Update WordPress theme manually via FTP or cPanel or WordPress theme upload

When you install WordPress themes from WordPress.org. You don’t need to worry about updates cause WordPress handle it for you. WordPress gives you option to update from dashboard.

However when you are using a premium theme. Most themes also provide auto updates through their servers. For example envato market WordPress plugin enables you to update all envato WordPress themes. Through dashboard after installing and setting up the plugin.

So when will you need update WordPress theme via FTP or cPanel. As this seems difficult for people who don’t have technical knowledge. Many WordPress themes you download or buy from different sites does not provide update feature through dashboard. And when a WordPress release new update you may start facing issues with older theme version that’s time when you need to update the theme.

Important: Don’t delete theme from dashboard

If your website is running on a theme and you are planning to deactivate that theme delete and then upload latest version. Don’t do this reason is simple many themes don’t only have visibility features. They also have theme options and post meta’s. Which design layout of your website with logo and colors and many other things. If you deactivate and delete the theme there are chances theme setup to remove all settings with delete. So don’t do this and the thing you should do is listed below.

Update WordPress theme via cPanel

Before you start please download latest version of your theme and save that in local directory in .zip format. Make sure inside zip there are only theme’s root folder which contains only theme files and directories. That should not contain help documents and other things which come with themes.

1. Login to your cPanel or web hosting Control panel
2. Locate and go to file manager where you can find all website files
3. Go to public_html where you can find WordPress files for example wp-admin, wp-content, wp-includes etc.
4. Enter in directory wp-content/ where you can find the themes folder also.
5. Now enter in themes/ directory where you will find your current theme’s directory also.
6. Right click on this directory and click compress so you can save theme as zip folder in case of any problem you can use this theme again.
7. Now upload new theme file from local directory
8. Delete your theme’s folder from cPanel
9. Now extract new theme there then you can delete compressed file which you uploaded from local directory.

You are done to update your WordPress theme via cPanel nicely.

Update WordPress theme via FTP

Before you start make sure you have downloaded latest version of your theme. If that came in zip folder extract in your local directory cause you cannot extract zip file via FTP. Once extracted make sure your theme folder only contains theme files and no extra files like document/ license etc.

Now login to your FTP program if you don’t have any download filezilla. This will require Host name, user name and password with FTP port which can be 21 or 22. If you don’t have these logins contact your hosting provider to provide you. Once you are loge in to FTP you will see on right side your server files. Enter in public_html/ directory and follow steps below.

1. After login to your FTP enter in public_html/ directory
2. Enter in wp-content/ and then enter in themes/ directory.
3. Now there you can see your theme’s folder download that folder in your local directory just right click and download.
4. Once downloaded and you saved running theme. Delete that theme from server by right clicking on theme’s directory.
5. Now upload your latest version of theme. Once up that’s it.

If anything goes wrong Please do same things and install the version which you deleted. And contact your theme provider to know about issue details.

Manual update comes in action when you have some error in WordPress auto updates. If your WordPress admin is running then you don’t need to upload new files through FTP or cPanel file manager. Since WordPress 5.8 WordPress gives you option to upload theme which already exists to overwrite its files.

Can you access wp-admin? If yes upload theme directly from admin panel

So if your wp-admin is working then you don’t need to follow long root to update theme manually. Just go to wp-admin >> themes >> Add new and upload theme from your local directory. WordPress will ask you permission to update theme already exists? Press yes! And done.

Going this way WordPress will show you some messages just keep an eye on them to avoid any problem for example.

Unpacking the package…

Installing the theme…

Destination folder already exists. H:/htdocs/wordpress/single-wp/wp-content/themes/themename/

This theme is already installed.

You are updating a theme. Be sure to back up your database and files first.

Cancel and go back >> This button will cancel theme update.

Replace current with uploaded >> This button will replace your current theme’s directory with new uploaded.

So make sure you have taken backup if you customized your previous theme.

Once you have clicked the button Replace current with uploaded you are done now its time to check and make sure if update went well.