How To Upgrade To WordPress 2.8 – Read This First!
Update #1: Re fatal error after upgrading and reactivating the plug-ins – Read more in the forum
WordPress version 2.8 is only 3 days old and some bloggers are already up in arms and complaining. And from what I have seen over on wordpress.org the ones complaining are the ones who failed to follow the upgrade instructions.
That little nagging “New version of wordpress is now available, click here to upgrade” should be disabled was one of the sighted issue as a problem.
If you are in the habit of one click installs and upgrades then I am sorry to say, you are going to run into problems and some of these problems could seriously ruin your blog. Instructions are there for a reason, so follow them. Don’t click that upgrade button until you have done the following:
- Backup your database – this is very important, you should always backup your database before attempting to do any major changes to your blog and that includes and especially upgrading.
- Equally important is to always backup your wodpress files. Again as #1 with all major changes, make sure you have a copy of all your blog files backedup – use an ftp and download all your files onto your hard drive.
- Verify your backup – You should give step more importance and verify that you have all the blog files saved. Tedious I know but trust me, it will save you a lot of time and heartache later on should anything go wrong with the upgrade. A visual inspection of files on your hard drve in comparison to those on your server should surfice.
- Deactivate ALL the plug-ins. This is where most people fail – you must deactivate all your plug-ins as they may conflict with the upgrade process.
Once you have all the 4 steps above covered and completed you are now ready to upgrade your wordpress installation. Now feel happy to go back to your admin panel and click on the “Automatic upgrade” button.
Sometimes and on some servers this does not work and this is due to the server set up by your host and is not a wordpress issue. In this case you will need to perform the upgrade manually. The guys at wordpress.org have this topic covered in more details and you can read up on it here>>>http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress_Extended.
If you have any issues or problems with your upgrade feel free to leave a comment or raise a new topic in the forum and I will be to happy to assist you in any way I can.
To your blogging success, good luck 
Zulfikar.
Upgrading wordpress is so easy nowdays, i do it while reading my mail
can someone direct me from my dashboard exactly what I do to set myself up to make additional comments? the cust. svc. group just confused me talking about the “loop”. I have no idea what this is. There must be a step by step direction that I can accomplish this from my dashboard… not looking up some definition elsewhere, this should be done from dashboard…
thanks
Hi Victoria
Make comments where exactly? Your own blog? Please clarify so we can better advise/guide you.
It would be probably best if you raise the topic in the forum here>> http://bloginstallationservice.com/forum/
Thanks
What are some of the major errors that people are getting? I don’t want to go through the hassle of loading WP 2.8, only to have to go back to a lower version later if I don’t know what the errors might be.
@Wordpress Themes – There are no major errors as a result of upgrading wordpress. The problems arise when the upgrade procedure is not followed correctly.
Things like deactivating plugins and taking a backup are very important before upgrading. Granted, there have been many reports of errors arising after upgrading and in the majority of all the incidents, it has been due to conflict in plugins, php version error and lack of php memory.
All the mentioned issues and reported errors can be fixed easily as long as you know what the problem is and how to go about putting it right. Having said that, should the proper proceedures be followed then the errors if any are very minor.
great article thanks for the tips.
The latest version of WordPress is available for download, hurry protect your wordpress blog
.-= Read Riezky´s last blog post at >> ..WORDPRESS 2.8.5 READY FOR DOWNLOAD – SECURITY ISSUE FIXED =-.
@Riezky – Thanks for the heads up Riezky – upgraded most of my blogs and doing the rest in the next few days. recommendation for all to do the same and look out for WP2.9 towards end of November early december
I never trust automatic upgrades…ever. If there’s a manual option, I do it. I do forget to backup the files though, which is really bad.
@Work from Home MLM – It doesn’t matter which way you are comfortable with upgrading, they both work as long as the settings are correct.
But backup is a must and very important – the best thing to do is install an automatic backup plugin that handles both your core files and the database, so even if you forget or just don’t bother backingup you still have data to fall back on should anything go wrong.
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People always complaining but they didn’t know that this new version of word press is at 3 days old. So thanks for giving this info that will help our complainants about the fatal error thing in word press 2.8.