Although I said I would do a video on the safest way to upgrade, I’ve decided to write it so you can print it and have a checklist.  So here we go -

1.  BACKUP – This is perhaps the most critical step but one far too many people don’t do.  Here’s how.  Get BackUp Buddy.  It is not a free plugin but you will use it time after time – from every day to however often you choose.  If this is the first time for you to use this great plugin, choose the first option to do a backup then you can schedule it to backup whenever you want. 

To install Backup Buddy, remember where you downloaded it.  I always choose to download software to my DeskTop so I can get it easily.  Login to WordPress and choose add new plugin.  Then pick the second option to upload from your computer.  Browse to wherever you downloaded it and click on upload.  An important point – keep it in zipped format to upload it.

Once it has uploaded you will see a screen with a button to activate it.  Click that and activate.  When it is activated you will see a Backup Buddy section on the right side of the dashboard.

For now we will click on Backups.  You will see some instructions to download importbuddy.php.  You don’t need this – yet.  And hopefully you won’t need it at all!  But know it’s there just in case.  And if you ever want to move your WordPress site to a new domain or even a new server, BackUp Buddy will do it.  Pretty cool.

Once you read through the import instructions you will have a choice to do a full backup or a database backup.  When you are upgrading WordPress or installing a new theme you want to choose full backup.  You can try having the backup e-mailed to you but if your site is large or depending on your e-mail client, the file might be too big.  Wait until you get the file or are advised that it ‘timed out’ before continuing.  If it timed out, go to IThemes and watch the video on BackUpBuddy.  In fact, watch it anyway – it’s quite good.

2.  Copy your Widgets – What?  Yes – if you have a lot of widgets, do a screen capture of them as they look on your site.  I have too many to remember them all so I do a screen shot of them so I can remember the order.  Next – open each text widget (in the Dashboard -> Appearance -> Widgets and copy/paste the text into a text editor.  Why?  Rarely text widgets lose their minds and don’t ‘come along for the ride’ to a new theme or upgrade.  If that happens, you are covered.

3. Deactivate (disable) all plugins – Easy.  Go to Plugins -> Installed and deactivate every active plugin.

4.  Upgrade – Finally we get to do what we set out to do in the first place.  Please do steps 1 – 3.  It’s very inexpensive insurance against losing your site.

5.  Reactivate Plugins one at a time.  Click around in your site after you activate each one and see if anything is broken.  If it is, deactivate that plugin and go on to the next.  Then look around for a work-around for the broken plugin – or simply delete it and find another plugin that does basically the same thing and try it.  Does that seem like ‘hunt and peck’?  It sort of is.  You won’t know if something works until you try it.

Some WordPress 3.0 thoughts.  If you are using WishList Member – absolutely do NOT upgrade until you get an upgrade from WishList.  Other than that, the problems so far have been fairly minor.  This is probably the best tested version of WordPress I’ve ever seen – and I’ve been around from the beginning!   While I am not going to upgrade anything other than my test sites right now, I feel pretty comfortable saying Go For It!!

Blog On!

Cathy Perkins – The WordPress Wizard