic
01
Update plugins safely
A safe routine for plugin updates, when to turn on auto-updates, and exactly what to do if an update breaks your site.
02
Update a theme
Which customisations survive a theme update and which don't, plus three ways to update a theme safely.
03
Back up WordPress
A WordPress backup has two parts: the files and the database. Here is how to back up both, how often, where to keep the…
04
Update WordPress
Minor and security releases install themselves; major releases need one click. Here is how to update WordPress safely…
05
Maintenance checklist
The weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly jobs that keep a WordPress site secure, quick and backed up, in one list.