Upgrading Your Theme

Add New Features and Fix Bugs

Upgrading your theme is simple and can be done a couple of ways.

Problem: Can’t use WordPress Upload Feature
If you are upgrading a theme through the WordPress “add New Theme” feature ,you will get this error message, “Destination Folder Already Exists”. This is a problem because most the time; you’ll want to keep the name of the theme the same.

Solution: Use FTP for upgrading.
Ftp is an easy way to completely manage the folders on your site. Simple add the FireFTP plugin for Firefox (you’re already using Firefox right?) . This will be an easy way for you to manage your site’s files. (Pro Tip: ‘Transmit’ by Panic is our favorite FTP client in house… )

Technique 1 (recommended): Fast upgrade via FTP and WordPress Upload

  1. Open a browser window with your WordPress admin: “appearance” > “themes” > “install themes” > “upload” … page open.
  2. Login to FTP and navigate to your WordPress install > “wp-content” > “themes” folder.
  3. In WordPress appearance panel, temporarily activate any separate WordPress theme.
  4. In FTP, rename your current theme: *themename* to *old_themename*.
  5. Then use the WordPress uploader to upload the zip file as usual and activate (no error this time because there isn’t a file with the same name). (again, the WordPress uploader is found under ‘appearance’ > ‘themes’ > ‘install themes’)
  6. Important Step: Remember to head into your theme settings and hit the “save options” button; this will regenerate your custom CSS file based on your settings.

Technique 2: Complete upgrade via FTP

  1. Unzip your downloaded theme on your desktop; and rename it to “new_” + the theme name.
  2. Then just navigate to the ‘wp-content’ > ‘themes’ folder in your WordPress install. You’ll see your theme in the folder.
    Then drag or move the new theme over to the themes folder and upload… then you’ll have *themename* and *new_themename*.
  3. Then just rename the old version to *old_themename* and the new one to just *themename*. At this point you’ll have a backup of the old theme, and the new theme will be active.
  4. Important Step: Remember to head into your theme settings and hit the “save options” button; this will regenerate your custom CSS file based on your settings.